Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath Pt. 13 of 15

Conversation between Dawkins and McGrath from the Root of all Evil. This is uncut footage. Comments and ratings appreciated! Thanks!

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[hippo11222]

Einstein seems to be much more of an apathetic agnostic than anything.He did have a lot of critiques about religion,but he never believed in a personal deity. Though he did share a certain affinity for the philosophical view of God.Look up Spinoza's God.He could techically be called a poetic deist or maybe even a pantheist in that God is the sum of all natural law and phenomenon,basically meaning that God is the universe,but certainly I agree he was nowhere near a classical theist or an atheist.

[TheVodkaHaze]

Einstein was a deist AT BEST. He wasn't an atheist, many people assume this because he refuted that he wasn't a theist.

[kylejoshua85]

I find it interesting that Dawkins so often dismisses things because they are not "helpful," since describing something as either helpful or unhelpful assumes a particular telos. To what end is Dawkins assuming something must be helpful or unhelpful? According to his disenchanted understanding of the world, anything helpful to whatever particular end he might assume would ultimately be meaningless and at best only self-interested.

[axolotl5]

@sdwhitesox - I completely agree re Einstein ! Who cares about any one persons view? There is no doubt his views on the existence of God was an unusual perspective, but one thing he was clear on was his view that life after death was a childish fallacy. Now if the religious were to be told in church that 'we don't want you to stop coming to church, ,but I have some bad news for you, we were wrong on the subject of life after death. Everything else remains the same....how much would be left in

[JediVulcanTimeLord]

I do wish McGrath would stop equating atheism with marxism. He seems to be implying that they are one and the same and that all atheism arises from marxist beliefs or similar. It doesn't! My own atheism arises from my lack of any spiritual need to have some sort of intelligence behind the universe. I am perfectly happy to believe that we have evolved as a result of a beautifully poetic coming together of the laws of science.

[setnoset]

... such as life after death. In this case science, at least theoretical science mights be able to understand it. This would be possible if we could look at spirituality using Mathematics. However seems to be far from what we can do presently.

Assuming this spirituality existed, I think we could only reach this level of understanding in the time when we are able to link physics and psychology, i.e. give a mathematical intererpratation of psichological effects.

[setnoset]

"supernatural explanations are not going to be helpful"

I think this is all an issue of semantics and the way we see the word 'supernatural'.

Perhaps he defines 'supernatural' as what cannot be explainned by science. We have to remembered that science is limited by the ability of humans. If, then, God existed and was complex in a way that God is above our level of conciousness, our ability to understand God would be limited.

However we could still understand fully more simple concepts ...

[RayTech70]

@hippo11222 Good point... even Carl Sagan was not hardcore atheist. Sagan denied that he

was an atheist, saying "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid."

[bassetter1]

OK. so you want atheism to just go away . LOOOL.

[TugNThaPecker]

Ultimately the individual must evoke stern discipline of keeping to the applied definitions of language and denying ourselves the temptation to succumb to the connotations of words as a result of social implications over time. Until then we can never actually recognize the justifiable interpretations of fundamental argument or discussion. Simply everything will be left to become a hyperbole of diction.