cc_dgdc@bath63.UUCP (03/06/87)
This is a reply to an article directed at me in sci.astro by Ken Arndt I have to crosspost it to sci.bio to get it out of Europe. Europe doesnt take talk.origins solo. And I have already promised the net to put it there. Paul Davies' God and the New Physics, as I remember reading it last summer, does not find any scientific use for the concept of god. I have the book in my library. I am not interested enough in your squabble over it to reread it. The recent book that really puts the boot into poor ol' god is Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. This is an elegant presentation of neo-Darwinism following on from his popular study The Selfish Gene and his erudite work The Extended Phenotype. If you haven't read The Blind Watchmaker yet then you have a lot coming to you. His love of computers is great fun. It is incredible that Friedrich Nietzsche understood what scientific discovery had done to the concept of god a hundred years ago but today there are still educated Americans who cannot face the facts. I think that the only person left in Great Britain who believes in god is Old Soapy, Robert Runcie - the Archbishop of Canterbury, but I have heard rumours that he is losing confidence too. There is also the Pope in Italy. Anyway god is for wimps. If you need a god in your life to sustain you then you must be very lacking in inner resources. It's not really all that lonely to be on your own. It doesn't rule out love. That is a much more sustaining force. I recommend you read some feminist psychoanalysis (Nancy Chodorow etc) if you really want to find out where you came from. The purpose of life is the living of it. As Sigmund Freud said 'work and sexuality'. Now bring on the godsquad! :-) -- Douglas Clark Voice: +44 225 826826*5214 Computer Unit, Bath University, JANET: Clark@UK.AC.AUCC Claverton Down, Bath, Avon, UUCP : seismo!mcvax!ukc!bath63!cc_dgdc England BA2 7AY ARPA : cc_dgdc%ux63.bath.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa
bobb@tekfdi.TEK.COM (Robert Bales) (03/08/87)
In article <832@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> cc_dgdc@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Clark) writes: >It is incredible that Friedrich Nietzsche understood what scientific >discoveries had done to the concept of god a hundred years ago but today >there areeducated Americans who cannot face the facts. Facts, or the speculations of scientists who use non-scientific reasoning (since scientific reasoning doesn't indicate the non-existence of God) to speculate that God doesn't exist? >I think that the only person left in Great Britain who believes in god is >Old Soapy, Robert Runcie - the Archbishop of Canterbury, but I have heard >rumours that he is losing confidence too. How many came to hear Billy Graham on his last visit to Britian? >Anyway god is for wimps. >If you need a god in your life to sustain you then you must be very lacking >in inner resources. It's not really all that lonely to be on your own. It >doesn't rule out love. That is a much more sustaining force. Of course, this is based on the assumption that God doesn't exist. If He does, the situation is quite different. >I recommend you read some feminist psychoanalysis (Nancy Chodorow etc) if >you really want to find out where you came from. Are there any objective reasons to believe that this would get one closer to the truth than reading the Bible? Bob Bales Tektronix, Inc. I help Tektronix make their instruments. They don't help me make my opinions.