A nice talk by one of my favourite speakers... Richard Dawkins. I do not agree with all his views but i do appreciate the man for the passion he exudes and the the kind of belief, religious or otherwise, that he has. I just wish that i could believe in something as much as he does.
Good talk that one. I remember watching The God Delusion/Root of all Evil documentary and getting seriously scared about the sort of hold this religious fervour has taken up in these arguably more enlightened times.
ReplyDeleteAs for belief, its so very ironic isnt it that what he fights against is irrational belief, but reason is ever the enemy of faith, and believing in something gets progressively harder as one's reasoning abilities grow, and so many of us get stuck in this place where everything is open to doubt and trust and belief seem to be fading away. The only way to dig ourselves out of the trench of doubts would be to advance in thought to get to the point where these thinkers have, the point of relative clarity.
I absolutely agree with you. At this point it has become extremely difficult to reconcile my store by reason and the remnants of faith from the years of indoctrination in it. I am pretty sure that what i have now is a variation on the Pascal's wager and i hate myself for that.
ReplyDeleteThe God Delusion is a very good read though a bit vitriolic at times. You should definitely read it. I have been trying to get ppl to read it but most of the arguments are structured around Abrahamic faiths, so it becomes difficult for people to relate to it as a target of the arguments.
I often find myself utterly disguted with my lack of clarity of opinion on this matter, and whats more, the unwillingness to tackle it front on.
ReplyDeleteHowever, separating morality and spirituality from religion makes its somewhat simpler doesnt it. I mean, its easier to be decent person, and yet one who is not beset by the need to believe in something without questioning, by just acknowledging that life without active belief in religion is not unattainable.