Dennett vs McGrath - Part 5 of 9

This is a debate at the Royal Institution in London between philosopher Daniel C Dennett and professor of theology Alister McGrath. The debate is on the ideas presented in Dennett's book Breaking the Spell, such as the concept of the meme and the evolution of religion.
The debate is moderated by Madeleine Bunting.

Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and a University Professor at Tufts University. Dennett is also a noted atheist and advocate of the Brights movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett

Alister Edgar McGrath (born 23 January 1953) is a Christian theologian, who holds both a DPhil (in molecular biophysics) and an earned Doctor of Divinity degree from Oxford. He is noted for his work in historical, systematic and scientific theology.

In his writing and public speaking, he promotes "scientific theology" and opposes antireligionism. McGrath was until recently Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford, but has now taken up the chair of Theology, Religion and Culture at King's College London since September 2008. Until 2005, he was principal of Wycliffe Hall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alister_McGrath

Category:

Education

Tags:

• debate
• God
• religion
• atheism
• atheist
• meme
• Christian
• Breaking
• the
• Spell
• Daniel
• Dennett
• Alister
• McGrath

[supergopi]

McGrath,

yes, atheism is also meme, a meme routed in reality unlike belief in god.

Ayn Rand has a different name for memes not based on reality : floating abstractions.

so what :p ?

----

riversonthemoon,

Thanks for uploading the debate !

[riversonthemoon]

Happy to do it. More on the way.

[anwyll]

Might just be a glitch but the 4th part seems to not be functioning as I attempted to view it a few minutes ago

[riversonthemoon]

It seems to be working for me. Try using another link to it. Sometimes that works. I was having that problem yesterday, and I think it was because the YouTube codemonkeys were busy at work. They might still be at it.

[revtyson]

Thanks for posting!

[riversonthemoon]

You're welcome.

[jacobromu]

Lenin Stalin - Adherence to dogma => violence

Islam Christianity - Adherence to dogma => violence

Skeptiism - adherence to questioning ideas and autheroity =>not violence

[hymnofashes]

The memetic explanation for religion lacks non-anecdoatal evidence: its hard to construct experimental religions (although actually a number of avowedly fake ones, like scientology, have been started.) but the alternative is this:

Religion arises because the world is full of goblins, spirits, ethers, unicorns, mermaids, Olympus, etc. and we're just describing them.

[richo61]

Yes atheism is a meme.

A meme isn't always a false idea - its simply a *successful idea*.

Since McGrath evidently didn't understand that, then he has missed the entire point of the concept.

[SubconsciousGatherer]

Fanatics are our problem? I'm a fanatic for romance, humor and fun. McGrath fails again.

[QuantumGh0st]

McGrath spend his entire 20 mins arguing against a straw man...

[Theism411]

Did any one count how many "ah" Dannett said?

[Gurn92]

dennett = fail

[grandampersand]

@jacobromu Too bad atheism isn't the same thing as skepticism. Atheism is, perhaps, skepticism towards theism, but no more so than theism is skepticism towards atheism. Even Dawkins points out that specific theisms are skeptical toward other theisms. So, yes, you're right, skepticism, insofar as all that means is "adherence to questioning ideas and authority" is not an ideology. But atheism is, and as such, is just as plausibly fanatical.