Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against humanity

[Worm]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

I watched all of the Indiana Jones movies. Does anybody want to ask me about archaeology or whips?

I have always been grateful that Steven Spielberg directed the "Raiders" movies and not his close collaborator George Lucas. Drawing a parallel between the Death Star and the Ark of the Covenant, if Lucas had directed the trilogy along the same story arc of the SW films (IV-V-VI), the third Indiana Jones movie would have begun with a team of Nazis sneaking into a U.S. Army warehouse to steal the Ark.

MARCUS
Indiana, they've got it. The Ark.

INDY
Who, Marcus?

MARCUS
The Nazis, I'm afraid. They've stolen it from the Army. Mr. Markham and Mr. Langston are here from the OSS--

INDY
I told you. I told you.

MR. MARKHAM
Easy, Dr. Jones. Are you familiar with the term 'audit'?

MR. LANGSTON
What my colleague is trying to say is, we need your help.

INDY
Forget it. You're on your own. You don't need my help anyway. I told you what happened when they tried to use the Ark before. Melting faces and all that.

MARCUS
Indy, not this time.

MR. MARKHAM
British intelligence has discovered that Hitler has the Ark in Berlin and-- well...this time they're not going to look inside the Ark.

INDY
They're not going to look inside? We may have a problem.

MR. MARKHAM
It's worse.

INDY
Worse? How can it be worse?

MR. MARKHAM
They are also recruiting a secret army of highly trained commandos to wield the Ark's power against the Allies.

INDY
A secret army! What can I do?

MR. LANGSTON
We intercepted this cable, Dr. Jones, but can't make heads or tails of it. "Ark arrived in Berlin. Stop. Did not peek. Stop. Unleash secret army. Stop. The Ewoks shall rule. Stop"

Marcus and Indy look at each other.

INDY AND MARCUS
They've discovered the Ewoks!

MR. LANGSTON
Does that mean something to you?

INDY
The Ewoks. Ancient Sumerian legend. An unstoppable army of fierce forest-dwellers. Slingshots. Sharp sticks. Netting. Creatures capable of fiendish improvisational warfare...large rolling logs, dirt clods, warriors soaring through the air on hang-gliders dropping rocks...you can't imagine. If the Ewoks gain control of the Ark it will be a total teddy bear apocalypse.

MR. LANGSTON
I can see Hitler's interest.

MR. MARKHAM
What can we do to stop these...Ewoks?

INDY
Scare them. Convince them that the United States has superior futuristic science-weaponry that will wipe them out, Ark included.

MR. LANGSTON
You've heard of the Manhattan Project, Dr. Jones?

INDY
Manhattan Project? What's that? I meant we should discover a lost temple in South America which is really a flying saucer built by an advanced alien civilization that can shoot beams of fire through people's heads.

MR. MARKHAM
That's just stupid.

MR. LANGSTON
Let's get back to these...Ewoks. Do you have a picture?

Indy opens a large, leather-bound book of lore to show the OSS men.

MR. MARKHAM
These things are Hitler's new army? You're joking.

Indy sighs.

INDY
You'd be surprised.​

 

[Black Cloud]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

LOL Worm!

No because what you watched is classified as fiction. The purpose in entertainment. So you get entertained.

Documentaries are informative. Their purpose is passing information.

But you know that. You're just trying to be funny.

Not very hard though.

Documentaries about Dickey Dawkins are more like fanfic, perpetuating the myth. You like that lack of objectivity because you're disposed to agree with them. That's OK. The world is really complicated, and it's nice that you have found something that makes it a little friendlier for you; that's how advertising works, and Dickey is a good capitalist. Don't expect other people to join the same fanclub, though.

 

[esteban]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Nice to see JJ and Paul contributing.

 

[Flax]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

LOL Worm!



Not very hard though.

Documentaries about Dickey Dawkins are more like fanfic, perpetuating the myth. You like that lack of objectivity because you're disposed to agree with them. That's OK. The world is really complicated, and it's nice that you have found something that makes it a little friendlier for you; that's how advertising works, and Dickey is a good capitalist. Don't expect other people to join the same fanclub, though.

Very evasive.
What myth? How is it that a scientist that shows his conclusions based on evidence can lack objectivity?

What you just wrote makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[Mars_Rover]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Dude, you're like the Christian fundamentalists you hate - only you're thumping people over the head with a Dawkins book instead of the Bible. And you're arguing against spiritual principals using materialist proofs, which makes no fookin' sense.

Mainstream Christianity has no problems with evolution, by the way.

