This thread is for discussing Chapter 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION 
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Ch. 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION
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 Chris OConnor |
Ch. 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION |
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Indisputable BookTalk Master
Posts: 9511 12/24/06 21:25:19 BookTalk Owner |
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ginof |
Re: Ch. 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION | #1 | ||
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Posts: 207 03/03/07 02:12:23 Ph.D. |
i thought of another explanations for the 'anting' behavior discussed on p 164/5:
Anting HAD a purpose but no longer does. we don't find its purpose now because it's impossible. However, the behavior still exists because the 'mutation' to stop doing it has not yet occurred. I don't think this in any way takes away from the argument for natural selection |
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edwin |
Re: Ch. 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION | #2 | ||
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Posts: 1 07/17/07 14:44:35 |
I have enjoyed reading the book up to this chapter, where I begin to loose momentum.
In particular, I feel a bit uncomfortable when Dawkins comes up with the idea that religion is a by-product of evolution, and thus undermining the power of evolution for those who believe in it. (I myself is NOT a believer of evolution). I think he himself also finds his point weak. This is why he spends a lot of pages trying to explain his idea. He even comes up with an experiment that has never been carried out. But he presumes the outcomes anyway. Here is my doubt. If you are a real evolutionist, everything that survives a long period must be useful in some sense. Either we can explain its function or we cannot. We cannot just praise those that we like, and for the rest we label them as by-products, or useless pieces that are just lying there for no reason (i.e., by chance). I think it is alright for the believers of evolution to admit that religion has its usefulness in the evolution of human kind. Whether it is a 'delusion' or not is not the point here. |
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Chris OConnor |
Re: Ch. 5 - THE ROOTS OF RELIGION | #3 | ||
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Indisputable BookTalk Master
Posts: 9511 07/20/07 12:53:49 BookTalk Owner |
Religion is useful as a tool for quenching man's thirst for knowledge and answers. Religion doesn't provide valid answers, but it takes away the pain of not knowing. And for some people this is enough.
There are those of us that would rather have a gap in our knowledge or understanding than accept a myth that makes us feel warm and fuzzy. Religion is an opiate and nothing more. There are far better tools for investigating and discovering how our world operates and how best we should live our lives, but the tools I refer to are more difficult to wield than blind faith. This is why there are so many more believers than critical thinkers. |
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- Member Introductions & Journals
- BookTalk News & Development
- Religion, Philosophy & the Arts
- Politics, Current Events & History
- Science, Nature & Technology
- General Discussion & Miscellaneous Topics
- Book Suggestions, Polls, & Reviews
- Additional Book Discussions
- Godless in America: Conversations With an Atheist - by George A. Ricker
- Interventions - by Noam Chomsky
- Religious Expression and the American Constitution - by Franklyn S. Haiman
- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future - by Bill McKibben
- The God Delusion - by Richard Dawkins
- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal - by Jared Diamond
- The Woman in the Dunes - by Abe Kobo
- Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction - by Eugenie Scott
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - by Michael Pollan
- I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 - by Robert Graves
- Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - by Daniel Dennett
- A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East - by David Fromkin
- The Time Traveler's Wife - by Audrey Niffenegger
- The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - by Sam Harris
- Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - by Mark Haddon
- Value & Virtue in a Godless Universe - by Erik J. Wielenberg
- The March: A Novel - by E.L. Doctorow
- The Ethical Brain - by Michael Gazzaniga
- Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - by Susan Jacoby
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - by Jared Diamond
- The Battle for God - by Karen Armstrong
- The Future of Life - by Edward O. Wilson
- What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live - by A.C. Grayling
- Civilization and It's Enemies: The Next Stage of History - by Lee Harris
- Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space - by Carl Sagan
- How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God - by Michael Shermer
- Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain - by Antonio Damasio
- Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right - by Al Franken
- The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - by Matt Ridley
- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature - by Stephen Pinker
- Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder - by Richard Dawkins
- Atheism: A Reader - edited by S. T. Joshi
- Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century - by Howard Bloom
- The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History - by Howard Bloom
- Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - by Jared Diamond
- Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark - by Carl Sagan
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - by Dee Alexander Brown
- Future Shock - by Alvin Toffler
