The New Religion in America. Larry Isitt Jan 2013

Transcription

1 The New Religion in America Larry Isitt Jan 2013

2 Dec 5, 2012 Cadet quits, cites overt religion at West Point By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press Cadet AP story 5 Dec 2012 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A cadet, Blake Page, quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets.

3 'Jedi' religion most popular alternative faith Today's Census figures show that 176,632 people in England and Wales identify themselves as Jedi Knights, making it the most popular faith in the "Other Religions" category on the Census and the seventh most popular faith overall. --The Telegraph (London) 30 Dec 2012

4 The human heart is deceitful, desparately wicked who can know it? Jer 17:9

5 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1:18

6 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. 2 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. --Psalm 14: 1-3

7 5 A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 11 This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Luke 8: 5, 11

8 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. John 12.37

9 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Cor 4:4

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13 1) Whatever is held to be true is objectively, transcendentally true; so that the same standard of ultimate truth is true for everybody. 2) Belief that there is such a thing as objective reality, true for the whole universe 3) That reality is capable in some sense of being known

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16 1) Objective truth can only be gained by scientific, rational means 2) Belief in supernatural, or in God, is superstition, outmoded

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21 PRE-MODERN MODERN POST-MODERN SUPERNATURAL ANTI- SUPERNATURAL MYSTICAL SUPERNATURAL AUTHORITY FROM GOD /gods/spirits AUTHORITY FROM SCIENCE, REASON NO ULTIMATE AUTORITY

22 - - GOD 1. Personal 2. Creator 3. All-powerful 4. loving Origin of Species 1859 Descent of Man 1871 UNIVERSE 1. purposeful, not accidental 2. Orderly, God s laws 3. God-created MAN 1. Creation of God 2. Sinner, Garden of Eden 3. Christ saved on Cross 4. Life after death 5. Heaven & Hell real GO 1. erso al or e 2. o -e s e 3. os le o a or 4. d ere 1. e ol ed, a de, r oseless 2. o a er l e ow or s re 1. e ol ed, a de 2. s rd, w o r ose 3. Orderly, a re s laws

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24 I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

25 The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for Religion is the sigh of the oppressed their creature, real the happiness. heart of a To heartless call on world, them and to give the soul up of their soulless illusions conditions. about It their is the opium of the people. condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.

26 Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

27 "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

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29 The New Atheists from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The New Atheists are authors of early twenty-first century books promoting atheism. These authors include Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens.

30 THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF NEW ATHEISM: Sam Harris The End of Faith (2004) Daniel Dennett Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006) Richard Dawkins The God Delusion (2006) Christopher Hitchens god is Not Great (2007)

31 The End of Faith (2004). Religions are "all equally uncontaminated by evidence". Insofar as religious belief fails to ground itself in empirical evidence, Harris likens religion to a form of mental illness which, he says, "allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy." It is "merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your prayers, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window."

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33 PREFACE

34 [Consciousness Raising #4] My fourth consciousness-raiser is atheist pride. Being an atheist is nothing to be apologetic about. On the contrary, it is something to be proud of, standing tall to face the far horizon, for atheism nearly always indicates a healthy independence of mind and, indeed, a healthy mind. (from the Preface, pp.3-4)

35 [Purpose: to make atheists of believers] If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down. What presumptuous optimism! (from the Preface, p. 5) John Stuart Mill was already able to say [in the nineteenth century]: 'The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete sceptics in religion. (from the Preface, p. 4)

36 50 academics talk about god

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38 CHAPTER 2 The God Hypothesis

39 [Religiousness in Atheistic Thought] The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 31)

40 [Religiousness in Atheistic Thought] Thomas Jefferson- : 'The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 31) Letter to William Short Jefferson's letter to William Short, from Monticello August 4, Thomas Jefferson

41 [Religiousness in Atheistic Thought] Thomas Jefferson- : In the farsighted words of Thomas Jefferson, writing to his predecessor, John Adams, 'The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 97) Letter to John Adams April 11, 1823 Letter to Joseph Priestly April 9, 1803 Jesus, Socrates, and Others; Gospel writers Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803 The Morals of Jesus

