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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Daniel Dennett on Belief
This video was posted at the Secular Philosophy blog. He riffs on the belief in God, as opposed to the actual reality of God.
There are a whole series of other speakers from the "Atheism Tapes" contained in this video compilation.
It's a little sad that the atheist refutation of spirituality still centers on (1) the Christian conception of God and (2) a horribly arcane, primitive conception of God. There's a mountain of difference between Pat Robertson and Matthew Fox.
(I mean Matthew Fox the priest, not the guy from LOST. Although I don't think he has much in common with Pat, either.)
I watched this whole series last year...interesting.
I agree with Jay, that it is curious to me that Dennett believes he rejecting such a bizarre cartoon concept of god. And I find it funny that he thinks he hasn't met very many people who actually believe in god.
I think that is weird because I find there are a lot of people, expecially in the U.S. who believe in god...almost everyone.
Denett's treatment of the idea of god and of god...he is an unsophisticated atheist. I've met some really intellectual and intense atheists...and they give a person a real good work out. They dn't treat the enterprise smugly with Santa references. I remember a good definition of an atheist being a person who found out there wasn't a Santa and was bitter about it for the rest of their lives...so I laugh when Dennet refers to Santa.
I also find it interesting that so many atheists adopt"dogmas" when they reject the stereotypical dogmas associated with major religions...yet they are the first to show case atheist dogmas in discussions.
Again, the human mind and ego is interesting because of its compulsions and another of those compulsions is "polarity"..making all arguments extreme rather than a series of nuances or details.
It's a little sad that the atheist refutation of spirituality still centers on (1) the Christian conception of God and (2) a horribly arcane, primitive conception of God. There's a mountain of difference between Pat Robertson and Matthew Fox.
ReplyDelete(I mean Matthew Fox the priest, not the guy from LOST. Although I don't think he has much in common with Pat, either.)
I watched this whole series last year...interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jay, that it is curious to me that Dennett believes he rejecting such a bizarre cartoon concept of god.
And I find it funny that he thinks he hasn't met very many people who actually believe in god.
I think that is weird because I find there are a lot of people, expecially in the U.S. who believe in god...almost everyone.
Denett's treatment of the idea of god and of god...he is an unsophisticated atheist. I've met some really intellectual and intense atheists...and they give a person a real good work out. They dn't treat the enterprise smugly with Santa references. I remember a good definition of an atheist being a person who found out there wasn't a Santa and was bitter about it for the rest of their lives...so I laugh when Dennet refers to Santa.
I also find it interesting that so many atheists adopt"dogmas" when they reject the stereotypical dogmas associated with major religions...yet they are the first to show case atheist dogmas in discussions.
Again, the human mind and ego is interesting because of its compulsions and another of those compulsions is "polarity"..making all arguments extreme rather than a series of nuances or details.