Richard Dawkins is following me on Twitter
This is pretty surreal to me and I hate to say it but I’m a bit starstruck.
[ok update] I’ve been had, it wasn’t the real one after all! Ah Internet you never disappoint. *lol*
For those of you who haven’t heard of him (seriously?!), he’s the author of The God Delusion, which has been a massive bestseller and argues that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. Which is exactly how I think myself.
Yet I didn’t like him. Well I think what I didn’t like was all the people that read his book and then turned into fervent followers of his. And this whole Richard Dawkins mania (well, among certain people). And all these newly militant atheists that seemed to be creeping out of the woodwork, often becoming just as fundamentalistic as their religious counterparts, and giving atheists a bad name.
And I seriously didn’t like people going “read Richard Dawkins!” at me (I had an argument with Seb about this) because why should I? I don’t need convincing that there is no God. I also don’t need arguments to convince theists because
1. I’ve learned to tolerate theists as long as they leave me be and
2. with the kind that don’t leave me be I know it’s pointless to argue.
Hence I didn’t like him. And then I got a “Dr Richard Dawkins is now following you on Twitter” email. :)) At first of course I thought it wasn’t the real one, I mean come on, this is the Internet! But it is, and he seems to have decided to try Twitter, and some assistant of his added 50 people, and because it says “atheist” in my profile, I happened to be one of them. Actually I’d like to point out *starstruck* that I was No.18. 😀 :))
Aaand he actually sounds like a nice guy (from his updates so far) so I’ve now decided to like him. 😀 (tho I still don’t like his militant followers lol. But he ain’t following you suckahs! :)) )
Oh and since we’re on Atheism and I am listening to Jacques Brel I’d like to quote this amazing song of his:
Dites, dites, si c’était vrai
S’il était né vraiment à Bethléem, dans une étable
Dites, si c’était vrai
Si les rois Mages étaient vraiment venus de loin, de fort loin
Pour lui porter l’or, la myrrhe, l’encens
Dites, si c’était vrai
Si c’était vrai tout ce qu’ils ont écrit Luc, Matthieu
Et les deux autres,
Dites, si c’était vrai
Si c’était vrai le coup des Noces de Cana
Et le coup de Lazare
Dites, si c’était vrai
Si c’était vrai ce qu’ils racontent les petits enfants
Le soir avant d’aller dormir
Vous savez bien, quand ils disent Notre Père, quand ils disent Notre Mère
Si c’était vrai tout cela
Je dirais oui
Oh, sûrement je dirais oui
Parce que c’est tellement beau tout cela
Quand on croit que c’est vrai.
(youtube vid with kinda ok subtitles here – and may I also recommend the brilliant Grand Jacques)
Jacques Brel and Douglas Adams – my two most admired atheists. =P~
And my dad of course. 🙁 😡
May they Rest In Peace. =))
You could argue that nobody really needs this book: Atheists are already convinced that there’s no god and religious people are convinced that there is one (or more) and won’t change their mind. But people always need someone to tell them that what they already think is right: Those who believe in a supernatural power need religion, and those who don’t need Richard Dawkins. (And some are also desperate for someone to tell them what to think and what to do – but those are the worst, aren’t they?)
Anyway, the only true God is Bugs Bunny because I want him to be. q.e.d.
Aye. I don’t understand what people get out of reading the book. Maybe I’d have to read it myself to understand but… why waste a few hours of my life going “mhm, exactly right, so true…” when I could spend them reading a fascinating novel?
Being a militant atheist is just not much fun really. Tho getting worked up about the stupidity of theists can be. :wh
“In meinem Fall gehört alles Lesen zu meinen Erholungen: folglich zu dem, was mich von mir losmacht, was mich in fremden Wissenschaften und Seelen spazieren gehn lässt, – was ich nicht mehr ernst nehme. Lesen erholt mich eben von meinem Ernste. In tief arbeitsamen Zeiten sieht man keine Bücher bei mir: ich würde mich hüten, jemanden in meiner Nähe reden oder gar denken zu lassen. Und das hieße ja lesen …”
“”Der Gelehrte, der im Grunde nur noch Bücher “wälzt” – der Philologe mit mäßigem Ansatz des Tags ungefähr 200 – verliert zuletzt ganz und gar das Vermögen, von sich aus zu denken.”
“Der Gelehrte giebt seine ganze Kraft im Ja und Neinsagen, in der Kritik von bereits Gedachtem ab, – er selber denkt nicht mehr …”
On religion:
“Eigentliche religiöse Schwierigkeiten zum Beispiel kenne ich nicht aus Erfahrung.
Es ist mir gänzlich entgangen, in wiefern ich ‘sündhaft’ sein sollte.”
“Gott ist eine faustgrobe Antwort, eine Undelikatesse gegen uns Denker -, im
Grunde sogar bloß ein faustgrobes Verbot an uns: ihr sollt nicht denken!”
“Ich selbst habe irgendwo gesagt: was war der größte Einwand gegen das Dasein bisher? Gott…”
Sorry, had to do that. Nietzsche rules. ^:)^
“And all these newly militant atheists that seemed to be creeping out of the woodwork, often becoming just as fundamentalistic as their religious counterparts, and giving atheists a bad name.”
You said it.
That is why I refer to Richard Dawkins and his ilk as “fundamentalist atheists”. . .