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  • Dan Dennett is VERY tall. Like Stephen Fry / Hugh Laurie tall.

  • man made god in his image sexist, racist, homophobic, impotent and evil.

  • @bgeezy1983 not all gods ;) Abrahamic gods certainly. I am sure some gods can get an erection :D

  • @MrImmobile what i mean to say all beliefs in gods are worthless they do nothing for humanity.if it wasn't for non believers looking for the real answers instead of god did it or he is mysterious. we would of not made it this far. if it wasnt for the non believer looking down a microscope or up a telescope we would of never made advances in medicine, biology, and the origins of the cosmos. they think they already have the answers, the answers that dont help. this is what i mean by dumbingdown

  • @MrImmobile OH BEFORE I FORGET, WHEN I SAID IMPOTENT I WAS NOT REFERING TO SEX WHAT I WAS REFERING TO WAS THAT THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN EVERY MONTH NOT YEAR DIE AT BIRTH OR SHORTLY AFTER WITHOUT HAVING THE CHANCE TO MAKE A DECISION. WHILE THERE PARENTS LETS SAY VERY RELIGIOUS BEG, PLEAD, AND EVEN BESIEGE HEAVEN IN PRAYER FOR THERE KID TO BE OK AND NOTHING HAPPENS. THAT TO ME GOD IS EITHER IMPOTENT OR EVIL. IMPOTENT MEANING HE CANT DO NOTHING ABOUT IT OR EVIL WHICH MEANS HE DOESNT CARE TO

  • Follow the Sermon on the Mount and we would all be just fine.

    God Bless

  • @1purelight

    LOL you're funny

  • @1purelight jesus doesnt love you

  • I almost feel sorry for Warren, almost...

  • Does anyone know what film by Homer Groening Dan was referring to?

    Thanks!

  • This is already done in Norwegian schools... I always considered it one of the main reasons why Norway is such a secular nation. I also always considered it ironic that the U.S sepparation of church and state seems to have been the downfall of religious/lifestyle studies in their schoolsystem, and actually does more to protect religious ignorance than promote actual secularism.

  • I came here when I was doing what I always do. I was looking for new videos of Daniel Dennett

  • the anti religion movement is bringing people to philosophy - philosophy departments for 4 years have been trying to work out how to keep there numbers up in universities world wide.

  • The Thinking Atheist brought me here too.

    

  • Perfectly said/done Mr. Dennett  ★★★★★

    Katalyzt

  • @onlyonechoice Kids should be taught all religions so they can see theyre all man made, the bible is more violent than the quran. Poverty=ignorance. The US is a joke really being as religious as it is. Believing the bible literally is laughable.

  • @MrImmobile have you mesured the violence in each book?

  • @waksibra the new testament is less violent than the old and even though its more marginal the quran is less violent than the old testament. The Old T god is quite a violent cunt. Pety and vindictive too not to meantion jealous. The devil kills a few and god kills thousands lol.

  • @MrImmobile it dont matter they are all equal glimpses of the unture, no need for any of them. religion only seems to dumbdown its people to me..

  • @bgeezy1983 Load of poop you just spouted mate, when not being seen as books of our creation it stops it being a bad thing that they are untrue. To be precise alot of it is true. Maybe not told with complete detail and certain events are bent to fit the scriptures agenda but they are glimpses into our past and how can learning history dumb you down. If taking it as gods word ya but take that away from the equation and its just learning history ;)

  • @MrImmobile what true about it? The writers! that would be true some one had to write it. whats true? certainly not that jesus walked on water or even that he even exsists, or a virgin had a baby,really i suggest that u research anciect egyptian beliefs and u will find that every religion after was a plagiarism of the one before it starting with the egyptians with some modifications.what u will find, the bible is a literal hybrid of astrology, precession of equinoxes and solstices reasearch that

  • @bgeezy1983 Lol are you telling me something i dont know? and the bible was not so much astrology. It was based on the egytian sun god horus but they took alot of the stories from earlier religions and changed it to fit their agenda. Are you an idiot bringing up jesus walking on water when i said some of the bible is true? Its full of historical happenings and people that actually existed. Its main premise is a load of poop if taking seriously but interesting fiction. It is our history.

