Comments on The Pensive Quill: Godly Delusions

Saint?MaryHedgehog Its title made me feel uncomfo...

2010-09-13T15:57:58.183+01:00

Saint?MaryHedgehog

Its title made me feel uncomfortable – On God! I suppose with so much ridicule of the religious I was not venturing out for some!!! The book was not even that good. It was dealing with ideas I had thought about myself when 21, on the blanket and plenty of time to think about these issues!

I like Dawkins for the reasons you point out. I have never been an

@ Marty - laughin me guts out RE 'anyway I,m r...

2010-08-31T02:25:54.810+01:00

@ Marty - laughin me guts out RE 'anyway I,m reading cardinal Brady,s new book From Bumming To Bombing -A History of Catholic Church in Ireland' I can never hear enough of books with titles like that - the childlike revenge in me cackles heartily. 500 Our Fathers 200 Hail Marys and 10 laps of the stations of the cross for you Marty :-)Know it would not touch the sides the old penance Ur

Interesting, but I think we are somewhat orthogona...

2010-08-29T22:54:09.607+01:00

Interesting, but I think we are somewhat orthogonal here. Not totally disagreeing...but...

Zero. Didn't exist in Greek culture. At all. (or in there maths, I am sure a Greek farmer could tell the difference between some sheep and none. But none isn't zero...) And considering most of our maths comes from them, at least in the pejorative sense, it is rather suprising. People were

Ryan, on your recommendation I will check it out...

2010-08-29T17:56:41.201+01:00

Ryan,

on your recommendation I will check it out. But yes I did love Priest Off so I guess if it is in that vein I will like it a lot

Fionnchu, Bill Maher is just a comedian. Religulou...

2010-08-29T17:42:56.125+01:00

Fionnchu,
Bill Maher is just a comedian. Religulous was meant first and foremost to be a amusing comedy, not an in depth exploration of religion and atheism. You have to leave it to the Dawkins types to provide that. I thought it was pretty good- a little mean spirited but funny. AM, I would recommend it. If you enjoyed that priest off skit, it might be right up your alley.

Stray Taoist, I can see how things develop differ...

2010-08-29T15:52:16.689+01:00

Stray Taoist,
I can see how things develop differently in different cultures. But once development kicks in I think there is a merger of conclusions. What culture has managed to resist zero? And maths is one of the many things I am useless at. I am quite familiar with zero having got it often enough in school!! And one scientific experiment cab be conducted and verified as readily in one

Cultural context as reductionism? Not entirely con...

2010-08-29T14:06:26.777+01:00

Cultural context as reductionism? Not entirely convinced. From a mathematical point of view, it is easy seen in the way that developed under different cultures.

As for removing the 18th century theology, well, actually, I would go back further to the Schism. Given that there were numerous (Roman) Catholic doctrines built on top of ropey Latin translations from the original Greek, you

Michaelhenry, I asked the question in respone to...

2010-08-29T12:34:10.942+01:00

Michaelhenry,

I asked the question in respone to your claim that 'we are made in god's image.'

If you have no answer - a very honest response - it makes it difficult for you stand over the claim of us being made in god's image. This is why I think at times this type of claim is put forward without it having been thought about a great lot. And it is a claim

what image would that be- a very good question, w...

2010-08-29T12:20:57.084+01:00

what image would that be-

a very good question, which i have
no answer, how could i,
if gods image was female would i still believe,
if god was black or even if he came here as a brit would i still believe, does it matter that he came as a white male,
antony-
was it accidental that jesus was born, lived and died in a country
that was ruled by an out-side

Fionnchú It is funny how we conceal what we are r...

2010-08-29T11:51:02.949+01:00

Fionnchú

It is funny how we conceal what we are reading. I suppose it is the combination of a God Trump bookmark and the title On God. I suppose I should be indifferent but I it discomfits me that people might think I am a believer!!

I think Hitchens makes a good point when he aggress with Amis about never ruling out the existence of a higher being but up until now none has

Michaelhenry, ‘its called believe … we know litt...

