tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post5431304495749124849..comments2024-03-28T03:10:51.807-05:00Comments on Julia Sweeney: Julia Sweeneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02459682985438227986noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-65698020800712688482009-11-20T23:41:27.420-06:002009-11-20T23:41:27.420-06:00Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium? ...Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium? <br />Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-35133984111764005682009-02-14T23:21:00.000-06:002009-02-14T23:21:00.000-06:00Not everyone who signs their posts as "atheist" is...Not everyone who signs their posts as "atheist" is actually an atheist.<BR/>I see it all the time in chat rooms. Someone comes in, saying Agnostics are such and such, and when the argument between atheists and agnostics ensue, they say, hey I am a xtian, you guys can't even get along.<BR/>Most of the atheists I have met, probably several hundred, not one had anything but great things to say about you and your comedy and performances.<BR/><BR/>Tell us about what you would like about your romance and marriage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-26359014824183125502006-12-11T21:49:00.000-06:002006-12-11T21:49:00.000-06:00Hi all, mostly a lurker but have a few thoughts on...Hi all, mostly a lurker but have a few thoughts on the comments I have seen here tonight.<br /><br /> Firstly, bravo Julia for being so public about your beliefs, it isn't easy and for so public a figure that takes real guts. <br /><br /> I was raised by very loving non practicing believers. The only religous symbol in my house was the angel on top of the Christmas tree, the only time I saw the inside of a church was for weddings or funerals. If asked my parents would say they believed, I was christened Lutheran as was my brother. To say I was free to find my own way religously is an understatement, I recieved 0 direction from my parents. My brother has expressed some anger about that, me though, I am very happy for it.<br /><br /> Never was the wonder of the natural world dimmed by praise for a god.<br /><br /> Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny were all real, until one day they just weren't. I have no idea when that happened, it just did not impact me that much.<br /><br /> I celebrate Christmas with all the capitalist trappings, tree, ornaments, Rudolph. I still have the angel, it is just family tradition, not at all religous. Besides, the story of how she got into that position might disqualify her from Heaven, lol.<br /><br /> Anyway, the point to all that rambling is that I was an athiest from day one who loved Santa, still enjoys Christmas and Easter with no religous overtones.<br /><br /> Celebrate Christmas because it is fun, and something to do near the shortest day of the year. Easter? Well, Spring is coming, and for the ladies on the site, chocolate Easter Bunnies! What more do you need???<br /><br /> So a very unreligous Merry Christmas to everyone, lets hope for some more peace this coming year than this past one gave us.<br /><br />DrewAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-82617905012878308392006-12-11T08:33:00.000-06:002006-12-11T08:33:00.000-06:00on uncomfortable inappropriate advances from the r...on uncomfortable inappropriate advances from the religious, i don't have any employer stories, but i've got a pretty good doctor story.<br /><br />I went and got a weird shaped itching mole on my leg checked out by this doctor, and he said, yeah, that should come off. He cut it out and tested it, and then he told me it came up positive for malignant melanoma, and he'd have to take another bigger chunk of me out to make sure they got it all. They left me with a scar that he said "someone riding past on a horse would be able to see".<br /> <br />Afterward, he said i'd be fine and seemed really non-chalant about the whole thing, like it was routine and not a big deal. He didn't even look at my other moles, or instruct me to get my self checked over regularly. Then he gives me one of those little "Where are you going when you die?" pamphlets.