Britannist

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan, has spoken out against "atheistic fundamentalism" saying that it has led to councils calling Christmas "Wintervil", schools refusing to put on Nativity plays and crosses being removed from Chapels:

BBC NEWS | Wales | 'Atheistic fundamentalism' fears

Smidgey

I think the Archbishop will find much of the things he talks about are actually caused by Christians - perhaps he is not willing to admit this.

I believe it is superstitious nonsense, does that make me a fundamentalist? What an absurd statement to make. Because someone has a different belief from you automatically makes them a fundamentalist? As for 'no substance' - I think he is creating a straw man here.

I also find this part of the article interesting, since Dawkins has actually consistently argued in favour of celebrating Christmas and in favour of individual freedom concerning the right to believe whatever one wishes.

__________________
How vain is man, who boasts in fight the valour of gigantic might!

-Georg Friedrich Händel

noachian

Whether you believe or not; you can not deny that the teachings of Christ in their purest form are a benefit to society. Love your neibourgh, do to others as you would have them do to you, humility, sacrifice, peace with Human brothers, his many parables of love and neighborliness etc. Jesus of Nazarath; whether you agree he was an kind of Christ or Messiah; was a great philosopher and teacher of good. One must swollow ones pride and agree

__________________
"A Monarchy which above all, values the Liberty of the subject." Marcus Aurelius on perfect society.

"Control thy passions, lest they take vengeance on thee." - Epictetus.

For_England

I recently read Dawkins book. Besides having no problem with state-imposed 'hate speech' legislation, he also suggests that parents who teach their children religion should have their children taken from them. No, a nice, liberal-minded believer in freedom he is not - an atheistic fundamentalist he is.

kernow

I don't have to swallow pride! Christian teachings and the 10 commandments are a good road map for life! The bits I can't accept are the "Jealous God", the ever loving God and the God who made man in his own image! (1) The Jealous God? If he was supreme he wouldn't be worried about mans affections straying! My Wife has friends , I'm not jealous of them! (2) The ever loving God? Don't ever tell me that an all powerful being would stand by and watch the suffering of innocents that there is in this World! (3) God created Man in his own image, what Hitler!?

Smidgey

Hate speech is a contentious issue - and whilst I disagree with Dawkins, it doesn't really have much to do with his position on religion.

As for the whole 'child abuse' issue - I think you are creating the same straw man that hundreds before you have done. I don't think he has ever once argued for state intervention in this matter.

__________________
How vain is man, who boasts in fight the valour of gigantic might!

-Georg Friedrich Händel

Smidgey

Well, the teachings of Christ are flawed and primitive compared to the mighty teachings of the great philosophers such as Kant, Aristotle or Hume. They allow many things we would commonly see as immoral - without the intention of doing so.

Kant, on the other hand, having a much better grasp of morality than Jesus, managed to avoid these problems.

__________________
How vain is man, who boasts in fight the valour of gigantic might!

-Georg Friedrich Händel

noachian

Maybe you don't have to swallow pride, but some people do...believe me some people do.
Well lets start with ever loving, I am not going to give you a massive church lecture because I am not even a conventional Christian myself. But if you did want God to sit back and watch us suffer then, let me ask you; what do you suppose he does? Stops bullets in the air? Give us inprenetrable skin? Make us all nice loving happy robots with no internal thought of our own?
And as for being created in God's image, all this means is we are seperated from all the other animals (as the creation story goes). God created the original human beings with souls like his, but over time we have become less and less like God and more and more like animals.
As for the jealous God; this mean not people but material thing, when we worship pleasure and material objects, God becomes not jealous as we think of it today, but a jealous as in a feeling of sadness even anger that we are not being spiritually fulfilled but only fulfilling our human lusts.

__________________
"A Monarchy which above all, values the Liberty of the subject." Marcus Aurelius on perfect society.

"Control thy passions, lest they take vengeance on thee." - Epictetus.

noachian

I agree. Thats way to extreme. If that was the case then wouldn't humanist families briniging their children up with humanist teaching for e.g.?

__________________
"A Monarchy which above all, values the Liberty of the subject." Marcus Aurelius on perfect society.

"Control thy passions, lest they take vengeance on thee." - Epictetus.

kernow

What rubbish! Man has been evil to man since time immemorial! The Old Testament is littered with people being slaughtered left right and centre! If mankind ever had a soul, it must have been a long, long time ago! As for man becoming "more like animals, that my friend is a gross insult to animals! Carnivores kill for food, you don't find "Harold SHipman's" and "Rose Wests" in the animal kingdom!