I had thought just to leave this image up and allow all of you to do the Googling as to who these gentleman are, and why what they have written is of such value to free thinking people everywhere.
However I thought better of it, and decided to provide a starting off point.
So to learn more about Richard Dawkins, just click here.
For the inside scoop on Sam Harris, this is where you want to go.
And for information on Daniel C. Dennet you can visit his home page here.
If you are not already overwhelmed by the incredible wealth of information that you will be exposed to, and wish to learn more about the fourth horseman who so recently shuffled off this mortal coil, you can watch the brilliant Christoper Hitchens take on former Prime Minister Tony Blair concerning the question of whether or not religion is a force for good in the world by clicking here.
I will warn you ahead of time that these are VERY intelligent men, making VERY intelligent arguments. So if you wish to continue forward with your religious beliefs, and with your certainty firmly in place, you might wish to avoid these men, and their arguments which challenge religion, like the plague.
For what it's worth, this blog, a radio book talk with Dawkins (God is Not Great) and then watching lots of U-Tube videos with, what my spouse calls, "my four high priests", I evolved. I was raised Calvinist and am now, for lack of a better term, an "atheist". (I'm not sure if I'm a "bright":)). What is happening in the US with the power of mindless religion over science and fact as showcased by Sarah Palin has taught me that "Christian person" is not a synonym of "good person".
ReplyDeleteThanks Gryph. I know about Dawkins, and I read the transcript for the Blair/Hitchens "debate" a while back. Blair didn't have a chance in hell. I will look up the other guys because I don't know them. As an atheist who finds it stressful to talk religion with religious people or even agnostics, I usually just avoid anything to do with any of it, but I would probably find it soothing to read good sense from these really smart people.
ReplyDeleteHitchens is one of my heros! He set me on a path to reason over religion! He will be sorely missed!
ReplyDeleteBelief in God is like the Zombie lies that Fox and Fiends continue to promote and the other networks continue to ignore. It does no good to disprove any of them because the believers won't accept anything the runs contrary to their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI will take time to read about these learned gentlemen (why are there so few learned women, by the way?) but I was just browsing the Parade magazine in our Sunday paper and saw this (there is a photo in the mag, but I couldn't find it online.)
ReplyDeletePersonalities of 2011
1. Lady Gaga
2. Charlie Sheen
3. Oprah Winfrey
4. Jennifer Lopez
5. Steven Tyler
6. Donald Trump
7. Rory McIlroy
8. Daniel Radcliffe
9. Kim Kardashian
10. Herman Cain
11. Albert Pujols
12. Prince William
13. Kate Middleton
14. Adele
15. Kristen Stewart
16. Robert Pattinson
17. Barack Obama
18. John Boehner
19. Mitt Romney
Notice anyone missing from this list? And this is from all of 2011...no Sarah, no Bachmann, no Perry...nope, we're just not that into you, Tea Party. And Sarah, make sure the children are not in the way when you start throwing things.
Oh, and the numbers are deceptive...in the photo, President Obama is right up front, with Romney behind and Boehner crying behind him.
Priceless.
Jesus Politely Requests Tim Tebow ‘Take It Down A Notch’ On SNL
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/tv/jesus-politely-requests-tim-tebow-take-it-down-a-notch-on-snl/
Once again, the boys dominate. Not surprising in a male-centric world.
ReplyDeleteHere's a list of various female atheists, some you might know, others might be obscure or unknown (at least to me they were): http://www.blaghag.com/2010/01/large-list-of-awesome-female-atheists.html
Unless you can find them on the internet, the boys crowd out the women as far as publicity is concerned. Maybe it's that famous male ego. Even though everyone knows that if not for women, there would be no men at all. This is what men fear most--that rather than kill off female babies, women with power will do the opposite while storing up male sperm. Thus, we have the rightwing male dominated freaks trying to outlaw abortion, birth control, etc. and keep women in thrall and slavery both to them and to the male godhead which was made in their image.
