The Four Horsemen: Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett 10/12

[WilAwesome11]

and who they are worshipping/placing their faith in. Is that what you were saying? It wasn't entirely clear, to me anyway.

[paradirob]

Dawkins often refers to the Catholic Religion when he is criticizing religion in general. Dawkins' real nemesis is the religious right in America. Hitchens mentions that English poetry can inspire a sense of the 'sacred' and contrasts this with radical Muslims' delight in blowing things up, murder, and suicide. It is clear that Dawkins thinks that the Catholic mass is anachronistic nonsense. We can gain an anthropological understanding of what religion is by re-examining its historical contexts.

[paradirob]

Watch Dawkins' interview with Steven Pinker on You Tube. The title of the video is: Steven Pinker - The Genius of Charles Darwin: The Uncut Interviews. Pinker discusses the evolution of language in this video.

[paradirob]

Hitchens ends well here. Midway, Dawkins mentions the prospect of separating the irrationality of religious belief from everyday discourse. Dennett brings out this point about 3/4 ways through. 'Group solidarity' is the one social instinct that they are groping at for an explanation. Dawkins follows up with the analogy of a 'disguised insect,' in translation from the old Latin. Surely, then, he is including language as something which evolves, somewhat like the way species evolve.

[paradirob]

Hitchens ends with 'something like faith.'

[WilAwesome11]

@paradirob It is a very nice line, 'something like faith'.

I think language does evolve. (Eg. lol rofl brb and other shorthand internet gibberish.) And the difference between modern English and old English (Eg. Shakespeare) is enormous. Dawkins said that he thought that, if read and performed in Latin, the Mass would escape ridicule because few people speak Latin. Whereas in modern English the Mass can be understood by the majority, and thus the majority can make informed decisions on what ...