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Between Realities

Between Realities. Dawkins vs. Voegelin ( Coestier ) By: Meins M.S. Coetsier. Richard Dawkins e volutionary biologist Evolution can explain the world around us

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Between Realities

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  1. Between Realities Dawkins vs. Voegelin (Coestier) By: Meins M.S. Coetsier

  2. Richard Dawkinsevolutionary biologist • Evolution can explain the world around us • Rejects the watchmaker theory, that God created the universe because the universe is way too complicated to come about accidentally (big bang). • God just offers a convenient, but false, stop to the question of how the world came about.

  3. Eric Voegelinpolitical philosopher • Individualistic idea of a religious utopia is dangerous and has led to the spread of totalitarian movements. • Religion is not a self discovery, but is bestowed upon you– you need to follow the rules set down. • Truth becomes trust in the absolute goodness of these rules. Understanding is not needed.

  4. Summary • The word G-o-d has been • Deformed and Bent • Confused and Changed • Stripped Down and softened • For any thing to be strong and defensible it has to have limited, fixed meaning.

  5. Main Point Dawkins does have a point in The God Delusion concerning the disastrous effect of religion, but seems unaware that he is fighting his battle for atheism over deformed ‘God symbols,’ which does not say anything about the actual ‘God-reality itself.’

  6. Culture today is messy • Individualized • G-O-D as a word Is also messy • Individualized • Flow of presences • True objective meaning of things Intro & God Confusion

  7. On Dawkin’sGod Delusion • All Gods are false beliefs • Invented Supernatural beings • Likens religion with insanity • Religion = Revolt of man • God is unpleasant and unjust • Bad thing are done to man • True Freedom = Atheism • Atheistic Pride

  8. On Dawkin’s Reality • Religion is taught as a threat • Scientific point of view superior • Evolution gives order to life • Leads to atheistic pride • Eclipse of Reality • Things not understood are misrepresented • We project an alternate reality • The self we are and the self we think we are • When the later overtakes us

  9. Response to Reality • Cannot eclipse reality • Knowledge is a process of connections • Known - Object • Knower – Person • Cannot break this connection • The pole of the known • If Humans (knower) have an idea (knowledge) of God (known) than he has to be true and real. • Where else does the idea come from of God?

  10. On Dawkin’s Evolution God is just a projection of an idea from the mind of man • Evolution explains the world better than religion • Man is a function of evolution • Chain of being • Dawkins has faith in science

  11. Response to evolution • Man is the highest on the chain of being • Where on the chain of being does man start? • Regression argument? That is, one does not have beginning of man; one cannot explain man by arbitrarily putting a beginning somewhere within that chain.

  12. God vs. Superman • F. Nietzsche & K. Marx • God is just a projection of the human mind. It is just the function of the human mind • Psychological creation • When a person pulls their idea of God back into themselves they become Superman. • In other words, when we become the characteristics of the ones we project as God we become more than human, we become super human, and we become God.

  13. Response to God in Phycology Man loses all “ground” & All reference points to good are gone Man cannot and does not live without accounting for himself in terms of a ground. When the ground, which is the transcendent ground, has been imaginatively eclipsed…there is no real direction towards the transcendent because he cuts himself off…

  14. Deformed Language It is not religion, but the use of religion Dawkins is attacking Admits horrendous things have been done in the name of religion • The true meaning of God must remain pure, otherwise we start to cloud the importance • Start to lose connection between word and its meaning • Subjective meaning overtakes objective meaning This type of meaning makes it easy to attack any word.

  15. Intellectual cul-de-sac • If we allow for subjective meaning of God • Circular meaning of God • God creates all– religion • Religion defines God • Usually, this definition includes God creating all • Leads to the degradation of symbols and a deformed basis of God

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