I can’t yet speak about this book, because my review copy is presently on what passes as Australia’s international mail service, which involves yaks hiking across the Himalayas and then taking the parcels via the Silk Road to Beijing, where they will be brought to northern Australia by junks, and then carried across the desert by camel, some actually being led by camel herders, to a hole in the ground, under a rock, where we are expected to go looking for it if we happen to intuit this whole system. [No, I'm not annoyed. Why do you ask?]
But I do like Josh Rosenau’s post on the criticisms it has received. As he notes, it is no disservice to education to repeat what, among others, Darwin said:
Moreover though I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds, which follows from the advance of science.
That’s Darwin, not Mooney and Kirshenbaum, by the way. The summary is: to promote science, teach science. Seems reasonable. When I get my copy from the jaws of the rabid dingo that has dug it up and tried to eat it, I will approach it directly and not in the context of the present blogwar.
Veronica, sometimes one just makes a joke. While eating lunch with my husband and mother today, I remarked, referring to his sandwich choice, that the combination of cheese and pastrami is an offense against god. My husband replied, “You’re an atheist. You don’t believe that.” I said that nevertheless, I stood by my assertion.
Figure of speech. My use of such did not in any way encourage believers, if they happened to overhear me, to continue their magical thinking nor would anyone cease to follow their chosen faith should I refrain from making such comments.
Susan
Thank you for explaining what I already know.
Your casual comment about “cheese and pastrami” is exactly what I am objecting to. I don’t think that your comment would “encourage believers . . . to continue their magical thinking. I do think atheists should stop using religious language in comments and conversations to show that atheists have a view of the world that is different than the Judaeo-Christian view of the world.
“Religion Poisons Everything” even language.
Veronica, from some of your comments you appear to have some sort of connection to literature and language and that being the case it should be obvious to you that your demand for a language for atheists purged of all religious references would make it virtually impossible to continue to speak English. No more ‘goodbye’ no more ‘holiday’ for me as Englishman no more ‘bloody hell’, unthinkable, I could go on but I think you should have got my drift by now. Language evolves naturally all attempts to purge it of ‘undesirable’ words can only end in disaster.
I wish you Godspeed on your journey through the intertubes.
Yup. I think the French and Gaelic speakers attempt to purge English words from the laguage is an example of a doomed attempt at this sort of thing.
But then when I see the early medieval period refered to as the dark ages and then further described as some backwater of human stupidity and religious nonsense I get all P.C myself and start blowing flames.
So I am somewhat hypocritical on this issue.
But in this case droping the name dark ages has not changed popular imagination with regard to this key period in the development of Western culture.
Thony C. and Jeb
Did you read my comment or just react to my comment. I did not say that I want “a language for atheists purged of all religious references.” I said that atheists “should stop using religious language in comments and conversations to show that atheists have a view of the world that is different than the Judaeo-Christian view of the world.” “Goodbye’ and ‘holiday’ regardless or their origin are fairly neutral words and have denotative meanings that are not explicitly religious.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/holiday?view=uk
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/goodbye?view=uk
Yes, I have “some sort of connection” to literature and language and I am aware that “[l]anguage evolves naturally”; however, I would like atheists to help speed up the “evolution of language ” by purging words and expressions like “god”, “god bless” and “godspeed.”
Yes I read it. Ive stopped using words like for christ sake and god myself in every day speech without really thinking about it to much. But if I was told it’s not acceptable to use such words, I think I would use them more often.
Its a trait that comes from a mis-spent youth listining to punk rock and rebelling against any form of authority. Ive never managed to grow up fully in this regard.
I would respectfully disagree with youre comment.
I am not about to tell my kids Christmass is no longer celebrated in the house.
I also don’t think impositions like this are very popular with the wider public. Bad P.R. I think.
I may be wrong but it’s my honest opinion on the subject.
John,
no escaping from the godlycoddlers and their bookselling campaign these days…:-)
And the misrepresenting and strawmanning is strong in the godlycoddlers,too.