character
Can you know what your opinion?
I have a new won respect for journalists after reading The God Delusion. Lee Strobel's books,[Case for a Creator; Case for the Real Jesus; Case For Faith] written from the personal professional integrity of that discipline, makes a glaring difference in the believability on this subject.Richard Dawkins is popular the same way the biting criticism, cynicism, from Simon of American Idol fame is popular. We are a tabloid loving society. Howard Stern gets paid millions of dollars to, 'not tone it down.' Dawkins goes for the shock and awe, and shock you will get. He gets affirmation from other atheists who prod him on. Like the 5 year old who wins the approval of his 7 year old brother by one day telling mom to, "Shut up."But does God have for himself another worthy opponent? Dawkins seems to think so judging by the 22 adjective scornful character assassination of God at the start of chapter 2. If you pulled that paragraph out of this book and put it in The Satanic Bible it would be a seamless fit. Just like heavy metal album cover art, all things holy, sacred, noble, and true are profaned.Richard can explain away your personnel conversion experience by the science of your brain. It works by electrical pulses and chemical reactions. What you see is only the interpretation of what's there. Therefore your brain can't be trusted, but you can trust his. Exactly. That is why The Bible speaks of the unchanging and eternal. It's a necessary spiritual guide, something we are beggars for without. Why did I not find any Bible quotes that weren't so bent out of shape they were not recognizable? You need a plumb line reading this book to know what straight is, or it might even start to make sense.I thought this was pretty phony. The greatest scientists of yesteryear Newton, Galileo, Kepler, were all religious. Dawkins corrects history by teaching us they believed in God only because they were expected to. They had no other choice. Interesting, he can't bring himself to respect them for their work and discoveries unless he 'deludes' himself into pretending they were closet atheists. As for his scientific peers, the men who hold a belief in God now? "They are looked down upon in baffled amusement." Do you see what I see? In a crowd like that maybe it would be better not to admit to anything. Who needs the grief?He says belief in God is no different than a belief in the tooth fairy. How many people do you know pour there life energy in trying to prove the non-existence of nothing? I wonder if he's convinced himself yet, or if 8 more books are on the way?Richard teaches us belief in God stifles the growth of science, stunts the imagination of children,[Richard's parents took him to church where he got a 'splendid imagination'], anchors us in the dark ages, and should be dropped for the betterment of mankind. I wonder if we could test that theory scientifically? Set up an experiment between two groups of people. Atheist and Christians give them a mammoth scientific achievement as a goal, like walk a man on another planet and bring him back safety. And make it a race.It was called the Apollo program. In the 1960's United States and Russia went head to head in the ultimate scientific, engineering, Olympics of the mind. It was war, a cold war between two ideologies, two world views. The future of mankind no less was at stake.Russia in 1917 systematically abolished all religion, they banned the Bible and made museums of natural history out of the grander churches. Most though, were flattened, 20,000. It was against the law to own a Bible, the church went underground. They believed if they educated the ignorance out of the people the foolishness and superstition handed down from generation to generation would end. A dangerous leap into uncharted waters. They had a whole generation to tweak the system before their show down with Christian America.In the United States more than 90 percent of the population believes in a supernatural being. They have a region called the Bible belt. They are unashamedly evangelical and proud of the fact freedom of religion is the core of all freedoms. Dawkins tells us people of faith have lower IQ's are bigoted, hostile, and out of sync with reality. This should have been no contest for the atheists.Well that challenge was happening 40 years ago. When the lunar program shut down after Russia waved the white flag, the number of men who left their boot prints on the moon was evangelical Christian United States of America 12, Atheistic Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 0.As for everything else human rights, standard of living, freedom of speech, put it this way. Russia built a wall to keep people in. America couldn't keep them out. Greatest military, greatest scientific achievements by miles. Want more proof? Ask God, cannot the one who made the eyes see? cannot the one who formed the ears hear? 