Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The God Delusion

I've almost finished Richard Dawkins' highly controversial book. And I must say it's not that great. Well, the first 50/100 pages are just immense! terribly good and witty. The last 200 maybe 300 pages, are pretty good as well, very interesting and with some moments of pure genius and picks of hilarity. But the core chapters are just a bit dull and soaked with a rather too materialistic view. It's too easy to scientifically prove that God doesn't exist. Because God is not scientifically analyzable (in my opinion), you need that spiritual "sth more" to see the presence of God. Richard, however clever and well bred, obviously doesn't have it. Sorry. Oh and he's a bit full of himself too. Let's see how he is in person when he comes to talk to CU BASS. lol
however, I just found this quote which is probably worth the whole book (well, with some other genius-like moments..)

There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point.(...) Somebody else must be responsible for my well-being and somebody else must be to blame if I'm hurt. (...) The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we chose to make it. And we can make it very wonderful indeed. 

Followed by: 

However brief our time in the sun, if we waste a second of it, or complain that it is dull or barren or boring, could it be seen as a callous insult to those unborn trillions who will never even be offered life in the firs place? (...) The knowledge that we have only one life should make it all the more precious. 

Oh and he uses the word obnoxious as well, which is possibly my word of the week!
Overall a good read.

John Barleycorn must die. 

2 comments:

бела said...

he's comming to cubass? that's cool, i'd try to come and tick him off my celebrities-to-see list.

overall i've got the same impression as you. witty but oversimplifying a complex problem, dawkins's not resolving anything but has found a cheap way to make a name of himself, barking against a sensitive topic in the anglophone world.

still some kind of simplistic opposition is needed to balance the simplistic genres of churchy propaganda.
but the whole debate is really so middle ages... in my opinion at least.

onar said...

well.. he's probably coming, last time we spoke to him he didn't say no.. so let's hope.. :D

very simplistic and very middle ages as well... yes... and I can't believe children are still taught how terrible hell is etc. And he's so pretentious!! writing like he has all the answers in the world.. calm down Richard!!

oh and I didn't like the sort of persecution-like attitude throughout the book i.e we atheists are threatened by religion, and should unite against it because they've been mean to us.
There is no need to invent a further field of persecution in this world!!

It's quite witty tho.. which is fun..
xxx