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struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
3. The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism by AC Grayling – review
Sat Apr 27, 2013, 03:20 PM
Apr 2013

Julian Baggini
The Observer, Saturday 16 March 2013

... But the most vocal atheists and the believers who take their bait appear ever more like a long-married couple who prefer the familiarity of their dysfunctional relationship to the emptiness that lies beyond an amicable divorce. They trade the same old niggles and complaints with no hope or expectation of mutual understanding ...

Grayling's case is most powerful against those who believe, literally, that holy texts convey the word of God, who is a real, personal being who cares for, rewards and punishes us. For a sensible philosopher like Grayling, this is all-too obviously ridiculous, and by the second chapter, he is already unable to resist making the inevitable comparisons with tooth fairies and Father Christmas ...

Nonetheless, there is much more to faith than a stone-age metaphysics of divine beings and miracles. Grayling, however, dismisses all the rest as the mere residue of an outdated worldview or the obfuscation of confused minds. For him, the matter is simple: all religion is built on supernatural beliefs and "when one rejects the premise of a set of views, it is a waste of one's time to address what is built on those premises". As a result, he simply refuses to engage with the most interesting aspect of the God debate: what, if anything, remains of truth and value in religion if you accept its stories as myths? ...

The God Argument sums up the mainstream humanist position well, but I can't see it taking the debate forward. Perhaps that would be a foolish hope. The public debate Dawkins started seems to have done as much to make the participants feel validated as it has to change their opinions. The God argument remains unwinnable.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/god-argument-ac-grayling-review

It is a humanist manifesto, not an atheist manifesto. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #1
That's the headline. rug Apr 2013 #2
It seems to include many now-familiar rhetorical themes and salutes others who advance them: struggle4progress Apr 2013 #9
Perhaps instead of reading commentary you might go read the source. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #17
I already have stacks and stacks of stuff to read, stuff that actually challenges me struggle4progress Apr 2013 #23
Exactly so. There's nothing inherent in atheism that lends itself to any particular Joseph Ledger Apr 2013 #10
He does seem to have lit a fuse with out local religiously inflicted cohorts. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #16
I don't think you can equate a yawn with lighting a fuse. rug Apr 2013 #18
the line is "you fill me with inertia". Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #19
Yes, but some defacto7 Apr 2013 #27
The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism by AC Grayling – review struggle4progress Apr 2013 #3
The God Argument: the Case Against Religion and For Humanism by AC Grayling – review struggle4progress Apr 2013 #4
contemporary physicists might be pretty embarrassed by the outmoded opinions of revered patriarchs? dimbear Apr 2013 #21
"In the regions of interplanetary space the density of the aether is therefore very great compared struggle4progress Apr 2013 #24
"Newton believed that ancient Greek and Roman mythology contained hidden alchemical secrets" struggle4progress Apr 2013 #25
Newton's life divides sadly into an early period of genius and a later period dimbear Apr 2013 #28
The Principia was published when he was about 45, which is not generally regarded struggle4progress Apr 2013 #29
So much for Sir Isaac. But the other ostensible culprit, Maxwell. What's the dimbear Apr 2013 #31
Maxwell's demon isn't snide: it's a useful thermodynamic thought experiment struggle4progress Apr 2013 #32
The important point is that Maxwell didn't actually believe in demons, we're dimbear Apr 2013 #34
The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and For Humanism by A. C. Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #5
Reviewed: The God Argument by A C Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #6
Review: AC Grayling's latest attack on faith is smug, glib and lamentable struggle4progress Apr 2013 #7
The God Argument, By AC Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #8
Do have even a glimmer skepticscott Apr 2013 #11
Etaoin shrdlu! struggle4progress Apr 2013 #12
RIP Ottmar Mergenthaler. rug Apr 2013 #14
Or I might have been thinking of the Pogo character struggle4progress Apr 2013 #15
Grayling has noticed that okasha Apr 2013 #13
If his audience were fundamentally uncritical skepticscott Apr 2013 #20
And, in fact, some atheists are so full of faith in their atheism, that atheism might indeed struggle4progress Apr 2013 #26
Find us some atheists skepticscott Apr 2013 #33
Currently rating 3.8 out of 5 at Amazon. There is a single 1 star review, dimbear Apr 2013 #22
k&r is the term.. Phillip McCleod Apr 2013 #30
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