A special prize to you for voting only for only that one option in my poll.
Oh, I watched this entire video. Even as an atheist, I'm not sure if I buy Dawkins' whole argument against people who refuse to rock the boat. What about people who don't commit crimes because they think God is looking down at them and so on? Ideally, I'd like someone to conduct a large survey of what people would do differently if atheists came out of the closet, so to speak, in larger numbers.
I don't think he says that's wrong, all he is saying (according to Selfish Gene) is that even w/o God humans would have the same percentage of inclination towards committing crime or killing other humans. Only at present, God has given them an added reason to do the same. To him God is nothing but another (major) factor promoting violence, the others probably being some of the seven sins.
As for coming out of the closet, it doesn't matter if the common people (meaning the ones without money and influence) come out. No one cares about them. The people who should come out are the ones in power (according to him) who can actually make a widespread difference, unlike us who have little local eddy effects.
I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure how he reaches that conclusion on human inclinations. If religion is a strong enough influence on human behavior that it can cause people to do some bad things (as he correctly notes), why should it not also deter them from others, especially if these are forbidden by scripture?
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Oh, I watched this entire video. Even as an atheist, I'm not sure if I buy Dawkins' whole argument against people who refuse to rock the boat. What about people who don't commit crimes because they think God is looking down at them and so on? Ideally, I'd like someone to conduct a large survey of what people would do differently if atheists came out of the closet, so to speak, in larger numbers.
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I don't think he says that's wrong, all he is saying (according to Selfish Gene) is that even w/o God humans would have the same percentage of inclination towards committing crime or killing other humans. Only at present, God has given them an added reason to do the same. To him God is nothing but another (major) factor promoting violence, the others probably being some of the seven sins.
As for coming out of the closet, it doesn't matter if the common people (meaning the ones without money and influence) come out. No one cares about them. The people who should come out are the ones in power (according to him) who can actually make a widespread difference, unlike us who have little local eddy effects.
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I'm sleepy and lazy to explain and prolly wont have time to get back to your comment the whole week, so please read the book.
It's his best.
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