Cool Runnings and Richard Dawkins
I have to say that my advisor is sweet. Although, I am completely amused and beside myself when I go see him in his reggae band. There he is, drinking, dancing, and rocking out the night. And rocking is very much a double entendre in this case. His body rocks back and forth as he stomps and bobs his head, while rocking out on the acoustic guitar. The band is really pretty good and I love going out to see them.. It's just strange to see a pretty big dog in academia on stage in a rare hippie bar in Colorado Springs. Good times.
I began reading Richard Dawkins' most recent literary masterpiece The God Delusion today at the behest of a senior member of my lab. Dawkins never ceases to impress with his intellectual prowess. Sadly, I won't have time to get through this book any time soon, but the little I have read has been incredibly enjoyable and encouraging.
Epilogue:
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe hat there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
- Douglas Adams
Intro:
"Imagine, with John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian Partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as 'Christ-killers', no Northern Ireland 'troubles', no 'honour' killins, no shiny-suited buoffant-haired tgelevangelists fleecing gullible people of their money ('God wants you to give till it hurts.') Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for showing an inch of it. "
- Dawkins, 1-2
"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion."
- Robert M .Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down. What presumptuous optimism! Of course, dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads are immune to argument, their resistance built up over years of childhood indoctrination using methods that took centuries to mature (whether by evolution or design). Among the more effective immunological devises is a dire warning to avoid even opening a book like this, which is surely a work of Satan. But I believe there are plenty of open-minded people out there: people whose childhood indoctrination was not too insidious, or for other reasons didn't 'take', or whose native intelligence is strong enough to overcome it. Such free spirits should need only a little encouragement to break free of the vice of religion altogether. At very least, I hope that nobody who reads this book will be able to say, 'I didn't know I could.'"
- Dawkins, 5-6
I began reading Richard Dawkins' most recent literary masterpiece The God Delusion today at the behest of a senior member of my lab. Dawkins never ceases to impress with his intellectual prowess. Sadly, I won't have time to get through this book any time soon, but the little I have read has been incredibly enjoyable and encouraging.
Epilogue:
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe hat there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
- Douglas Adams
Intro:
"Imagine, with John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian Partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as 'Christ-killers', no Northern Ireland 'troubles', no 'honour' killins, no shiny-suited buoffant-haired tgelevangelists fleecing gullible people of their money ('God wants you to give till it hurts.') Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for showing an inch of it. "
- Dawkins, 1-2
"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion."
- Robert M .Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down. What presumptuous optimism! Of course, dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads are immune to argument, their resistance built up over years of childhood indoctrination using methods that took centuries to mature (whether by evolution or design). Among the more effective immunological devises is a dire warning to avoid even opening a book like this, which is surely a work of Satan. But I believe there are plenty of open-minded people out there: people whose childhood indoctrination was not too insidious, or for other reasons didn't 'take', or whose native intelligence is strong enough to overcome it. Such free spirits should need only a little encouragement to break free of the vice of religion altogether. At very least, I hope that nobody who reads this book will be able to say, 'I didn't know I could.'"
- Dawkins, 5-6