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-9375115460338551642006-12-10T23:58:00.000-06:002006-12-10T23:58:00.000-06:00I am so excited to get your CD. I've been an athi...I am so excited to get your CD. I've been an athiest since I was about 6 years old. I was living in Israel at the time, and it was the night of Yom Kipur. We were visiting my maternal Grandmother's home and my Mom and Grandmother were very eager to get me to bed early so they could chat. They told me to go to bed and think about what I had done that year to piss god off. I went to bed and thought, "I know this, I've done this before. Oh yeah! It's what I have to do with my parents all the time. Is god like my parents? Is god just a concept to keep people from doing bad things... like guilt?" I got out of bed and went to the kitchen where I shared this thought with my Mom and Grandmother. I was sent to bed again.Irishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15594530889578723937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-22829355275117515322006-12-10T18:05:00.000-06:002006-12-10T18:05:00.000-06:00When I was whatever age, a friend, who was two yea...When I was whatever age, a friend, who was two years older, told me that there was no Santa, and that it was just my parents doing all that Santa Stuff. I rushed home, and I can still remember my mother standing at the sink in the kitchen when I asked her about it. I guess she thought I was old enough to know the truth, so she told me that my friend was right.<br /><br />Suddenly it dawned on me that there were several obviously unrealistic heroes in my life. “If there is no Santa,” I said, “How about the Easter Bunny?”<br /><br />She replied, “No, David, the Easter Bunny isn’t real either.”<br /><br />“Well, how about the Tooth Fairy?” I asked, as my world came crashing down around me.<br /><br />“No, David, there is no Tooth Fairy. It’s just me and your Dad putting money under your pillow.”<br /><br />Under the circumstances, the next obvious question seemed entirely logical. “Well, how about God,” I asked through my tears. “Is God real?”<br /><br />My mother thought about that question a bit longer than the first three questions, but only a couple of seconds longer. “Yes, Honey,” she said, “There is a God.”<br /><br />I was somewhat relieved to hear that at least one of my great heroes was real. But in that moment, a seed had been planted. I puzzled over why three figures in my life that all did magical things, but never seemed to show up when I was there, should turn out to be fake, when the fourth magical figure that never seemed to show up when I was there should be real.<br /><br />I was raised as a Lutheran, and if anyone ever asked, I always claimed to be a Christian, but ever since that Santa episode, I had serious doubts that plagued me and became even more serious as I matured and learned and talked to others.<br /><br />For many years I considered myself an agnostic, but one day some guy kept pestering me about whether I believed in God. I kept telling him I didn’t know for sure, and he kept bugging me by saying that’s not what he was asking. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I didn’t have a belief in God, and really hadn’t held such a belief for many years, even while I professed to be a Christian.<br /><br />I claimed to be an agnostic, on the grounds that I really had no proof about God, but it was a giant leap for me to confess to myself and finally realize that I didn’t actually hold a belief in God at all. For years all I did was entertain the idea that God was a possibility, but not something I took seriously. My mother would have been deeply hurt had I realized this earlier, but my mother has long since passed away.<br /><br />I miss my mother, but I can’t say I miss God.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00510682342699472845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-32453013580746593412006-12-10T17:25:00.000-06:002006-12-10T17:25:00.000-06:00Thanks to "undecided" for posting the link to the ...Thanks to "undecided" for posting the link to the Yahoo story about the Irvine, California law firm that holds voluntary prayer meetings but doesn't allow employees to proselytize.<br /><br />In 27 years of law practice, I have never attended a meeting at which somebody tried to lead a prayer, and I have never had a prospective client ask me if I had found Jesus or been saved, etc., even though I live in the Midwest where there are a LOT of fundmentalist or born-again Christians. I am guessing that most very religious folks also don't ask the surgeon about his or her religion prior to elective surgery.<br /><br />I'm not a labor & employment lawyer, but bver the years I have found and collected some reported court decisions dealing with religion in workplace environments. If an employer called a meeting of the entire staff or department, at which everyone in the staff or dept. was expected to attend, and if the leader of the meeting proceeded to conduct all attendees in a prayer, that could be actionable as a violation of the civil rights act. For those who care and who know how to look up cases by their West reporter citations, here are two:<br /><br />Peterson v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 358 F.3d 599 (9th Cir. 2004) --- A devout Christian employee was fired for violating employer's harassment policy by posting anti-gay Bible scriptures in his work area so that his gay co-workers would see them and repent. Employee loses on his discrimination claim.