  • @MrImmobile do you believe jesus exsists? if so the u know nothing about horus besides the fact that he was the sun god only until after his mother isis picked up the pieces of her husband osirus that her brother Set dismembered and scattered about his body part across egypt and might i add throwing osirus's penis in the nile, only to flee to the marshlandsby the nile when she finds she is pregnant cause she knew her brother Set would kill osirus's son once born named horus. READ ON

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  • @bgeezy1983 OOh and so you know it did not start with the egytians. Religion has evolved just like humans.

  • Wasn't a rebuttal. He told which passages he think are wrong, not why. Still an inspirational talk.

  • Seth(TTA) sent me as well. Nice talk from Dennett and so spot on. I might add a quote from a great man who will be sorely missed;

    "I am absolutely convinced that the source of hatred in the world is religion and I think it should be ridiculed."- C. Hitchens

    As a teacher, I cannot see all the religions being taught in school. There are too many and not enough time in the school yr to do them justice. Maybe a tiny blurb of info on each might do some good but it will never happen in the US.

  • @saxmanchiro He isn't talking about a single year, he is talking about adding it every year for 12+ years.

    perhaps a year on tenants, then clergy, then holy text, then origins, fundamentals, etc etc

    Oh I think it may happen in the US; maybe not in my life, but it still could happen. Especially considering that all the religious heads seem to want people to know how false everyone else is.

  • Same here.

  • The Thinking Atheist Podcast brought me here as well.

  • The thinking atheist brought me here

  • @Sidnelsom

    me too!

  • @Sidnelsom TTA brought me here too.

  • @Sidnelsom Ditto. :)

  • While it's a noble goal in theory, in practice I don't believe this idea would work out. It would be taken as an excuse by certain religious teachers to proselytize to students in the classroom, even if it was reiterated that teaching religion in that manner was not allowed. Perhaps I just lack faith in today's teachers, but I just don't believe they would leave out their own personal convictions/values if they were teaching any religious content whatsoever.

  • This is the most illogical presentation I have seen on YouTube in a while. Firstly, as far as Christianity is concerned, Christian children are supposed to be taught about all other religions as a matter of course. Secondly, government schools teach about religion in social studies classes (history and geography are not taught). Thirdly, most new curriculum in American textbooks now teach the supremacy of Islam (this is a recent rewriting). This shows the government's brilliance in this area.

  • The primacy of logic cannot be proven through logic. Dennet knows this, or should, as a philosopher. The Christian Myth is a myth about Logos, Ethos, and Pathos -- the three forms of rhetoric. The TRUE Christian must accept the primacy of the Logos (Logic). It's a belief which is at the absolute CORE of the mythology. It's TRUE because it is TRUE -- not because who says it, how big their army is, or how much they appeal to emotion.

  • @EnnoiaBlog And where do you stand on the Homoousion?

  • Evolution is little more than an anti-god. It is a way to try and explain a "natural" tendency without invoking the name of God. Otherwise, we would be content to describe things such as "breeding", "genetic mutation", and "dominant and recessive traits". Instead, we have this idea of evolution that is made to apply to an innumerable group of entities and disparate mechanisms - biological, chemical, and social alike in a way that can simply not be proven for what it is - let alone how it is.

  • Mr. Dennett should advocate the teaching the philosophy of science, and how to recognize the models and sandboxes that yield such authoritative assertions as "fact", "proof", and "truth". Christianity for example, has had billions of adherents throughout history, One of the fruits of this faith is the idea of self-control in various forms. Can the exercise of restraint be a proven attribute of the Christian faith? Is he content to suggest that no one ever did because it cannot be "proven"?

  • Did he go on right after Rick Warren here?

  • Are you ready for the Ruffneck bass?

    Are you ready for the Ruffneck bass?

  • You don't need a scientific rebuttal to Rick Warren, you just need to look at his shirts. But that doesn't change the fact that no matter how smart Dennett or Dawkins are, they do not, nor never will have a sufficient substitute for God or religion.

  • @JamesGod08 I mean, you need to have partially accepted superstitious ideas about afterlives, souls etc in the first place for religion to have any appeal at all, and such concepts are profoundly unscientific and backward at this point in time. Teach kids some of the results of neuroscience and modern psychology in school and you'll have an entire generation of atheists.

