Deconstructing Dawkins - Again (The atheist delusion)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 16:05 (4575 days ago) @ BBella

BBELLA: In this article Steven Taylor gives one more perspective on Dawkins and the fallacies of mechanistic science. Altho I've heard most of his perspective before, there were nuggets here and there that I thought very interesting, and I appreciated his agnostic resolve in the end.
 
http://www.steventaylor.talktalk.net/dawkinsessays.htm-For some reason, this link didn't work for me (I see David had the same trouble), but I found the article by googling Steven Taylor, and it was under "Steve Taylor, author of Making Time & The Fall". I thought it was excellent, and echoes many of the thoughts expressed on this forum. There was only one section I disagreed with totally:-"The most honest reaction to Dawkins' view of the world - and to the worldview of materialistic science in general - would be not to bother getting out of bed in the morning, to commit suicide, or to escape from the bleak reality by taking drugs or chasing after ego-gratification and sensory thrills. 
But fortunately we don't have to do any of these things, since this 'bleak reality' isn't the truth about the world anyway."-He has quite rightly emphasized Dawkins' wonderment at the variety and sheer beauty of life, and it is absurd to equate the materialistic world view with bleakness. For me as an agnostic, the possibility that this life is all there is provides an incentive for relishing every moment of life that I have. This does not entail drugs, ego-gratification or sensory thrills, and the very suggestion that atheists (and agnostics) can only gratify themselves is an insult to all those who, whether consciously or not, practise the principles of humanism. I'm sure we are all acquainted with bigoted, self-centred believers and with kindly, altruistic non-believers, so the "most honest" reaction to Dawkins' view of the world should be no different from reactions to other world views: life is generally what we make it, and we should not impose our own prejudices on other people's philosophies.-Otherwise, though, I agree with your assessment, BBella ... lots of interesting material.