<br /><br />Millazzo v. Universal Traffic Service, 289 F.Supp.2d 1251 (D. Colo. 2003) -- Federal trial court modified only the punitive damage awards in favor of 3 employees who successfully sued their employer because the CEO bullied all employees into signing a corporate prayer and into listening to audiotapes of the CEO praying and reading scriptures.<br /><br />The reverse situation can happen: an employer can be found liable for not making a reasonable accommodation to an employee's religious beliefs. Because atheism or freethought is not a religious belief, I guess we couldn't sue for failure to accommodate, but we could sue if we were being gently or not-so-gently coerced into participating in workplace prayer meetings, etc.<br /><br />Jeff DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-16070499597670585472006-12-10T14:32:00.000-06:002006-12-10T14:32:00.000-06:00i still remember the day i opened the hall closet ...i still remember the day i opened the hall closet and saw on the top shelf: a bag of plastic "grass" , plastic easter eggs, bags of candy and an empty basket. i was four. easter was two days away. i put two and two together pretty fast and that was it for the easter bunny, tooth fairy, santa, all of it. and i was ok with it, frankly. i preferred living in a world of real things rather than pretend things. esepcially as a kid, when you're already at such a disadvantage compared to adults. i preferred not to be any more controlled and manipulated by adults than i had to be.reasonably prudent poethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04553993541841706695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-9620567079487121252006-12-10T13:34:00.000-06:002006-12-10T13:34:00.000-06:00Just in case any of you are thinking that your chi...Just in case any of you are thinking that your children are confused by your celebrating christmas even though you do not believe in God or Jesus, mine were raised this way and they seem to get it all in the big picture. <br /><br />I always told my kids the truth about religion and didn't try to shield them from it. I would tell them that some people believe this way or some people believe that way, usually in response to their questions about it. I told them what I believed but told them that I would support them on whatever way they wanted to go. <br /><br />For awhile my daughter was into saying prayers at night and I guess it was comforting to her, so I did it with her. She seemed to outgrow it around the same time she realized that I was the toothfairy lol. <br /><br />There were many times that my son and daughter were asked to go to a religious type of activity with another child and I did fret but let them go, with a discussion beforehand and then a follow up discussion. <br /><br />My daughter got invited to a few things that were like sunday school, with a friend of hers in elementary school. She went a few times but became disenchanted. She said "Mom they are trying to bribe me to believe in Jesus by giving me little toys if I say what they want me to(bible verses and such)" then she told me that she didn't want to go anymore and if she wanted a toy she would buy one. I said ok, and was glad she was able to realized what was going on. <br /><br />One time my son was in about 5th grade and was invited to go to this youth group thing at a baptist church where a friend was performing some sort of music thing. For some reason he asked me if he would go with so I did. There was some weird chanting and talk of giving it all up for Jesus. After a bit my son leaned over to me and said "Mom, I think these people have issues" I was of course thinking the same thing, and we both could not wait to get out of there. <br /><br />At any rate I feel that by letting your children see first hand what the religions are about they will formulate their own opinion. If you raise them to be discriminating thinkers, they will most likely see through it.Becky Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791713226363503030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-23887422435523083292006-12-10T13:31:00.000-06:002006-12-10T13:31:00.000-06:00Has the clip from "The View" ever reached the inte...Has the clip from "The View" ever reached the internet anywhere? I could not find it on youtube or google video. Sure would love to see it.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03435148918107602176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-59653862580341392522006-12-10T11:52:00.000-06:002006-12-10T11:52:00.000-06:00The first time one of my business meetings include...The first time one of my business meetings includes a prayer, I'm contacting a lawyer:<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061206/us_nm/life_work_religion_dc_1">http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061206/us_nm/life_work_religion_dc_1</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-75165008939141105542006-12-10T10:12:00.000-06:002006-12-10T10:12:00.000-06:00Becky