  • @Gnomefro No you don't. Religion is a system of control and organisation, you need no beliefs to understand or accept that.

  • Who knew, Santa Clause is also a philosopher!!! Why isn't he wearing red? SANTA!!! WHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

  • i figured out the purpose of life

    it is itself the purpose

    it is better to go on living for one more minute than not

  • Great

  • Anyone with a beard like that has to be smart.

  • Yeah I go to a christian school and for a few weeks we had this religion awareness program where were learnt about buddhism, islam, hinduism and judaism. I'm an atheist and most of the people here are christian. I didn't mind learning about these religions, but it offended me how much my christian friends made fun of them. I thought they were just as legitimate as christianity. Fucking hypocrites, they do not have a right to insult ANY other belief for their belief is just as crazy.

  • That's about the best TED talk I have ever seen.

  • Why is it that James Randi, Daniel Dennett, Santa Claus, Charles Darwin, and some depictions of God all look similar? Pretty weird, huh?

  • @ErichoTTA LMAO

    

  • @ErichoTTA

    Because of Evolution you "dumbass". Dont you understand anything? ;)

  • Who knew santa claus was such an intellectual badass?

  • @Cherrypoppins18 great!

  • You guys have to hear what David Berlinski says about this guy in his youtube video on evolution. Part 3/3 at around 6:06. It's hilarious.

  • You guys have to hear what David Berlinski says about this guy in his youtube video on evolution. Part 3/3 at around 6:06

  • Very well said. Thank you. 

  • The average American's opinions regarding these issues:

    Judaism: Christianity v1.0, pre-Jesus edition

    Islam: Terrorists, jihad!

    Buddhism: something about monks, kung fu, and reincarnation.

    Mormon: a blasphemous way to get more wives

    Scientology: aliens and Tom Cruise

    Atheism: NO!

    Agnosticism: Fence-sitter!

    Every other religion: silly hocus pocus that hasn't been touched by Jesus.

    Oh, and don't forget Christianity: Jesus loves you, but we're going to cherry pick scripture to suit our biases.

  • @AlexMoensChannel I disagree. The average opinion is...

    "Oh, it's settled, no school for you junior. Church is enough."

  • @AlexMoensChannel your right on point lol

  • Bravo!

  • what year was this?

  • @rt36crazyfists If you go to TED's website and search for this talk, it will tell you when it was filmed and when it was uploaded.

  • there's alot of extreme closeup in this video.  It's probably good it's only 240p

  • For a MkII version of TPDL try ' The reason driven life ' which is Robert M Price's reply to Rick Warren.

  • For great analysis of the facts about the Bible & other old Writ & comparative religion try also John W. Loftus, Robert M. Price, Dan Barker, Valerie Tarico, Ken Humphreys, Keith Parsons, Ken Pulliam, David Mills, Gary Greenberg, Bart Ehrman, Joseph Wheless, C. Dennis Mckinsey, Richard Carrier, Christopher Hitchens, Bertrand Russell, Israel Finkelstein, James Frazer, Jason Long, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens , Richard Dawkins

  • @TennisAnnalyst science is the process of making a hypothesis and then empirically evidencing its plausibility. so it is continuously put to 'trial of thought and reason'. a theory is valid when it is able to explain phenomenon and withstand criticism - falsifiable. look it up. and i should point out the numerous religiously motivated wars throughout history or people believing they have divine right to do atrocious crimes on fellow humans

  • The cow in the slide is a metaphor for religion. Dennett's comment around 1:10 "...but of course God got alot of help" applies to how religions are made. People and nature combine to make religious cash cows. People like Dennett are like milkmaids crashing the dairy. The idea of unity in diversity, central to US politics and society, needs to have a religious expression so that God's would-be helpers don't make bad religions out of good ideas.

  • wish i had had teachers like this when i was in school

  • Ultimate Drag-Racing Machines you say?

  • Japan has a pretty low theist ratio and one main reason is because everyone knows about their thousands of god and goddess.

  • Sad thing about this talk is that the majority of the people that have seen it probably agree with him...

  • he's so damn sarcastic i love it!

