[LINK] atheism

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 17:03 +1100, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> After reading his book I felt Dawkins was the closest thing to Mr Spock,
> the emotionless Vulcan we all know and love from Star Trek.

Then you have utterly missed his point.

He doesn't deny passion, love, beauty or any of those wonderful things
that make up the other side of human (rationality being one side). He
just says, very clearly, that we don't need imaginary spirits in the sky
to feel them and enjoy them.

The fact that many humans in the past have explained the source of these
feelings in supernatural terms doesn't mean it's the only way to do so.

There is no problem with using mythic or religious symbols or stories to
help communicate feelings; our shared mythology is a bridge between
people and a bridge to the past. A book that describes this
exceptionally well is Chaim Potok's "My name is Asher Lev", highly
recommended.

It *is* a problem when the metaphor is mistaken for fact.

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)