https://lateboomersden.blog/2023/08/04/acceptance-last-stage-of-grief-over-christianity/
Just had a little bit of insight into why I was such an angry guy when I became an atheist - and why I think a lot of Christians are angry these days: grief.
#Culture, #Religion #Acceptance, #Anger, #atheism, #Christianity, #Dawkins, #Grief, #Identity, #JohnVervaeke, #JulianCope, #Memes

6. Dawkins reminds me of the Jesuit scholars who dismissed Galileo not because he was wrong, but because they believed his heliocentric view of the universe was unthinkable within the traditional views of Christianity.

#Dawkins #transphobia

THREAD ON DAWKINS AND TRANSGENDER IDENTITIES

1. Richard #Dawkins, Steven Pinker and Ray Blanchard all belong to what I would call a school of traditional gender role thinking masquerading as science.

If you go through their arguments it soon becomes clear that the statement "gender is biological sex" is simply a rephrasing of the sentence "biological sex is biological sex and biological sex is about reproduction."

#transgender #trans #lgbtq
#science #biology #sex

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1685390378554527744

@ajkaestner

Ja, Du meinst den sog. #Gotteswahn und die #Memetik von Richard #Dawkins. Diese gelten aber als widerlegt, da religiöse Traditionen regelmäßig (auch) mit beobachtbaren Kooperations- & Reproduktionsvorteilen einhergehen. Kurzfilm über die #Evolutionsforschung zur #Religion: https://youtu.be/Iy9J9ddelVw

#Dawkins #pAkman

https://youtu.be/3vrv9Ns5wMo

An oldie but always a goodie

"What if you are wrong?"

https://youtube.com/shorts/JNpiYGPB5fs

#Religion #Atheism #Dawkins

@CelesteBancos

Re: The role of storytelling in development of abstract reasoning, and the power of Large Language Models to create stories:

While I hesitate to use terms like #AI, @harari_yuval has suggested that Large Language Models can speed up the creation of more complex #memes like stories.

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/04/28/yuval-noah-harari-argues-that-ai-has-hacked-the-operating-system-of-human-civilisation

There's a fantastically written chapter (ch 16) in Russell Barkely's manual of #ADHD (to be sure, the whole book is very well written, and I think covertly intended to be accessible to a lay reader) which, by necessity, explores very intelligently the seat of what we might consider as 'free will', and also the role of vicarious learning, such as we encounter by observing a character in a story, and learning from their experiences.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&tn=attention%20deficit%20hyperactivity%20disorder%20handbook%20diagnosis%20treatment&an=Russell%20barkley

I was always sad that #Dawkins, who I don't think is on/in the fediverse, never expounded more on the subject of memetics; I feel like it would give us great jargon with which to think about the role of storytelling in development!

#llm

The question of "god-belief" is already inherently biased toward religion. When someone asks you, "Do you believe in God," from an intellectual standpoint, it's like asking "When did you stop beating your significant other?"

There's no good response to the question. If you say you "don't believe," people get bent out of shape and start pestering you with nonsense like "how can you not believe--who made the universe, then?" or "no one knows what happens after you die" and "you can't prove that." Well, duh, the question was about *belief,* not proof. On the other hand if you say you *do* believe, most people take your belief at face value as your right under freedom of religion, and leave you alone.

So what's really being asked? Do you conform? Are you willing to submit to social proof? What group identity are you willing to embrace? It's a no-win situation. You either self-identify as a social pariah, you lie, or you face-plant intellectually.

Because the question assumes its own premise, that there's a God that can be "believed in" or "not believed in." Stripped down to its essentials the question is asking you to accept that this all-important thing, hinges on the opinions of human beings.

As George Carlin pointed out, no one has to ask if you believe in the Sun.

The better question about God is, "does it exist?" Well, what is "it?" Most people refuse to define their terms. Let's take a commonly accepted definition:

"God is a supreme being, a creator and ruler of the universe, who is believed to be transcendent, omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent."

This definition is absurd. Logically inconsistent and nonsensical for all the familiar reasons.

-Any creator of the universe must also have a creator, so "god" solves nothing.

-A "ruler" of the universe would mean that it's an undemocratic place. Hitchens' "celestial dictatorship" is the model for all Earthly dictatorships. Which are a horror show.