42 [Dawkins spectrum of probabilities] 1 Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C. G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.' 2 Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.' 3 Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.' 4 Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.' Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 50)

43 [Dawkins spectrum of probabilities] 5 Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.' 6 Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.' 7 Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.' Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 50)

44 END OF DAWKINS SLIDES

45 Reviews of God Delusion: T e God el s o y e a e s wr er ard Dawkins, is remarkable in the first place for having achieved some sort of record by selling over a million copies. But what is much more remarkable than that economic achievement is that the contents or rather lack of contents of this book show Dawkins himself to have become what he and his fellow secularists typically believe to be an impossibility: namely, a secularist bigot. (Helpfully, my copy of The Oxford o ary de es a o as a o s a e or olera ad ere o a o o ew ). The fault of Dawkins as an academic was his scandalous and apparently deliberate refusal to present the doctrine which he appears to think he has refuted in its s ro es or. -Antony Flew

46 Reviews of God Delusion: Alvin Plantinga, The Dawkins Confusion - Naturalism ad Absurdum: ow des e e a a s oo [T e God Delusion] is mainly philosophy, Dawkins is not a philosopher (he's a biologist). Even taking this into account, however, much of the philosophy he purveys is at best jejune. You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores; the fact is (grade inflation aside), many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class. This, combined with the arrogant, smarter-than-thou tone of the book, can be annoying. I shall put irritation aside, however and do my best to take Dawkins' main argument ser o sly.

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48 GOD IS NOT GREAT: HOW RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING Christopher Hitchens Versus The Bible s Own Claims

49 CHAPTER ONE Four irreducible objections to religious faith (p.4): 1. Religion wholly misrepresents the origin of man and the cosmos 2. Religion combines the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism (the theory that the only thing you can be certain about is your own existence and your own thoughts and ideas) 3. Religion is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression 4. Religion is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking.

50 CHAPTER ONE Credo (Lat. I believe ; a statement of beliefs)(pp.5-6): 1. Our belief is not a belief 2. Our principles are not a faith 3. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason 4. We respect free inquiry, openmindedness, the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

51 CHAPTER ONE 1. Heaven and Hell not necessary for morality: We do not believe in heaven or hell, yet no statistic will ever find that without these blandishments and threats we commit more crimes or greed or violence than the faithful. 2. We are reconciled to living only once, except through our children 3. We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. 4. There is no need for us to gather every day, or every seven days, or on any high and auspicious day, to proclaim our rectitude or to grovel and wallow in our unworthiness.

52 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing the dead. First presaged by the rantings of John the Baptist, the son of god is revealed as one who, if his milder words are not accepted straightaway, will condemn the inattentive to everlasting fire (176) Even a glance at the whole record will show that person for person, American freethinkers and agnostics and atheists come out the best (180)

53 ISITT CONCLUSION: Hitchens god is himself, scarcely disguised as the tolerant seeker of the secrets and wonders of the universe, taking his nourishment of soul in humanism, and believing in a salvation to he had in the wisdom of the apostles of physics, biology, evolution, and literature.

54 END OF Hitchens SLIDES

55 Old Vs. New Atheists Old New 1) Focused on rational arguments against the TRUTH of Christianity 2) Christianity did have some beneficial effects in history. 3) Christianity has had some positive effects on science. 4) Books written by/for scholars; very academic; never bestsellers. 5) Generally respectful of their opponents. 6) Somewhat tolerant of Christianity. 7) Directly took on the classical arguments for God. 1) Focuses on the pragmatic effects of Christianity 2) There are no benefits to religion, it has poisoned everything. 3) Christianity has and will be an impediment to science. 4) Books written by laymen for the masses. Written simply and easy to read. Bestsellers! 5) Has brought a harsh tone to the debate between atheist/christian. 6) Seeks to eradicate any faith based belief. 7) Seem almost ignorant of the basic philosophical arguments for God.

56 Old Vs. New Atheists Old New

57 4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Heb 6:4-6