Richard Dawkins worth checking out?

[Mithrandir]

I was reading an article  - http://www.christianfaith.com.au/resources/dawkins-fails-to-convince-flew-of-evolution -  about Anthony Flew (former Atheist-in-chief turned theist, one of the featured debaters in the famous "Does God Exist" series of debates in the 1980s, who towards the end of his recently ended life turned into some sort of a theiest),and realized I don't know anything about Dawkins work, aside from random comments made by trendy atheists who suddenly have reached "enlightenment" after reading his book(s).

I would appreciate some insight into what members here think about Dawkins' work, whether it is worth checking out, and possibly a guide as to how I should approach it as a Buddhist (nevermind the Buddhism, how anyone should approach it is what I mean), as well as its relation to the ANUSian viewpoint.

[Cargést]

As far as I can remember, he seems to believe that modern Scientific understanding refutes any and all notions of God.  It doesn't, so he's wrong on that one.  As far as his material is concerned in other respects, I don't really think it's anything that should truly excite the interests of dwellers of the ANUS.

[JewishPhysics]

Richard Dawkins is a brilliant biologist, not so great at philosophy, politics, or any other field really.

[Conservationist]

"The Selfish Gene" was a good book.

I think the crusade for atheist is in fact a march to death... if nothing else, ignore religion and focus on truth. Making religion "what's on the menu" is a sidestep.

[Antihuman]

Atheistic fundamentalism is at least as dangerous as religious fundamentalism.  The guy seems to do little more than boistrously assert the superiority of his own 'beliefs', as they boil down to.

[radiant=ANIME WITCHES]

Despite his atheist evangelizing, Richard Dawkins is a Christian and espouses a thoroughly Christian morality. Pass.

[Nimbostratus]

This

The Selfish Gene, great book, avoid anything else.

[scourge]

A side note

While the Olympics held sacred import for the Greeks of the classical era, they have been recast through modernity as a pseudo-festival, a celebration of ultimately nothing. In his work In Tune with the World, the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper saw that man's rejection of God leads to a frenzy of meaninglessness in a vain attempt to escape the terror of death.

For the mad dash to meaninglessness, contemporary Britain wins the gold. In the run-up to hosting the 2012 Olympics, London has just raised the curtain on its mascots for the summer games. While they're supposed to "chime" with children, these creatures are more likely to induce a fresh round of psychological disorders in the rising generation. Forget clowns; let's all welcome the new stars of kids' most fevered nightmares.

Aside from these concerns, the new representatives of the games neatly encapsulate the U.K.'s transformation into an alien, postmodern dystopia. It's particularly noteworthy how these entities came into being- by committee. "Wenlock" and "Mandeville" (named after the respective founding-places of the British Olympics and Paralympics) are the product of 40 focus groups over the span of 18 months, a fact that presupposes additional layers of administrators and experts guiding the entire unholy enterprise. Any individual creativity or artistic inspiration was thus quashed by the processes of the managerial regime.

http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/the-uk-s-dystopian-olympics/

Exhibit A http://nationalpostsports.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mascot2.jpg
Exhibit B http://www.friesian.com/images/neoplato.gif

[Antihuman]

Dawkins writing is popular fiction, really.

Despite his atheist evangelizing, Richard Dawkins is a Christian and espouses a thoroughly Christian morality. Pass.

Agreed!

http://blogimages.project76.tv/h9ACYG_atheist_bus.jpg

Look at him uplifting troubled spirits!  No God is the nu-God.

[Trauco]

Whatever Hawkins may think, man can't do away with metaphysics. Modern science should see the evidence of it in their "big bang" theory, which is purely trascendental, and reeks of religiosity.

(EDIT: hell, now that I think about it, even the title of Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time" is metaphysical and trascendental as well! What really are these scientific eggheads trying to say, I wonder?)

But, apart from Richard and his ilk, I think that what modern atheism is doing is not throwing away religion per se, but slowly growing from the idea of jewish theism that is so intimate with christianity - which is precisely what Nietzsche did, and the reason he is so popular a philosopher nowadays. Whatever one may think of the West, it's a fact that the increase in education and wealth starting from the Enlightenment were pivotal on its maturing from religious dogmatism, and intelligent people everywhere are seeing the ideas of trascendental materialism (i.e. a literal afterlife) and of the personal, transcosmic deity for the ridiculous jewish notions that they are.

Now, all that remains is doing away with the remnants of materialism and rationalism, and turn trascendental idealism into something palatable for the 10% of non-idiotic population. Oh...and stop worrying and enjoy life.

[Trauco]

Atheistic fundamentalism is at least as dangerous as religious fundamentalism.  

I agree, but only if we see "atheism" as the banner for materialism, rationalism and humanism (i.e. judaism). On the contrary, a-THEISM, or more precisely, anti-jewish theism, should be very welcome. In the latter sense, I'm definitely an atheist.

[JewishPhysics]

Modern science should see the evidence of it in their "big bang" theory, which is purely trascendental, and reeks of religiosity.

There is nothing about the Big Bang Theory that is transcendental, despite what some people infer from it, and any religiousity that one associates with it is entirely the result of projection.

[N0thing]

Dawkins seems as stupid any anyone who follows anything else blindly, except he does it for "atheism". In reality, Dawkins and other atheists (same shit heads as humanist theists) are just anti-theists.

[Antihuman]

It really is the blind faith that is the problem, and Dawkins does suffer the same problems in this regard as many Christians.  They share at least the assumption that we can know certain things that simply lie outside our realm of knowledge.  Big bang or Garden of Eden... were you there to see either?  And yet you base your understanding of everything outside yourself around various texts upholding either theory and use them as the basis for their arguments.

A brief history of 'God':

Man writes myth to explain his predicament; 'God' is used as a descriptor of a collection of universal principles experienced and observed, personified to ease communication and understanding.  This tradition grows, 'God', the term, absorbs many attributes granted by man's mythologizing, eventually becoming detached from the world it attempted to descibe.  Thus, belief rather than understanding.  One must have faith in the fact/ possibility that there is a God, without actually knowing what this attempts to describe.  This tradition grows with time, and as the term 'God' becomes ancient, the faith aspect is magnified... now faith is all that remains.

thus, Dawkinsist atheism, which argues against an aberration of reality by playing the same game.  He argues against a misunderstanding as if it were the only understanding. He has nothing to offer anyone who has read Schopenhauer or Nietzsche.

[Arctic Sun]

Does Dawkins touch on the idea that organized religions persist because of their role as a mechanism of social cohesiveness?  That notion in tandem with the personal ramifications of some religions (e.g. maintain hygiene) broaches the question of HOW (natural selection) and WHY (it works).

In the cases it doesn't work in the way that simple outline exists it seems the cultures gradually sink into mob rule, and then disappear because there's no agent to hold it together.

That said, I've come to believe that ardent atheists and religious types (assuredly any flavor of Christianity) completely miss the point in running their mouths to disinterested strangers about accepting Christ, denying the figure, feeling helpless, squirming for any idiot to do whatever he feels like, ect.