>Waclaw,
>
>Waclaw Kusnierczyk wrote:
>
>>>On 5/2/07, *Cassidy, Patrick J.* <pcassidy@xxxxxxxxx
>>><mailto:pcassidy@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Debbie -
>>> Not sure how formal your work needs to be, but Richard Dawkins in
>>> his book "The God Delusion" has reclassified all discourses on
>>> theology as "meaningless nonsense". Does that fit?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Dawkins says:
>>
>>"The dictionary supplied with Microsoft Word defines a
>>delusion as Œa persistent false belief held in the face of strong
>>contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder¹.
>>The first part captures religious faith perfectly. As to
>>whether it is a symptom of a psychiatric disorder, I am inclined to
>>follow Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
>>Maintenance, when he said, ŒWhen one person suffers from a
>>delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from
>>a delusion it is called Religion.¹"
>>
>>
>>
>Sigh. It is works like the one by Dawkins that gives "science" such a
>bad name in the humanities in general and religion in particular. (01)
Religion is part of the humanities? Thats an interesting position. (02)
>The religion "debunked" by Dawkins in his book is a caricature of the
>theology of any modern (as well as many not so modern) theologians.
>
>It may be amusing to bash "700 Club" type religion but why not take on
>the more serious (at least in my view) advocates of a position you want
>to criticize? (03)
Because what Dawkins is talking about is
religious belief, not theology. And what is
actually believed by the overwhelming majority -
all but an infinitesimally small fraction - of
adults who profess religious beliefs seems to be
more like the 700 club than, for example, Hans
Kung. And that is what needs to be explained.
Theology is not the *advocation* of a religious
position. The advocates are the priests and
ayatollahs, not the theologians. (04)
>There was a very good review of "The God Delusion" in either the New
>York Review of Books or the London Review of Books in the last several
>months. It points out a number of errors and positions not considered by
>Dawkins that are "hidden" in the professional literature of theology. If
>anyone is interested, I can try to run down the citation for the review. (05)
I would be interested, yes. I found Dawkin's book
to be a convincing, if somewhat didactic, summary
of a viewpoint that has seemed to me to be simply
obvious since I was old enough to think about
such matters. Obviously there isn't a God (my own
view is the very idea of God embedded in
Christianity/Judaism/Islam is incoherent), so the
fact that so many people believe there is, is
something that needs to be explained. Dawkins
makes a brave attempt to do this. Its nothing
whatever to do with theology: its more a matter
for evolutionary biology or social psychology. (06)
>(For anyone interested in the complexities of the issue I would suggest
>"Does God Exist?" by Hans Küng as a starting point.) (07)
I find the arguments used there almost absurdly
naive. What should I try next, do you think? (08)
Pat Hayes (09)
>
>Hope you are having a great day!
>
>Patrick
>
>>Perhaps it would be interesting to argue, chaining to previous
>>discussions, that if *all* people suffer from a delusion, it is called
>>'science'.
>>
>>vQ
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>--
>Patrick Durusau
>Patrick@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
>Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model
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>
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>
>
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