 

[bored]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Documentaries about Dickey Dawkins are more like fanfic, perpetuating the myth. You like that lack of objectivity because you're disposed to agree with them. That's OK. The world is really complicated, and it's nice that you have found something that makes it a little friendlier for you; that's how advertising works, and Dickey is a good capitalist. Don't expect other people to join the same fanclub, though.

I think religions are for better capitalists than Dawkins and they do it tax free in the US. Not sure what other counties give that luxury to churches.

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Because I obviously read his books and watched his movies, that makes me much more competent to discuss his work, rather than Dave or Emotional Guide Dog, who didn't even know what Dawkins's profession was.

I'm not an expert because I'm not a biologist. But more competent? Yes, by far.

You're really not getting this are you? Dawkins profession is professional atheist. He's a tv personality & nothing more.

He was a scientist once but he isn't anymore. Think of Richard Dawkins as the biology equivalent of Neil Armstrong. He could land you on the moon in his day but put him in a modern setting & he'd crash nose first into the sea.

 

[I am a Ghost]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

He doesn't know what he's Dawkin about, that lad.

 

[bored]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

You're really not getting this are you? Dawkins profession is professional atheist. He's a tv personality & nothing more.

He was a scientist once but he isn't anymore. Think of Richard Dawkins as the biology equivalent of Neil Armstrong. He could land you on the moon in his day but put him in a modern setting & he'd crash nose first into the sea.

Landing a rocket ship, especially in 1969 took a lot of coordination and physical ability. With age those skills can fade.

I doubt that Dawkins has aged to the point where his mind can no longer repeat the things he's been saying for many many years. I would also contend he is still quite capable of working in a lab and working on new theories.

This was a pretty bad analogy.

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Landing a rocket ship, especially in 1969 took a lot of coordination and physical ability. With age those skills can fade.

I doubt that Dawkins has aged to the point where his mind can no longer repeat the things he's been saying for many many years. I would also contend he is still quite capable of working in a lab and working on new theories.

This was a pretty bad analogy.

It was a bad example but the actual analogy stands.

I doubt Dawkins has set foot in a lab for 10 years or more & knowing the way technology advances, I doubt he'd know his way around one anymore.

I didn't mean Armstrong would crash because he's too old, I meant he'd crash because the space shuttle doesn't work the way Saturn V did.

 

[Dave]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

... and Cher is a serious activist for Native Americans.

 

[billybu69]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Dawkins is an idiot.For 2000years all the greatest philosphers and thinkers couldnt answer this question,but now Richard Dawkins some no-name idiot will answer it by plastering busses with posters-"There is no God"-yeah right,so if i plaster the busses with posters"There is God"it will solve the problem right hahaha...this guy is a joke.

It's only the last 100-150 that years that the scientific discoverys have been made that have answered the creation/evolution debate.

Plus the catholic church since time immemorium hasn't been the most open in allowing debate between any individuals that thoughts it didn't share, or indeed instill.

 

[goinghome]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

A fairly recent book by James Hannam, called God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science - http://jameshannam.com/ - is excellent in correcting ideas about the religious and secular worlds over the past thousand years. Most scientists were able to carry out their studies through their positions in the church. Many ideas from the Greek, Roman and Muslim worlds were incorporated unquestioningly as the most enlightened basis from which to proceed.

The Prime Mover does derive from Aristotle but Dante beautifully re-posits it as pretty much the light that never goes out. However he necessarily constrained his allegory within Church doctrine of his time which still gave him enough scope for valid criticism of religious evils. -

"...While Aquinas was certainly the New Aristotle of the 13th century, it was DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321) who was perhaps the new Virgil, or even the new Homer. Dante was born in Florence, a city synonymous with the Italian Renaissance. Like Saint Francis, Dante came from a family of modest wealth (his father was a notary). In 1274, at the age of nine, Dante fell in love with a young girl by the name of Beatrice, the daughter of yet another wealthy family. It has been said that this one event determined Dante's career as a poet. Dante's greatest work, The Divine Comedy, was written after 1302, a period marked by Dante's political exile from the city of Florence. As we have already seen, Dante's guide through Inferno or Hell, was the Roman poet and pagan, Virgil. In Hell they meet Homer, Horace, Ovid, Seneca, Socrates, and Plato. Noble and wise though these men certainly were, they must remain in Hell for the simple reason that they were pagans. In Hell we also find gluttons, thieves, murderers and men like Cassius, Brutus and Judas. Dante and his guide then find themselves in Purgatory where man is purged of sin before he, if he is lucky, makes the ascent to Paradise. They eventually come to the Garden of Eden but Virgil must remain behind because without faith in Christ, he cannot achieve purity. With Virgil left behind, Dante now enters Paradise where he encounters St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Aquinas, Jerome, Augustine and all the other saints, martyrs and Church Fathers. It is here that Dante also learns about the structure of the cosmos. It is a universe spherical in shape -- or rather, it is depicted as a series of concentric spheres. The spheres are arranged in hierarchical order -- the smallest (inner) sphere contains formless matter. As we move outward from sphere to sphere we move from matter to plants to animals to man. The spheres above man contain the heavenly bodies, the angels and finally, God. We have reached the first principle of Aquinas or, as Aristotle called it, the prime mover. Here Dante receives an angelic vision -- it is a vision of man made in God's image. So, for Dante, the way to God is found in human life. This was Abelard's message. It was the message of Aquinas as well. There are two roads to truth, not one.

