| Dawkins' "The God Delusion" |
[19 Mar 2007|12:42am] |
Dan Simmons is an author I greatly respect, not only for his fiction but also for his essays. (Here would be as good a place to start as any. Fascinating speculation about Shakespeare and his talent.)
Anyway, I just started looking through his forums, and I've discovered that he has attracted a group of really sharp thinkers. Specifically, I've been reading a forum thread on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Not that there is a general consensus, but there are many there who profess atheism but dislike Dawkins, a noted atheist. They say they dislike him for the same reason they dislike fundamentalist Christians: the arrogance. The militant, "I'm right and everybody else is wrong!" arrogance. User "jmill" expresses the idea well:
Dawkins isn't just an atheist, he's an Atheist, approaching his belief with as much vim and vigor as any religious fundamentalist. He exhibits the same classic mania that an Islamic or Judaic or Christian fundamentalist does: how can anyone be so stupid (the Atheist's equivalent of sinful) as to believe in God or practice religion? It's just a Bizzarro world version of another religion, and it's as pointless and wrong as any fundamentalist condemning people to hell for not believing. He has a political agenda ("I must destroy religion!"), and it's as hopeless as it is transparent. He might as well try and convince people that eating food is wrong, he'd get about as far.
Dawkins and others are arguing with the same weapons and ammunition as the fundametnalists, only they've turned the gun around backwards. It's the equivalent of arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, because Dawkins can no more prove his case than can a fundamentalist. I think Dawkins is about selling books more than anything else, because he's not going to convince a believer there is no God any more than a believer is going to convince him and other Atheists that there is one. It's just one more shrill voice screaming into the already-deafening cacophony of belief peddlers.
Has anybody read The God Delusion? If so, what do you think about it, and what do you think about these claims? I was thinking of reading it, but now I'm not so sure it will be worth my time. Your thoughts?
As a side note, can those of us who espouse tolerance tolerate Dawkins' polemicism? To quote the May, 2006 letter from Dan: "In Kaplan’s Warrior Politics, it is not ruthlessness that is being sought after, but the pagan virtues of clear-seeing…of seeing that good and evil are usually false dichotomies and that continued passive tolerance of intolerance equals intolerance, if not actual self-defeat." Does Dawkins represent intolerance?
Sound off. ;-)
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| San Diego - Vacation Time |
[19 Mar 2007|01:14am] |
The workshop was over Wednesday afternoon. Matt, my friend from U of A who now works in San Diego, picked me up from the hotel. I dropped my stuff off at his place, then we went out to eat at Islands restaurant, where I had a very tasty burger. We went from there to downtown San Diego, called the Gaslamp district, to meet up with Teemu, Wolfgang, Alessio, and Daniel. It was a pain to hear from them (I couldn't call Teemu since his number is international, so he had to call me), and it was a pain to find parking downtown, but eventually we met them at the cramped bar of a Brazilian restaurant.
Downtown San Diego is pretty cool. There are bars and restaurants everywhere, stretching for many blocks in all directions. We had a really great time hanging out one last time before everybody went their separate ways. I realized I'd actually miss those guys, even though I had only met them a couple days earlier. Crazy. I think Matt had a great time meeting and hanging out with them, too.
Thursday, Matt worked, but he was kind enough to lend me the keys to his Jeep Wrangler. I drove it up to La Jolla (~20 minutes up I-5), because Alessio told me I had left a binder in my room. On the way back, I stopped at Crown Books and found some dirt-cheap ($5!) hardcover books. I bought 2 copies each of "Ilium" and "Olympos" by Dan Simmons--one for me, and one to thank Matt for letting me crash at his place. I still can't believe I found them that cheap!
Thursday night, Matt took me to Lefty's, a hole-in-the-wall Chicago-style pizzeria. It was delicious, just like he said it would be. After being stuffed by just 2 slices, we walked down the street to the Bluefoot Bar. They had the NCAA basketball tournament on, and I got to catch a few minutes of UNC's first-round win vs. Eastern Kentucky. Go Tarheels!
Friday, Matt and his good buddy Eric were off work. They work 9 hour days so that they can take alternate Fridays off. We had some tasty breakfast at Maria's Diner. That place was straight out of the 50's.
Friday afternoon was the highlight of my trip. I got to go surfing! We rented a board and wetsuit for only $10 from the naval base (where Matt and Eric work), and then drove up to Del Mar. The waves weren't too big, but they were mostly big enough that I could have ridden them--if I was any good! Paddling out there and then paddling forward to catch a wave plumb wore out my puny shoulders! I did manage to ride one wave on my knees for a few seconds, but then the front of the board caught under the water and I was kicked forward to let the wave have its way with me. But dude! I surfed! I wish I had pictures to share with you, but I don't.
Friday night, we were famished from surfing. Matt and Eric took me to Baja Betty's for Mexican food. It was in the Hillcrest district, which is apparently the gay district of San Diego. Hillcrest ain't got nothing on San Francisco's Castro district, though! While at Baja Betty's, we saw a group of 4 sequinned girls walk in. They soon started doing some serious Irish dancing. It was impressive! They were hitting like 32nd beats in there--all synchronized! And their tightly curled hair was really bouncy.
Eric was tired and went home after that, but Matt and I stayed up and watched Jackass: Number 2 at his place. Saturday morning, I woke up, we went to the airport, and I came home. (Well, the trip home wasn't nearly that simple, but that deserves its own blog post...)
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| San Diego to NC |
[19 Mar 2007|01:43am] |
Some of the workshop attendees complained about US Airways messing up their plans. One guy from Texas came a day late because of them. Now I have my own US Airways story.
( Why you shouldn't fly US Airways... )
Today, I went to pick up Russ from the airport, and got there an hour and a half early to hunt for my bag. I didn't find it. (There were at least a hundred bags on the ground there.) So I waited in line again. It was about the same length. I talked with some interesting people. One, Heather from Albany, NY, is a voiceover actor. She was in town to train people on voiceover acting. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, I finally get to talk to somebody, and they tell me that they can't put a claim in the database for me because it's been over 4 hours since my arrival. Have any of you ever heard of this rule? I wonder if it's just US Airways. The lady took my phone number down and said she'd call me if it turned up. I'm none too thrilled about it, but there's not much I can do, apparently. I'll try calling their general customer service line tomorrow. (I had done that today, but I got disconnected waiting for a representative. Others in line said they had the same experience.) Ah well, at least there were only dirty clothes in there. And my Bible. And my jacket. And my dress shoes and belt. And my books. And if you're wondering why I'm smelly/unkempt/unshaven, it's because my deoderant/comb/electric razor was in there too. :-/ Maybe this time I'll succeed in growing a scraggly beard. ;-)
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