  • The warrens talk to ghosts for money. He connects through bulls balls in the hands, gets you in touch and gives you great power.

  • The Church of Real Evidence

    I think I'll make this video a scripture when I invent it.

  • santa claus!!

  • I think one of the best weapons against a particular religion is educating people about facts on THE religion and on all the other religions/beliefs out there. Here in Quebec we have exactly that. Last year, we just learned about the beliefs of all the major religions in the world including paganism and shamanism. It really opens people's minds once they realize that one's religious beliefs are simply based on where he or she was born.

  • No more problems for hair growth, though ...

  • @themorbidimmortal Dan Dennett suggests it himself when he talks about "good works", and that's why I find it a bit weak at the end. He doesn't have to defend atheist's morals.

  • I agree. I think that if Religion is taught from an objective, purely factual, natural phenomenon people will be less likely to use it as a crutch.

  • I found the end quite weak. Helping other people or doing things that benefit humanity are only good deeds when everybody believes that people should be happy and humanity should be maintained. However, in a secular world, nothing should. Things only are.

  • @Aggrestor If someone doesn't think that people should be happy or that our species should be maintained, then they're simply not part of the conversation about how best to do this. Just like if someone doesn't believe that health is preferable to sickness, then they won't care about medical best practice. But most of us prefer health to sickness, happiness to anguish, and existence to non-existence - regardless of religion or lack of it.

  • @Flyborg But the conversation was about objectivity, reason and fact. I don't see why someone has to believe in certain "oughts" to give a good lecture about these things.

  • @Aggrestor "Oughts" are based on "ifs". If you desire X, you ought to do Y. I was replying to your comment where you said "in a secular world, nothing should. Things only are." My point was that regardless of religion or the absence of it (or a "secular world" as you said), this has no effect on "oughts". Most of us desire health, happiness, etc - regardless of whether or not you think a religion has ordered you to desire such things. If you have the desire, you have the "ought".

  • @Flyborg That's true. If the audience shares your goals then they think you're a good person and that's nice. But more objectively seen it's not making you a better or worse human being as there is no real goal to measure this on. In a lecture about reason, this sudden appeal to the audience's emotions strikes me as kind of odd. Except for this small part, I really enjoyed it.

  • @Aggrestor Well then I guess we agree - except that I don't consider appeals to emotion to always be a bad thing. Emotions are what inspire and drive us, and logic and reason is how we achieve those goals. Given certain desires, certain "oughts" are more reasonable than others. But of course the "ifs" are up for debate, and subjective.

  • This method of teaching religion in the way Dennet describes in schools is done in Sweden, actually it's one of the mandatory subjects here. Math, Swedish, English and Religion are the mandatory subjects which everyone have to have pass grades in to go on to next year of school. Religion in the sense of learning ABOUT religions.

    So it's not controversial everywhere and it's not a new idea by Dennett.

  • @GoldenChantarelle exactly, I'm Swedish and watching this, and I am shocked because I really thought everyone was being taught about other religions.. Seriously Americans really don't learn about other religions in school?? This is insane... America is NOT democratic...far from it...

  • @GoldenChantarelle I actually think it would be great for educating youth here/USA and giving them a broader perspective. My guess is Dan didn't know it happens in Sweden, but I'm sure he'd love to get your feedback on what it is like.

  • @GoldenChantarelle Bullshit. Just last year Swedish Education Minister Jan Björklund accused the govt of giving Christianity special consideration in the lesson plan and the new curriculum which just went into effect in autumn of this year continues to give Christianity special status in classes on religion. So yes, it is controversial everywhere and as a result religion should simply NOT BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL! 1/2

  • @KamekoBruns "it is controversial everywhere and as a result religion should simply NOT BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL!"

    Whether something is controversial or not is a pretty sad criteria to decide whether it should be taught in schools. A much better criteria would be if we think we can get something out of teaching it to children. In this case, giving children a taste of the absurd claims of other superstitious sects likely has huge potential in destroying superstition.

  • @KamekoBruns I have a much bigger problem with allowing religious free schools. Even though this is something that one could argue is protected by the human rights, this is a horrible mechanism that splits society across worldview borders preventing communication, instead of insisting that those that grow up will have to argue with each other about what's true using reason and evidence instead of relying on faith and dogmatic declarations of possessing Truth..

