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struggle4progress

(118,034 posts)
6. Reviewed: The God Argument by A C Grayling
Sat Apr 27, 2013, 03:34 PM
Apr 2013

Apocalypse now.
By Bryan Appleyard
Published 28 February 2013 14:09

... There is also an irritating and highly self-serving argument that appears in various forms throughout the book. This seems to be an attempt to delegitimise all religious discourse. “Atheism,” Grayling writes, “is to theism as not stamp-collecting is to stamp-collecting.” In other words, not to be a stamp collector “denotes only the open-ended and negative state of not collecting stamps”. Equally, not being a theist is not a positive condition; it merely says this person “does not even begin to enter the domain of discourse in which these beliefs have their life and content”. The word “atheist”, therefore, is misleading; the phrase “militant atheist” doubly so.

This is silly. First, “militant atheist” is a phrase that Grayling justifies by his talk of comrades and causes. If he really believes this argument, he shouldn’t have written this book. Second, this is a transparent ruse to get the four (or five) horsemen off the charge that they write about religion while knowing nothing of theology. If religion is treated as a child-like superstition – like the belief in fairies – then there is no need to understand it in detail and, of course, this particular superstition is also dangerous and should therefore be exposed as well as refuted, if not in detail.

You may agree with this but consider the implications of where Grayling’s argument leads. He writes that the “respect agenda” – the tolerance of religious beliefs – is at an end. Is that really where atheists want to go?

At this point, the book needs discussing in a wider context. Western humanism in its present incarnation is a very small sect in the context of global beliefs and world views. The idea, advanced in this book, that it could and should become a world ideology is both wildly improbable and extremely dubious. Like it or not, religions are here to stay. Grayling sort of gets round this by ignoring the primary argument for their continued existence – that religion is a beneficial adaptation. He argues that religion is kept in place by, in essence, political power. This is altogether too weak and too inconsistent to explain the prevalence of religion and most thinkers accept some sort of evolutionary explanation. If you do accept at least some version of the adaptive argument – or, indeed, if you are a believer – then the study of religion becomes an obligation. Religious faith is not remotely like the belief in fairies; it is a series of stories of immense political, poetic and historical power that are – again, like it or not – deeply embedded in human nature. Seen in that light, to dismiss all religious discourse as immature or meaningless is to embrace ignorance or, more alarmingly, to advocate suppression. It will also make it impossible for you to understand the St Matthew Passion, Chartres Cathedral and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky ...


http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/02/apocalypse-now

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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