Monday, August 10, 2009

DicksnJanes #210: unreligioned


The Scarborough Dude tries to shed himself of any last religious vestiges.

Music:
Carmina Burana - Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra & Chorus - 111 Classical Masterpieces
The Merry Peasant" - Peter Frankl - 111 Classical Masterpieces
When God Dips His Love In My Heart - Maddox Brothers & Rose - Red Hot And Regal

Read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

And if ya wanna her the Scarborough Dude's REAL GHOST STORIES, listen to DicksnJanes podcast, Episode 13.

8 comments:

John Meadows said...

Part way through listening to your latest show. Here are a couple of links which discuss non-biblical evidence for Christ's existence (leaving aside the religious aspect here; I am not trying to "save you" :) )

http://dmc.members.sonic.net/sentinel/naij3.html

http://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jesus-exist.html

Cheers,

John

John Meadows said...

I listened to the rest of your show on the way home from work today; very thought provoking!

Not referring specifically to you, but rather the concept of atheism in general:

To declare "there is no God" is a much a statement of faith as to say there is one. If we limit ourselves strictly to empirical evidence, there is no proof either way.

With that snarky little canard out of the way. my main concern is that in my opinion, the only logical consequence of atheism is the acceptance of an amoral, uncaring universe, and that becomes a problem for ethics. In theory at least, in a deistic view of the universe, with an infinite deity being simultaneously the source of ethics, and bound into the very fabric of the universe, ethics have a foundation in the fabric of existence.

With atheism, the universe is providing no ethical compass; whatever ethos we rely upon therefore becomes a creation of man, to be ignored at will; artificial in every sense of the word.

Again, I bring this up not as an act of trying to convert anyone, but that people when staking out a position in this eternal debate, should think things through; there is necessary struggle on either side of the argument.

Cheers,

John

Anonymous said...

Hey Dude,
Great show. Long time listener. I listened to the audio version of the book you talked about. Very convinceing stuff. However, for the the first time in a while, I tried to imagine a world without God. While not a deeply religious person to begin with, I find that world to be less colorful, two dimentional, and sader somehow. That's my 2 cents anyways. Best reguards, John from Michigan.

Scarborough Dude said...

Thank you to both Toronto and Michigan John for the comments. I did not mention how much I love older Churches, the ones with beautiful stained glass windows of Biblical images. Dawkins concludes the chapter 'Childhood, Abuse and the Escape from Religion' with: "We can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage." He refers in detail to the beauty of the language in the King James version of the Bible. But I also admire the fact that he holds firmly to his belief that there is no God, nor do we have need of one, and that in fact religion is the cause of much of the suffering in the world. Amen!

Anonymous said...

Hey Dude,
It seems Dawkin's has more of a problem with religion then God. Although he doesn't believe in God for the most part, again, religion appears to be his primary nemisis IMO. I whole heartily argree in many ways. Religion is the problem.. However, I believe God is not.
Anyways, I guess that's my 3 cents. I will be in Fort Erie the first week in September. Let me know if ou want to have a pop or two. Maybe catch the Falls for a couple hours. I promise not to talk about God. But I may talk about Darwin and fishing :), so you have been warned. John in Michigan.

Richard Bunky Bell said...

Been on holidays and I'm just catching up on my DnJ episodes.

I've been told in the past that there can be no such thing as atheism. Here's the theory.
Draw a small circle on a large piece of paper. The inside of the circle represents the sum total of your own experience and knowledge.
Outside the circle is the rest of all that can be known and experienced.
The theory being that to declare absolutely that there is no spiritual deity is incorrect as such a deity may exist outside the realm of your knowledge and experience.
It would be safer to declare ones-self agnostic and admit that a God may exist but that to your knowledge and in your experience the evidence doesn't support it.
It's a simple analogy but, it always leaves me thinking before I open my mouth only to prove myself an arrogant fool once again.

Also IMHO spirituality and religion are 2 totally different things and I believe they can exist independently without the other. Case in point is that rabid atheism becomes a religion without a spiritual centre as does consumerism or materialism.

John Meadows your comments are also thought provoking and insightful.
Can morality or indeed such a thing as love, exist in the universe without the existence a spiritual deity? Yes or No?
It's a big question and the search for the answer seems endless.
Since we can't possibly know or experience everything, in the end deciding to absolutely to jump one way or the other can only be described a leap of faith.

John Meadows said...

To Richard Bunky Bell:

Great comment!!

You get it :-)

Scarborough Dude said...

I very much welcome you into the discussion Richard. I'll continue to play the role of arrogant fool though, as my mind, what there is of it, can't allow for a god, at least in any religious sense. Beyond that, we run into the problem of definitions - could 'God' refer to some kind of higher consciousness? That I'd have a harder time arguing against...

Agree of course - religion and spirituality not at all the same. As for morality, indeed spirituality- these to me are man made- and that is also what makes man- not god- great.

Give me a few months- I may do a complete 180 on this- but I sure as hell (oops) hope not!