  • @GoldenChantarelle 2/2 Moreover, Sweden is now attempting to place limits on how religion is taught at religious free schools. A recent report from Skolverket, the Swedish National Agency for Education calculated that of 64 primary religious free primary schools and five high schools 49 had a Christian profile, while eight had Muslim profile and three were Jewish. So it would seem that the Swedish model ain't quite so perfect.

  • @KamekoBruns By the way, the reason you have religious free schools in Scandinavia is not primarily that they object to religion being taught in the public schools, but that they wish to have full control over cultish indoctrination of their kids. This goes far beyond being presented with facts about religions and they'd want to do this even if religion was taken out of public schools.

    The real question here is if the rest of us are willing to live with the consequences.

  • @GoldenChantarelle yes, he knows about that and the consequences of it. And it's not a coincidence. The proportions of atheists here in Sweden is among the highest in the world. Just by learning about the alternatives.

  • @GoldenChantarelle Same here in Finland, except there is an alternative for learning religion.

  • CNN is totally government oriented...

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  • He is no idiot, but he sure is an asshole. Ricky.

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  • 'Theist' = someone who believes in God. 'Atheist' = someone who doesn't believe in God. Why do people get offended that people think that they don't believe in God when they call themselves atheists? If you don't like what the word means...use another word!

  • He looks just like Darwin. Isn't there something weird about a science where one guy looks like Darwin and another one, Dawkins, has a name just like Darwin? That's weird.

  • Trolls, all.

  • fuckin ted explosion in my ear at the end

  • ' The reason driven life ' is Robert Price's excellent reply to Rick Warren's ' The purpose driven life '

  • I agree with Daniel Dennett. Try skepticsannotatedbible for encouraging skeptical enquiry of Bible, Koran & Book of Mormon. Try 1500 BCE papyrus of Ani- book of the dead with The negative confession. For humanity's shared moral core & belief in Matt 7v12, The Golden Rule try wisdomcommons or Valerie Tarico. Also John W. Loftus, debunkingchristianity , Victor J. Stenger

  • For a good life & meaning in life try Truth-savescom, also, Robert M. Price, ' The reason driven life ', also mindvendorcom & authentichappinessorg, richarddawkinsnet,

  • I agree entirely with this way of thinking, but why do we need to defend it. It is just correct! Religious views are not even worth the time of day to discuss. Surely it is the responsibility of the Mullas, Vicars and all the other liars and charlatans to convince normal thinking people that their fairy stories are worth listening to. I will waste no time reading them!

  • I agree entirely with this way of thinking, but why do we need to defend it. It is just correct! Religious views are not even worth the time of day to discuss it.

  • Democracy..........Goddamned mob rule!!!!

  • I'm gonna grow a beard like him when I'm older, I'll be the asian santa claus.

  • TomFynn: It was of course I.I. Rabi and I stand corrected. Thank you.

  • Santa Claus evolved to a brilliant philosopher

  • The enigmatic god 'Big Bang proclaimed "And from nothing came this burst of radiation"; and the worthy Particle Physicist Carl David Anderson, in his brave search for truth asked "Who ordered that?. i can only refer him to the bibical Creation when God ordered "Let there be light."

  • @paddyatacliath What's your point?

  • @paddyatacliath You are an idiot. While Anderson discovered the muon particle, it was I. I. Rabi who commented on that discovery with "Who ordered that?". As for the Big Bang: watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo

  • When you study other religions, you get a better appreciation of other cultures and a better understanding of their wars (unfortunately). For me, it actually made World History and other classes much better!

  • Hes speaking about Intrinsic Anthopology' humans domesticating other species and fuching up the world due to their vanity and greed' religion is what we do' and then make up excuses for our herediuty as stupid creatures' religions are a clustser fuck of faith and worship'

  • Scientist 1: Let's see what blue and yellow make.. look at that green. I will produce a theory, call it color theory, and suggest that blue and yellow make green.

    Scientists 2: Let's see if his theory is right. Yep, blue and yellow make green.

    Scientist 3: Blue and Yellow, yes, green.