I agree, traditional celebrations, regardle...Becky<br /><br />I agree, traditional celebrations, regardless of the religious aspect, are a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and loved ones.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-40531492215540968892006-12-10T03:15:00.000-06:002006-12-10T03:15:00.000-06:00Or would it be t.p.'d? Anyway, is there anyone wh...Or would it be t.p.'d? Anyway, is there anyone who has The View appearance who can put it on YouTube?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-53787598651169337912006-12-10T01:57:00.000-06:002006-12-10T01:57:00.000-06:00I have a bunch of message boards and I've been rea...I have a bunch of message boards and I've been really happy with UBB.threads. I have one free phpbb board and it's a magnet for hackers. Free software often is. Make sure you get paid software with some support.<br /><br />By the way, Santa Claus is real. It hurts no one to believe in a magical dude who brings presents one day a year.<br /><br />Our Xmas/Hanukkah decorations consist of two lighted gingerbread girls. Do you think the neighbors get the significance of two girls? ;) Then again, we've been teepee'd twice, so maybe they do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-73127412505943121892006-12-10T00:18:00.000-06:002006-12-10T00:18:00.000-06:00Becky2259,
Thanks for the info! I was just surfin...Becky2259,<br /><br />Thanks for the info! I was just surfing online to see what was there. <br /><br />~ttfn~Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06405609192768510929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-39003714405562978262006-12-09T23:44:00.000-06:002006-12-09T23:44:00.000-06:00Julia,
I found your blog quite by accident. I wa...Julia,<br /><br />I found your blog quite by accident. I was wondering what had happened to you.<br /><br />I curious about your views on the Modern Pagan movement<br /><br />Merry Yule<br /><br />http://thesylviaanddaveexperiment.blogspot.comArioch1066https://www.blogger.com/profile/11412478541686789109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-68266388956256811492006-12-09T22:31:00.000-06:002006-12-09T22:31:00.000-06:00Bev,
We are all Atheists but we celebrate Christma...Bev,<br />We are all Atheists but we celebrate Christmas because it is a tradition. Everyone has to do what is right for them, but I try not to take things too seriously and Christmas is an opportunity to have some fun. I mean I am not Irish but celebrate St Patrick's day. <br /><br />Jeremy and Julia as a former message board owner admin(I had an online support group for womens health for a few years), I would not recommend proboards. Since you already have a site Julia if you want a top notch message board vbulleton is the best. If you want free software phpbb is good. I am sure that the hosting company for your website has some suggestions. Go for something that is easy to use. If you want to pick my brain feel free to contact me through my blogBecky Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791713226363503030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-14588760191576813962006-12-09T19:56:00.000-06:002006-12-09T19:56:00.000-06:00Julia~
Here's a place to host a free forum:
http:...Julia~<br />Here's a place to host a free forum:<br /><br />http://www.proboards.com/<br /><br />I've only just skimmed it but it looks like it would work great for this sort of thing.Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06405609192768510929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-62476857073163408422006-12-09T18:25:00.000-06:002006-12-09T18:25:00.000-06:00To ben turk:
You are right that Dawkins tends to ...To ben turk:<br /><br />You are right that Dawkins tends to be strident, but "The God Delusion" is not unrelentingly strident in tone, as many of the reviews would suggest.<br /><br />You are correct that the (usually) young men who sign onto the jihadist / hirabahist party line of intolerant, theocratic, anti-rational extremist Islam are often "primed" to be suckers because of their economic or social situation. Often, but not always. A large fraction of the 19 9-11 hijackers (and also the 7-7 London subway bombers) were from middle class backgrounds and even college educated. It's worth remembering that the modern Islamic jihadist / hirabah-ist ideology that was embraced by Bin Ladin was really "brought back to life" (based on writings of Muslim scholars from as long ago as the 14th century) by a man named Sayid Qtub, who lived in the U.S. in the early 1950s and attended college in Colorado, before deciding that the modern, Western world was unredeemably evil and that true Islam was not being practiced anywhere in the world by anyone. As Mary Habeck writes in her book "Knowing the Enemy," Qtub's fierce hatred of the sinful, evil U.S. arose BEFORE the U.S. had any significant foreign policy ties to Israel or the Middle East. to the extent that the start of radical, intolerant, terrorist Islam can be dated back to Sayid Qtub in the 1950s, it's a religiously motivated, ideological reaction against the modern world, and not a reaction to political disenfranchisement or socioeconomic distress.