Religion, to me, is like choosing a decorating stye for your house. Do you like art deco, modern, feng shwa? Who cares? It's a method, and it brings order and delight into your life, especially in different seasons. I take what makes me happy. Atheism doesn't have an anchor for me.
ReplyDeleteYou are incorrect this time, Gryphen. There is NO SUCH THING as SKEPTIC for an occupation. Daniel Dennett is a philosopher.
ReplyDeleteHe holds an endowed chair in philosophy at Tufts University. His B.a. is in philosophy (Harvard) and his PhD form in philosophy from Oxford.
Please change that and give the man and his field their due. respect.
Christopher Hitchens’ Final Interview: Catholic Church, Christian Charities, And Totalitarianism
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/online/christopher-hitchens-final-interview-catholic-church-christian-charities-and-totalitarianism/
I heard a radio broadcast yesterday from an organization called Freedom from Religion. They were really articulate. Know this group?
ReplyDeleteSimon Schama on How His Friend Christopher Hitchens Said Goodbye
ReplyDeleteChristopher Hitchens confronted death with the same furious bravura that he deployed against purveyors of unreasoned pieties. Plus, more on Hitchens: his greatest writings, best zingers, and photos through the years.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/18/simon-schama-on-how-his-friend-christopher-hitchens-said-goodbye.html
Hitchens speaks:
ReplyDeleteON HYPOCRITES
“Nothing optional—from homosexuality to adultery—is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishment) have a repressed desire to participate.”
—God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007
ON RELIGION
“ To ‘choose’ dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.”
—God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007
ON SARAH PALIN
“She's got no charisma of any kind [but] I can imagine her being mildly useful to a low-rank porn director.”
—The Leonard Lopate Show, June 2010
ON CATS & DOGS
“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are god.”
—The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer, 2007
ON GEORGE W. BUSH
“[George W. Bush] is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things.”
—Hardball with Chris Matthews, 2000
ON THE AMERICAN LEFT
“One of the many problems with the American left, and indeed of the American left, has been its image and self-image as something rather too solemn, mirthless, herbivorous, dull, monochrome, righteous, and boring.”
—Frontpagemag.com, 2004
ON NEWSPAPERS
“Only the aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers.”
—C-SPAN, March 1988
ON MICHAEL MOORE
“The laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious, and ignorant and so on. And they’ve taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities,”
—MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, May 2004
ON RACE IN AMERICA
“In this country, it seems that you can always get an argument going about ‘race’ as long as it is guaranteed to be phony, but never when it is real.”
—Slate, January 2008
Christopher Hitchens: His Best Writing, Photos, and More
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-dies-his-best-writing-photos-and-more.html?obref=obinsite
Man-made or man-manipulated religions have done a great deal of harm to this world. However, people who truly believe in and/or follow the teachings of Christ (and others, I'm sure) have done and continue to do a great deal of good.
ReplyDeleteStephen Fry & friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens - IQ2 talks
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taOBFURZvcA&feature=
In November 2011, just five weeks before Christopher Hitchens died, Stephen Fry and other friends came together to celebrate the life and work of this great writer, iconoclast and debater. Fry was joined on stage at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall by Richard Dawkins and the two discussed Hitch's unflinching commitment to the truth. Hollywood actor Sean Penn was beamed in from LA by Google+ and, between cigarette puffs, read from Hitch's acclaimed work, The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Five friends of Hitch spoke via satellite in New York: satirist Christopher Buckley and editor Lewis Lapham mused on Hitch's prowess as a journalist. 'Like a pot of gold', said Lapham. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and James Fenton delighted the audience with stories of Hitchens as a young man. Rushdie drew roars of laughter when he recounted a word game invented by Amis and Hitchens where the word 'love' is replaced with 'hysterical sex'. Particular favourites included Hysterical Sex in the Time of Cholera andHysterical Sex Is All You Need.
