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struggle4progress

(118,039 posts)
8. The God Argument, By AC Grayling
Sat Apr 27, 2013, 03:41 PM
Apr 2013

Virtuous atheists may live well and do good – but can they give hope to the hopeless cases?
Catherine Pepinster
Friday 08 March 2013

... Alvin Plantinga is the philosopher who gets both of Grayling's barrels, as a leading proponent of the ontological argument (using reason to establish the existence of a deity). Plantinga has gone on to claim this argument proves not that God exists but that it is rational to think he exists, and entirely reasonable to say that there is a maximally great entity. His claim that this is a rational argument causes Grayling to see red. But Plantinga's description of Dawkins as "dancing on the lunatic fringe" undoubtedly adds to the fire. The forthright riposte from Grayling is to accuse Plantinga of "complete intellectual irresponsibility".

I would have preferred to see what Grayling had to say about Antony Flew, one of the most influential atheistic philosophers of our time and author of The Presumption of Atheism. He declared in 2004 that he had become a theist, on the grounds that the origins of life indicate a creative intelligence. But Flew doesn't get a mention.

Grayling's earnest manifesto for humanism had much the same effect on me as eating too much lettuce did on Peter Rabbit. While wit was as absent as in part one, I was roused to laughing out loud by his explanation of how important it is to be active, rather than idle: "The engagement does not have to be any more taxing than reading, knitting or gardening, though for some it has to take the form of climbing Everest or going to the moon. And there are plenty of worthwhile and creative activities in between".

Apart from their vilification of theists, one gets the impression that humanists are always nice, polite, and middle-class. They are as keen on people being good as any vicar. The trouble is people aren't always nice, and atheism has little to say about that. Attend a humanist funeral and you'll see it works for someone who was pleasant, worked hard, and left behind a loved family. But there is no hope of redemption for anyone who doesn't measure up. It's that search for meaning and hope for the hopeless that continues to capture the imagination of those convinced of their faith, for all the rational arguments put forward by Grayling and his fellows in "the cause".


http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-god-argument-by-ac-grayling-8524807.html

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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