Tuesday, October 21, 2008

THE FOURTH PHILOSOPHY

How uncool is this 'advertising campaign'? What bright spark came up with the slogan 'there's probably no god'? Really, if proof were needed that humanists were prosletysing Christians in disguise; that atheism was a Christian construct; that a reminder were needed of why I am not an atheist; and that it'd be way more fun to take part in the fucking Alpha Course than have your donation 'matched' by cheerleader Dawkins, then this is it all rolled into one.

As I've said before, count me out of the human race on this one - I'm with the chimps.

12 comments:

LJP said...

I personally can't stand it when atheism becomes militant. When that happens it becomes as obnoxious (maybe even more so) than hardline Christianity.

h3o said...

isn't it a truism that the more a person protests, the more they're denying something they believe in?

Hamlet:
Madam, how like you this play?
Queen:
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

William Bennett said...

to be pedantic, the modern understanding of 'protest' isn't the same as the Shakespearian - though your point is of course still valid

h3o said...

"By "protest," Gertrude doesn't mean "object" or "deny"—these meanings postdate Hamlet. The principal meaning of "protest" in Shakespeare's day was "vow" or "declare solemnly," a meaning preserved in our use of "protestation." When we smugly declare that "the lady doth protest too much," we almost always mean that the lady objects so much as to lose credibility. Gertrude says that Player Queen affirms so much as to lose credibility. Her vows are too elaborate, too artful, too insistent."

-- which is what I meant.

john noma said...

Can atheism simply mean a lack of theistic thinking OR is this too simple?

Unknown said...

kripo, of course it *can*, but in the real world it is generally used to signify a position which asserts that there is no god, which may not be theistic 'thinking', but still very similar in nature

Ea-M. said...

I still haven't met anyone who could convince me that the power of god or any other given deity is indeed a very active factor in the world.
As long as there's acts of any kind(kindness, conflict, discussion etc..) that has roots in religious or anti-religious doxia or praxia it will be.

This blog, the responses to it and the reason for writing it in the first place is all part of that power.
It doesn't matter if there's a deity (or deities) on the concrete level.
And frankly i don't care if there is, but the function is incredibly interesting.

Ea-M. said...

I can't type ffs.

Luke McElroy said...

If you have a spare 40 minutes or so, there's an interesting lecture given at a Christian institute by John Gray (author of Straw Dogs, Black Mass) for download (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4205068.ece) where he criticises Dawkins-style 'new atheism'

William Bennett said...

many thanks for that download link, Luke, look forward to listening to JG's lecture

Anton Maiof said...

love the weasel word making the statement utterly pointless.

William Bennett said...

thanks for the suggestion, Thomas - I hadn't heard of this book, and it's a nicely provocative title and thesis; after reading the first chapter (conveniently posted at amazon.com) and, worse still, Oprah's recommendation, it seems to be more a condemnation of fundamentalism and an apologia of 'good' religion; and Hedges bandies about medieval notions such as 'faith', 'moral, 'evil' like an old-school preacher