Watching the event with Hitch at his bedside in Texas, Hitch's wife Carol and novelist Ian McEwan provided an email commentary. 'His Rolls Royce mind is still purring beautifully', typed McEwan.
The event was watched live by 2500 at the venue, and by thousands more in UK cinemas and online.
http://hitchfry.intelligencesquared.com/
Christopher Hitchens - Religion Is Insanity
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNljeRnqmTw&feature=related
A compilation of Christopher Hitchens at his best, speaking primarily on religion and god.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6a-GQchdg&feature=related
Christopher Hitchens Youtube Channel
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/hitchenschannel/videos
Fascinating Book "The Bible Unearthed" Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman.
ReplyDeleteGod is dead and man has no need of the myths and false consolation that religion offers. That's the battle-cry of Richard Dawkins and other tough-minded critics of religion. And yet millions cling to their faith, finding value and meaning in the concepts and rituals they adhere to. But is this dichotomy all we have to choose from – prostration or denigration? Some would argue that there's another way, that it's possible to remain an atheist and still make use of certain ideas and practices of religion that secular society has failed to engender – the promotion of morality and a spirit of community, for example, and the ability to cope with loss, failure and our own mortality. But is this "religion for atheists" something that would ever catch on? Without belief in the numinous and some form of authority wouldn't it all fall apart? And do atheists really need sermons and reminders to be good?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/religion-god
You'll find an abundance of videos on Youtube done by all the Four Horsemen, and others. Some of the videos I have found most interesting are of Christian scholars who have the intellectual honesty to look critically at some of the history and questionable integrity of the church. Let's face it, the church has been, since its beginning, the most insidiously repressive, self-serving force on the planet - destroying knowledge and mandating ignorance, a model of repression so effective that it can turn family member against family member and neighbor against neighbor with enough fervor to torture and/or kill each other with self-righteous impunity. (Oh, can't you just feel the love?)
ReplyDeleteSmiling @ 4:31 - "God Is Not Great" is a Hitchens book - I think you probably mean Dawkins' "The God Delusion," which I agree is also a great read (or listen).
Gryphen, I love your thinking and sense of humor. Any time you get tired of the cold and want some sun, come on down to NM. I'll buy you a coffee or a beer.
ReplyDeleteThank god, Gryphen! You're on a roll now! At the rate you're going your readers will soon forget about The Screechy Wretch(tm) and you'll become known as Awesome Non-Believer Guy. Mega Slow-Handclap for focusing more attention on this hugely important topic.
ReplyDeleteHappy Festivus, everyone!
That's one thing that bugged me about the Munk Debates, and a point that I feel Mr. Hitchens left out:
ReplyDeleteIf Religion should be judged by the good in the world it causes, and not the evil, shouldn't we judge Hitler the same way? He was a horrible person- but he pulled Germany from a long-standing depression and, while he was alive, revived the pride in the country. Economically, he was benevolent. Humanitarianly, he was a nightmare.
So why should Religion get a free pass, when Hitler doesn't?
I am not one of those who deify Christopher Hitchens. Although he was willing to challenge established beliefs in some areas, particularly religion, and was almost religious himself in his dogmatic attacks on organized religion, spirituality, and faith of any kind, he evolved into a neo-con, uber right-wing, militarist, anti-Islam, hate mongering, murder-loving, Bush supporting, truth denying, hypocrite. His prior good works and unconventional stances do not absolve him from his sin of conversion to the dark side, where he supported the invasions and occupations of two countries, the killings of millions of innocent people, and the wholesale destructions of society and culture not his own. I for one will not be singing his praise based on his intellectual attacks on those who choose to be spiritual or religious. See the excellent article on this same subject: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/17/christohper_hitchens_and_the_protocol_for_public_figure_deaths/singleton/
ReplyDeleteReligion is to Virtue what Insurance Companies are to Health Care
ReplyDelete