    Religious Nut: You scientists think you know everything. My book says my sky pixie invented the color green, I mean, look at it, it's perfect, you cannot make green. It occurs in nature, look at the plants. Proof

  • @losghost I think that the question lies within what the furure holds unless we slow down and reduce population growth' whats the point to anything really?

  • @losghost Don't bother with this idiot, he couldn't complete a coherent thought to save his life.

  • "don't ever argue with the devil, he's much better than you having had thousands of years to practice."

    Translation: LALALALALALA I CANT HEAR YOU LALALALA

  • @Ricktards

    Never forget that science is also evolving and progressing and soon in your life time will prove that life has been created on Earth scientifically by Elohim and that Maitreya Rael is their messenger... and as we know,a messenger at first gets mocked at by majority of people but later on they followed him...

  • @Ricktards

    Only Science could be able to prove who is right and wrong and not YOU !!

  • wow, what an amazing speech and analysis of the book.

  • When he mentions Homer Groenings film, does anyone know what that is? The conference was in 2006, Al Gore was there, there was talk on the environment, was her referring to Matt Groening's Simpson movie which came out in 2007? Maybe they saw an early release? The only Homer Groening I see is Matt's dad.

  • Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto goin at it.

  • Fucking brilliant.

  • Evolution theory is dead!! The Theory of a single immaterial GOD is dead also. The truth is that life was created scientifically with the manipulation of D.N.A and genetic engineering by advance scientists who came from their planet who are called the ELOHIM...

  • @TheArash73

    turtles all the way down. Rael is in the same ship as all the other belief systems; that is, having faith in an unfounded claim. In Rael's case, that claim is that life has existed forever.

  • I'm a young atheist finding it impossible to combat evasive tactics on part of religious apologists to exempt religion from criticism. I can't judge a religion by what its adherents think or do b/c they all differ as to what they believe to be its central tenets, can't judge it by what texts say because I'm presenting passages out of context, reading them too literally, or it doesn't matter how I interpret them b/c everybody has got their own interpretation. Suggestions would be much appreciated

  • @TheSelfMadeScholar If people are making up their own interpretations then they aren't really basing their morals or beliefs on the bible at all, so they aren't any different from you, even though they may claim to be.

  • @TheSelfMadeScholar try John W. Loftus at debunkingchristianity or Dan Barker at freedomfromreligion or Truth-saves or Talkorigins or Victor Stenger, 'God, the failed hypothesis'. My favourite book at moment is 'The reason driven life' by Robert M Price. I love it. He makes amusing observations about Rick Warrens book. He looks at the wider historical context of the Bible texts. Read 1500BCE papyrus of Ani, those folk thought their breath was their spirit, so did Jesus in John 20v22

  • Dr. Dennett's project attempts to subordinate religion to politics (in the guise of "democracy", or some cult of "freedom of the individual"). This approach, philosophically, is doomed to failure, as it already begs the question of the ultimate value and authority of religious doctrines and dogmas.

  • @lourak huh?

  • If you teach your children about other religions they will end up maybe picking one, and that religion will go onto their kin. so it wouldnt work.

  • 13:47 Brilliant point for all to ponder!!

  • You cannot put religion and atheism in the same boat. We actually do not need the word atheism to describe a standpoint, the same as we don't need a word to describe that you are a non-racist.

    The atheistic world view is simply a matter of applying reason to religion.

    Atheism does not make claims about magical beings, afterlife or virgin births. It is simply a standpoint where you do not acknowledge the claims of religious peoplen because their reasons simply cannot convince a rational person.

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  • @Ringlev An agnostic is one who knows that one cannot prove or disprove the origins to any form of life' there is no point to religion other than faith and worship which doesn't achieve anything for the human mind other than forming a blank stare into an abyss' one cannot know what one cannot see' any belief is only a supposition' religion is an arbitary word, a persons religion is what one does' religion is all about assuming creation which is a doctrine of the good book misinterpreted

  • @Ringlev Dawkins could learn a thing or two from you about making a point. You have said essentially the same thing as he does, but without being an ass!

  • @Ringlev They still needed a word to describe abolitionists when most people were blatant racists.

