Letters to the Editor
droogoy
Published Letters: 589 Editor's Choice: 9
-
"Intellectual believers"
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]grisscoat wrote:
Pinker couples faith with alchemy in foolish fashion, presumably unaware that the intellectual believer claims no certainty about God's existence. It's a faith claim.
Yeah right! Tell that to the 46+ million diehard evangelicals and fundies who take it as inerrant "gospel" that their god really and truly exists - and oh, btw, if you don't "believe on him" you are headed for the eternal toaster.
Your "intellectual believer" is such a pitifully small subset of Christians it is ludicrous to even attempt to invoke them to make such a specious pint. In the end, Pinker was right on in his comparison of god-belief to astrology and alchemy.
-
The "real thing"
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]bobr900 wrote:
I do agree with their points about religions causing so very many deaths and torturings(Spanish Inquisition, Crusades etc. etc. etc. down through the ages. Man made religions are controlled by man, men and as such are no substitute for the 'real thing'
It seems to me you are conflating religion (a man-made artifact)with your "real thing") And wasn't it Joseph Campbell who quoted a famed psychoterhapist, I believe Jung, who once noted RELIGION is a 'defense against the experience of God"?
The inescapable fact is that religion DID cause all those things Dawkins noted. No ifs, ands or buts.
Not only did the Inquisition slaughter hundreds of thousands of freethinkers, but formal papal bulls were issued to direct Inquisitional tortures and butchery. Indeed, Innocent IV issued 'Ad Extirpanda' which also commiitted the state to HELP the Church to seize all the property of heretics. This explains one way in which the RC Church accumulated so much wealth."
More to the point, up to now the RC Church has not issued formal apologies for its Inquisition travesties. (Which, of course, were done under formal doctrines issued at the time - see Henry Lea's excellent book on the history of the Inquisition, and all the popes who signed onto it via doctrinal approval)
And for accuracy purposes, let us bear in mind the Inquistion STILL exists, it has never been disbanded. It is simply called by a different name: "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith". The former head Inquisitioner....excuse me, the "Head" of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger- who you may now know as Pope "Benedict".
If you insist there is a non-religion based approach to a presumed deity, fine. But make no mistake that ortganized religion has been the major source of bloodshed on this planet for most of its human history.
-
Investigating defective brains and religious belief
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ELYDOG wrote:
Religion and god are certainly fit studies for scientific analysis. If they exist, shouldn't there be scientific evidence of their existence?
There are already many scientific studies which have investigated the source of religious phantasmagorias, including postulation of "God", "soul", "Satan" and other bunkum.
Major work -research has been done by Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, who has used electric stimuli to induce micro-seizures in the temporal lobes of his subjects' brains. Thereby he has induced perceptions of the "white light" often beheld in NDEs, as well as "God" and "angels", the 'virgin Mary" and other religious illusion.
The bottom line? Most if not all of the religious delusion and claims issue from temporal lobes in deformed human brains.
This is why for many years I have advocated the implantation of electrodes in same temporal lobes to nullify all religiosity, delusions, and especially the God delusion. Once we do that there woul be no argument EVER about whether science can prove or disprove the alleged deity. It wouldn't come up because it would be realized it was all an epiphenomenon of the brain.
Earlier electrode management of temporal lobe dereliction was perhaps not on, if only because of the scale size of electrodes. Now, with quantum dot technology coming onstream it is eminently doable.
The sooner we get on with it, the sooner we can rid the planet of the religious mind (brain) virus.
Btw, Persinger's landmark book is: The Neuropsychological Basis for God Belief
We need to make all religious belief an anachronism and relegate it to the dustbin of human foibles and folly - like the use of hornets to place on plague victims to remove "toxins".
-
jayackroyd you are SOOOOOOOO RIGHT!
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]jayackroyd wrote:
The essential atheist assertion is that the world, and the universe is what it appears to be and more. There's no room in that universe for your super-universe intelligent consciousness--at least without your giving us some idea why it has any firmer basis in reality than the old lady's turtles.
Bingo and exactamundo! You have nailed it exactly. It is always those who would add to established reality who have the onus of proving the addition to it, not us to disprove it.
As I have repeatedly told my Christian friends, I treat your professed "God" much as I do my 5 y/o niece's "Elf" that she claims sits inside her fireplace. It is invisible and smoking an invisible pipe - ALL the time.
In other words, both are redundant. My ignoring the "Elf" doesn't rebound or impact my life, just as the Xtians' "God". Neither does either add to scientific predictions, or data. So, we may ignore them AS IF THEY DON'T EXIST.
It would be absurd to squander intellectual capital to even remotely attempt to "deny" or "disprove" them.
God claims in the end are much like alien UFO claims. Until the "hardware" is produced, both are spurious. And intelligent people ought to know better than to invest precious intellectual capital in promoting brain-induced phantasmagorias.
Anyway, good work!