2010-08-29T11:19:21.262+01:00

Michaelhenry,

‘its called believe … we know little of the truth, what we are told is by humans like us who wrote the bibles’

An honest summary

‘we are made in god’s image’

What image would that be?

antony- its called believe, the first shall be la...

2010-08-29T10:41:41.710+01:00

antony- its called believe,

the first shall be last,
are we gods only planet, gods only celestial body,
are we the fist or last attempt at perfect life, or just some-where in
the middle,
i could see past the imperfections
if we are the first,

god is catholic, no he is a prod, or a jew, or any human label,
we know little of the truth, what we are

Stray Taoist This special hatred of Dawkins’ wil...

2010-08-29T07:50:42.647+01:00

Stray Taoist

This special hatred of Dawkins’ will have to be categorised as hate crime!!
I think he makes a considerable contribution to public understanding.

The show did not push the boundaries. In terms of potency it did not carry anything like we might see in a History Channel programme about the origins of the universe. It was evolution popularised, married to

Marty, maybe I should have drank the plum poteen b...

2010-08-27T17:33:06.859+01:00

Marty, maybe I should have drank the plum poteen before I watched Dawkins on Wednesday, really found him very condesending with people.

Plus, for some unexplainable reason our dog kept running over to the TV and growling at him which only added to the annoyance.

The dogs a Westie, could that be the explanation? (Are they Catholic fundamentalists in the West Highlands?)

I have this book am I,m heading up the hills shee...

2010-08-27T13:19:34.555+01:00

I have this book am I,m heading up the hills sheep shaggin!so I,ll have a good few days reading, I like Dawkin,s and I think what he says more than makes sense, and with a few glasses of plum poteen in me maybe even Mickeyboy will sound sensible,NAH!!!

Marty, Your timing sucks! I was going to use that...

2010-08-27T10:22:23.331+01:00

Marty,

Your timing sucks! I was going to use that gag.

Mickey boy! I thought your bible said that god mad...

2010-08-27T09:01:53.710+01:00

Mickey boy! I thought your bible said that god made man in his own image? so your now telling us god is a wee green git,or maybe a bearded one who just happens to pass as psf president for life wanna be Irish president, anyway I,m reading cardinal Brady,s new book From Bumming To Bombing -A History of Catholic Church in Ireland.

On the train, I hid "God Delusion" for t...

2010-08-27T01:55:34.491+01:00

On the train, I hid "God Delusion" for the same reasons you did "On God." That is, I feared some (semi-literate at least) crackpot seeing the cover and cornering me or assaulting me. I tend with both my religious and skeptical titles to keep the covers hidden from the public gaze. And, even at work, where a book subtitled "sexuality in paganism and Wicca" (too snarky

there are catholic idiots mouthing of about religi...

2010-08-26T23:02:50.485+01:00

there are catholic idiots mouthing
of about religion,
there are protestant idiots who shout about religion,
there are jews and muslim idiots
and others who try and ram there
version of religion down our throats, all this has got nothing
to do with the god above,
what we do in this life is our own business,
good luck to richard dawkins but he
is going

Done in two goes, as there is a limit! I never rea...

2010-08-26T22:00:18.827+01:00

Done in two goes, as there is a limit! I never realised I wrote that much...

Having recently read Spengler, coupled with other ...

2010-08-26T22:00:04.230+01:00

Having recently read Spengler, coupled with other books, my conclusion is that we only see things though our own cultural context. For example, the Greeks never got round to inventing zero. It just wasn't in their philosophy. They certainly had the math, and their mathematicians could have worked with it easily, but they didn't. The Arabs took their work, filtered it through their culture

Well now. First up, I have a special hatred of Daw...

2010-08-26T21:59:58.921+01:00

Well now. First up, I have a special hatred of Dawkins, and his smug, middleclass, shake-of-the-head-I-know-better-than-you attitude. He could spout Gospel Truth (ha!) and I would still despise him. Anyhow.

It isn't a big leap to realise that the 'little people' have never understood their religion, nor had it explained to them.

Can't say I have seen the