<br /><br />Especially at this time of year, it is important for freethinkers, atheists, and other non-believers get a grip, kick back, and adopt as easy-going an attitude as possible toward religious folks, most of whom are just going through the motions without really thinking much about the basis for the beliefs that they profess (perhaps half-heartedly or even hypocritically) and the rituals in which they engage. Outwardly religious folks who go through the motions may be attending church services or other church activities to achieve a sense of belonging, or community solidarity, or to gain acceptance as someone trustworthy within that social group -- the coffee and donuts are at least as important as the doctrines and sacraments. I don't take the doctrines and sacraments of the half-heartedly religious any more seriously than they do. We can and should remain wary of and vigilant against the real extremists.<br /><br />Non-sequitur time:<br /><br /> (1) All of us are capable of occasionally (and consciously or semi-consciously) switching off our critical thinking and (as one of Lewis Carroll's characters put it) "believing six impossible things before breakfast." I think Anatole France wrote, "Better the lies that exalt us than ten thousand truths." An extreme statement, but containing a kernel of truth. Myths, such the stories of Gilgamesh, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Prometheus, Athena, Hercules, Robin Hood, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Superman, and yes, even Mithras and Jesus the Nazorean can CONCENTRATE truth and reveal some profound things about the nature of human beings and how they relate to the rest of the universe. <br /><br /> (2) Based on my reading and my own experience with meditation as a non-supernatural altered state of consciousness (somebody called it "tuned attentiveness"), I've come to accept that the ability to have and the desire for a "religious" or "mystical" or "spiritual" experience -- unfortunately there's no good word for it in English -- is wired in our brains and therefore in our genes. Unfortunately, for me the mystical experience itself is ruined as soon as we put it into words. It's like taking a beautiful, living butterfly and drowning it in a killing jar or sticking a pin through it. I have always found visual images and music without lyrics to be the best stimulus for the mystical experience. <br /><br /> (3) I think I suffer from seasonal affective disorder and am not usually cheerful around Christmastime, but my wife and I do our best to enjoy the holiday as a purely secular one and as an exuse to get together with family. None of the religiously-tinged aspects of Christmas bother me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-50555622526212701082006-12-09T16:14:00.000-06:002006-12-09T16:14:00.000-06:00Uh Oh Beverly brings up a conundrum. What would b...Uh Oh Beverly brings up a conundrum. What would be an Atheist holiday? <br /><br />First it couldn't be a holiday, since holiday is a pushed together sloppy version of Holy Day.<br /><br />But everyone needs days off, days for reflection, days to consider the beauty of a flower and days to recover from the bee stings from the considering the former all too fervently.Lori Doyonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17106140519336778658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-52830241292824696602006-12-09T15:49:00.000-06:002006-12-09T15:49:00.000-06:00My comments seem to have been lost, so will try ag...My comments seem to have been lost, so will try again.<br /><br />I wonder if we could have a consensus as to what is permissible behavior for an atheist at this time of year. Do we trim the tree, sing carols, fest on the holiday bird and get together with friends & loved ones or do we just chuck the whole kit and kaboodle?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-65780379105946682432006-12-09T15:10:00.000-06:002006-12-09T15:10:00.000-06:00Just to clarify that I am an utter pretentious fil...Just to clarify that I am an utter pretentious film geek, I also own a DVD of Lubitsch's "Heaven Can Wait", though I was referring to Warren Beatty's.<br /><br />I always wondered why Beatty chose to name his remake of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan." the same as Lubitsch's.<br /><br />By the way, thanks Carl R. Sams for answering too. <br /><br />Love your new font. I usually catch your blog in the wee hours when my peepers are weak, this eases the read.