Although the cosmology and theology of The Divine Comedy is clearly that of Aristotle and Aquinas, Dante was quite critical of the Church at Rome. His criticisms were common for the time -- the failure of popes and the clergy to live up the requirements of their office. And while it is true that he called the Church a harlot, he never disputed Church doctrine or orthodoxy. For Dante, the message was quite clear -- the Church was not serving the spiritual needs of the flock. For instance, in Inferno Dante and Virgil meet up with thieves, gluttons and Judas Iscariot. They also meet seven popes..."

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html

 

[JoanOfArc]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

It's only the last 100-150 that years that the scientific discoverys have been made that have answered the creation/evolution debate.

Plus the catholic church since time immemorium hasn't been the most open in allowing debate between any individuals that thoughts it didn't share, or indeed instill.

Your intelligence matches your sense of humour.

 

[Dave]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Dunning–Kruger effect

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which "people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it". The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than in actuality; by contrast the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to a perverse result where less competent people will rate their own ability higher than more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."

 

[Flax]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Dude, you're like the Christian fundamentalists you hate - only you're thumping people over the head with a Dawkins book instead of the Bible. And you're arguing against spiritual principals using materialist proofs, which makes no fookin' sense.

See, this is the problem with religious people. They cannot see fathom that a person can just admire somebody's work. If they defend it, they're members of a cult, or they're preaching. You cannot see a system that does not resemble religion.

First of all, I'm not like the Christian fundamentalists because I'm here just pointing out that every single person who criticized Dawkins so far are complete ignorants when it comes to what he says or writes. Have whatever opinion you want about him, but if you do without ever reading any of his books, you're just dumb.

Second, I'm not preaching his books. I'm just saying it's plain dumb to have strong opinions about Dawkins and not knowing anything about him.

Third, I don't hate Christian fundamentalists. I despise Christianity as a whole. From the most mild to the most extreme. I find Christianity deeply repugnant.

So clearly you know nothing about me or Dawkins.

Mainstream Christianity has no problems with evolution, by the way.

Obviously you also don't know what's happening in the USA.
I don't know where you're from and how things are in Europe or other continents, but taking a superficial look at the Christian war on evolution in the US and you'll see you're wrong.

 

[Flax]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

You're really not getting this are you? Dawkins profession is professional atheist. He's a tv personality & nothing more.

He was a scientist once but he isn't anymore. Think of Richard Dawkins as the biology equivalent of Neil Armstrong. He could land you on the moon in his day but put him in a modern setting & he'd crash nose first into the sea.

Because you have the competence to determine who's a scientist and who's not.

 

[Dave]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Have whatever opinion you want about him, but if you do without ever reading any of his books, you're just dumb.

Second, I'm not preaching his books. I'm just saying it's plain dumb to have strong opinions about Dawkins and not knowing anything about him.

Why do you repeat this? I stated my opinion of him. It is backed up by the video.

Is he talking about "God" in the video or is he talking about religion and culture?

I posted that wikipedia entry for you. It describes your argument style perfectly.

What if I said Hari Krishnas have all the answers? They do you know. Have you read all of their literature? No? well that's because you're dumb.

that's exactly the argument you are making.

 

[Dave]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

Because you have the competence to determine who's a scientist and who's not.

It's fine to respect his scientific accomplishments, but that is not why he is famous. He is a media personality who debunks religion, not a scientist who disproves "God".

 

[Flax]

Re: Richard Dawkins planning to have Pope Benedict arrested over 'crimes against huma

It's fine to respect his scientific accomplishments, but that is not why he is famous. He is a media personality who debunks religion, not a scientist who disproves "God".

Not an accurate description, but acceptable given your level of ignorance towards Richard Dawkins.

But even if what you said were right, the problem with that would be _____ ?