-Despite all the efforts dedicated to theodicy over the centuries, there's no way to reconcile the problem of evil with a benevolent God.

-Epicurus famous Trilemma: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

So, to sum up:

1) The question of god-belief is a nasty bit of social engineering to force you into a positive answer, with the implication that a negative response will be punished with exclusion.

2) The question of "god's" existence is logically absurd and meaningless, in addition to being unfalsifiable. Dismissed without regard or hesitation.

So "atheism" (as declared non-belief in god) only makes sense as a political reaction to the cultural hegemony of god-belief. Forget Dawkins' 7-point scale and all that jazz. Without "God" as the default position, atheism has no meaning.

This is why I self-identify as an *anti-theist.* Anti-theocracy. Because what's worth opposing with every gram of passion you can muster, are all the despicable things being done in "God's" name.

#atheism #antitheism #carlin #dawkins #epicurus #hitchens #theodicy #god #theocracy

#religion #belief #sin #god #skeptic #atheist #dawkins

In the 00s, the subgroup that rallied around the phrase #Islamofascist moved into something called New Atheism, where the heroes were, of course, Christopher #Hitchens and Richard #Dawkins. In the 10s, having exhausted the Middle Eastern enemy, this group went into “#rationalism” and libertarianism. And now, in the 20s, they seem to be moving into polycules, race science and effective altruism.
The wonder of it all.

To Richard #Dawkins, only his own discipline is equipped to address the big questions.

On “What is man?”, he opens The Selfish Gene by quoting (favorably) G. G. Simpson: “all attempts to answer that question before [Darwin] are worthless and [we] will be better off if we ignore them completely.”

1/2

Gerade beim Stöbern entdeckt: Der Youtube-Kanal „The Rabbi Sacks Legacy“ hat die Debatte zwischen Rabbi Sacks sel.A. und Richard Dawkins neu hochgeladen. Das war für mich damals der letzte Puzzlestein zu der Überzeugung, dass die sogenannten „neuen Atheisten“ auch nur eine christliche Konfession sind. Dawkins argumentiert gegen „Religion“, aber alle seine Argumente basieren auf der christlichen Lesart der Bibel.
#RabbiSacks #Dawkins #Atheismus

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ad3rVRdgbI

If I describe #memetics as a #pseudoscience (which it essentially is), does that mean I can describe #Dawkins as a pseudoscientist?

Commission^^
#101dalmatianstreet #101_dalmatian_street #Dawkins #cub

La religión es la raíz de todo el mal.
Religion is the root of all evil.
-Richard #Dawkins

@Martufliiss77 @donate62

#Dawkins: ‘#commonsense’ is a trait (an adaptation) favoured in an environment of medium sized objects (from pebbles to planets) & of speeds well inside the effects of #relativity. Hence, being still in the grip of common sense, advanced #science – eg. #quantum #entanglement – strikes many of us as absurd, making room for eg. #creationism, deep #scepticism about science. That hasn’t happened in philosophy. There’s been #stasis from the pre-Socratics until today. #Atoms #panpsychism #mind #life

Interesting research on #Dogs #Genetics #Behaviour

A lot of rubbish has been claimed about 'genetics'. I blame #Dawkins & his mythology of 'selfish genes'. Some stuff can be linked to genetics but more cannot.

That means treating genetics as one tool in a box of biological tools not the whole toolbox. An intellectual tool for understanding stuff. A technological tool for doing stuff - new medical treatments, new foods & other economic resources.

Life continues.

Have you actually read Dawkins' writing about the meme; the bit at the end of the Selfish Gene?

It's actually a bit rubbish and comes across like a quick afterthought.

Yet he invented a word we all use today ...

That boring, fascist will be remembered forever because of that.

#memes #Dawkins

#podcast #philosophie #darwin #franchecul
L’Origine des espèces de Darwin – série de podcasts à écouter – France Culture – https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/series/lorigine-des-especes-de-darwin
4 podcasts passionnants sur l'origine des espèces... Avec du Richard #dawkins (the selfish gene) dans l'ep 4...
Passionnant !

I'd ask what a noble mind is here o'erthrown, but I'm starting to question if it was ever noble in the first place.

#Dawkins #RichardDawkins #badtakemachine