<br /><br />I always got what you meant by "The Virgin Birth" Anyone who misinterpreted you did so because their defenses edited your words in their ears.<br /><br />I for one am not smart enough to be an atheist. Reading your blog and its comments has made that perfectly obvious.<br /><br />As for Santa, I don't know if I ever believed. My parents always had a loudish wrapping party the night before, which got louder in proportion to the comsuption of eggnog. This was no quite stealthy magic filling the living room with presents.<br /><br />My father took it upon himself when I was 7 to try and convince me Santa was real on one Christmas Eve night by climbing on our roof with jingle bells, I was sure it was my Dad and decided to catch him on the roof, which gave my Mom a panic attack because a winter roof is not the easiest place for someone to run about on avoiding the skeptical gaze of a truth seeking child at the age of reason. <br /><br />All survived without injury. And my father stopped his attempt to get me to believe. He saw the danger in that much clearer.<br /><br />I did always believe in Santa as an Uncle Sam type. A representation, a symbol. I see Santa in all the people that go to the post office and answer the Santa letters, and in other random kindness that is bestowed on those we don't know expecting nothing in return.Lori Doyonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17106140519336778658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-19671654965807612852006-12-09T10:09:00.000-06:002006-12-09T10:09:00.000-06:00Very happy to find your blog. It's so nice to read...Very happy to find your blog. It's so nice to read about another ex-catholic mom trying to raise a reasonable kid. My own thinks god is stupid but santa has our phone number. It's hard being five years old.Eden Kennedy Onassishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11974659313094165781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-10072902754937517762006-12-09T09:50:00.000-06:002006-12-09T09:50:00.000-06:00Hi Julia
I am sorry to say you may also have t...Hi Julia<br /> I am sorry to say you may also have the wrong shoe size ( or the wrong type of shoes ) to be an athiest !!!. I was at a nieces first communion ( disagree wholeheartedly with the thing myself but respect others choices ) the thing I found so objectionable was the priest telling the children that Jesus said" those who do not believe in me are STUPID" ! 2006 and someone chooses to use that type of language to 7 year olds . I include this example only to question how valid ANYONES arguement can be when they choose to question someones ability to comprehend ,it seems a cheap and shoddy attempt at wrongfooting rather than offering a validly constructed point .<br /><br /> I am guessing athiests come in all sizes , shapes , attributes intellectual and moral , sexes ect and shoes . I wonder if athiests we are all supposed to follow some line and if not always in attack dog mode do not deserve to be in the club . <br /><br />On a seperate point Julia you mentioned a producer on The View seeing you to your car is there any chance of prevailing upon this person to see if they can get your section on the playback part of the programs website.<br /><br />Keep Well DanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16654170.post-75659191319276372932006-12-09T09:09:00.000-06:002006-12-09T09:09:00.000-06:00Jeff D - those are great comments on the Eagleton ...Jeff D - those are great comments on the Eagleton review. Among other things, Prof. Eagleton should really read "The End of Faith," and then go live for a while where "anonymous" or Becky from Texas lives.<br />I think Eagleton does have a valid point about Prof. Dawkins' APPROACH to religious criticism. I'm reminded of the old saying, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."<br />I'm sure Prof. Dawkins would reply that it would be dishonest of him to favor delusional beliefs with "honey." But I think he, and other writers without a religious family background fail to see that religion has brought much good to humankind. It's just after one does a serious examination of the net result of belief in deities (especially the Abrahamic ones)when you have to start standing up for reason!<br /><br />There are some really wonderful and smart kindred spirits on this blog/soon to be forum! I'm very grateful to Julia for giving us this space!<br /><br />Also, it occurred to me that the person who wrote Julia and said she wasn't smart enough to be an atheist may well have been a dishonest (to be nice about it) religionist trying to sow seeds of doubt in Julia's thinking about the quality of people who are non-believers.dabradsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04211710811659710955noreply@blogger.com