fundamentalism=the stagnation of the mind and the deadening of spirit.
from GRITtv:
In Max Blumenthal’s book Republican Gomorrah and in his GRITtv appearance, he introduced us to Francis Schaeffer, one of the important figures in the anti-choice and religious right movements in the United States. Frank Schaeffer, Francis’s son, wrote a book about growing up in the religious right, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.
Schaeffer has a new book now, Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), and in it he takes on both the “incipient fascism” of the religious right and what he called “proselytizing” atheism of Richard Dawkins and others. He joins Laura on GRITtv for a fascinating interview about his own journey, and how people, religious or irreligious, are all looking for answers to the same questions.
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gwiz665Well, it is indeed a false comparison. One is evidently false, one is not. The tone of the conversation is harsh, because we're sick of it. I, for one, am tired of religious people holding back the human race, by keeping themselves and people around them stupid and ignorant. We, non-religious people, try our damndest to get people thinking for themselves, they have to be critical of everything, even other atheists, of course. There are no sacred texts, even if you can have, for lack of a better word, faith that something is true, such as evolution, gravity and so on, based on what others have investigated and presented. Optimally, everyone would check out any given hypotheses themselves, but we only have that much time, we don't want to make triple-blind tests of everything ourselves, so we take it on "faith" instead.
If contrary evidence arises, or someone argues against something we've taken on faith, then we look further into the subject - religious people do not. This is what keeps them ignorant and this is bad for us all.
I think he draws in some irrelevant facts, Hitchens supporting Bush, Harris quote out of context ("some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them").
The argument against his long end comment about his daughter and "salvation is a journey" is covered very well by Dr. Greg House:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Dr-House-on-Religion-016
rougyThat was good. I especially liked when he said "call the lie a lie" or something like that.
And he's right. They are dangerous in a very real way.
Avokineoksays...I like his honesty. Also the fact he comes from the religious right. And also the fact that he finally attacks Hitchens and Harris, it makes me doubt my strong believes in what they have been saying.. Doubt is good. Thanks
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