  • @Ringlev A religious person can be rational. The hatred in your comment offers a glimmer of hatred in your words, directing me toward the conclusion of most atheists being miserable pricks.

    I'm not religious, but I will certainly give another human being the credit they deserve. You're not "intelligent" because you're an atheist. Your IQ will dictate that.

    Leave atheism to the professionals. I respect Dan Dennett and numerous other atheist researchers.

  • @SolidSnake3131 It is not rational to be religious. Of course a religious person can be rational in other areas, but regarding their faith in the supernatural there is nothing rational.

    I do not claim all atheists are intelligent. I never used that word. I said rational. An atheist is rational in his/her thoughts about religious beliefs - religious people are not. It's a simple as that.

  • @Ringlev Very well said. Thank you. Another similar statement: atheists quite simply do not accept the existence of any of the 10,000+ gods invented by human beings because there is insufficient evidence for any of them. So often, religionists demand that atheists PROVE that no god exists. How absurd! First, it would be an illogical attempt to prove a negative. Second, it's the job of the theist to prove the existence of her or his PARTICULAR god.

  • @Ringlev "the atheistic world view is simply a matter of applying reason to religion"

    i kinda disagree. one does not need to reason to become atheists, some people may be just 'angry with god' and refuse to believe.

    im just pointing that out. Atheism does not point to why we do not believe, rather its just that we dont.

  • @880330145789

    If they are "angry with god" it must presupposes that they believe in him - and if they then "refuse to believe" in something that they actually believe in, but they don't want to be believe because they are angry, then they are locked in a sad state of denial.

    Denial or refusal (eg. "I don't WANT to believe in god") will not lead to atheism, because deep down you still believe.

    We can thank REASON for the world we live in - reason gave us medicin, internet, cars and diplomacy.

  • @Ringlev fair enough.

  • Isn't atheism, or every other human idea or concept, also just a 'natural phenomenon', a 'seed', an 'evolved concept?' Does Dennet simply give in his books 'a new form to the evolving idea of atheism?' Why would this only be true for religious ideas, and not for all ideas? Most of what Dennet is saying is very reasonable and correct, but his devaluation of the 'meme' religion to 'a natural phenomenon' also applies to his own ‘meme', atheism. This discrimination seems intellectually dishonest.

  • World famous Rabbi explains the hopelessness of the theory of evolution: chabad(dot)org/therebbe/articl­e_cdo/aid/60946/jewish/The-Age­-of-the-Universe(dot)htm

    Elucidative response to scientist's questions on the previous letter: chabad(dot)org/article(dot)asp­?aid=1517629

    Both must be read to be properly understood.

  • "don't ever argue with the devil, he's much better than you having had thousands of years to practice."

    That about sums up my feelings on arguing with religious people. They all argue the same way, in the same 'spirit' if you will. And that's about as close to the situation that would make the above quote true that there's possible to be.

  • @Keinlicht There is no evidence to a god or a devil you might wish to rethink your Ideology and its links to pretended knowledge; are you stupid or just ignorant to what you were told to believe?

  • @DrFruedienslip Ever heard of a metaphor, asshole?

  • @Keinlicht actually yes and the worst metaphors ever invented were God and devil' so learn how to write better' I still know what you mean now that I know you are using the term devil as one' but define that better' the devil is what social consciousness? The conformity to a coersion within a fake authority? There are no laws of physics' Law implies an intent' there are only the principles to the causes' the good book wasnt written very well' and its author abused the english language'

  • @DrFruedienslip "so learn how to write better" coming from the guy who can't use punctuation, I think I can disregard that.

    My comment is very straighforward: Christians have had thousands of years to develop their nonsense arguments, and they all use the same ones. I don't see what the confusion is here, so either you're an idiot or you can't read worth shit. The bible wasn't written in English. There ARE laws of physics.Wait, scratch that, you are an idiot.

  • @Keinlicht What part didnt you understand' you must be one of those know it alls who wants to save the world or something' what is the underlying question here? There is no point to what we are doing so who or what decides reason? Im a great idiot' and I like it alot' Christianity has two parts' the attempt to explain the malady related to the paternal senses' if read properly' its a poets version that philosophical interpretation has alwasy been about' the social affects to perception'