Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The trouble with atheists

I watched a bit of the programme The Trouble with Atheists last night, presented by journalist Rod Liddle. M wanted to watch the DVD of the Da Vinci Code he'd rented so we switched off about half-way through. I think it was meant as a challenge/answer to the Dawkins' programmes they'd had on a few months ago. Oh, it made me giggle and growl in equal amounts.

His argument seemed to be that atheists are creating a new religion out of science really, which is an old saw (oh, and the arrogance thing :)). And he continued in this vein, declaring we have high priests and elders in Dawkins and his cohorts. He also found Darwin Bedford, a slightly cuckoo fellow by the look of it, who claims to be the atheist Messiah. From what was shown of him, he stands outside churches with placards saying god doesn't exist and handing out leaflets. This is on the same level of silly and annoying as the old religious placard lady in a town I once lived in, declaring those who died in the Tsunami basically deserved it.

I couldn't bear to watch the Da Vinci Code, having loathed the book, so read instead. From what I drew from it, the film seemed to move quite slowly and dully. Which is odd, since it seemed written with a film in mind, (although a predictable and cliché-ridden one). I had thought it would translate better than it seemed to, however, I didn't watch it properly so probably shouldn't have an opinion on it. :D

I read Julian Clary's autobiography A Young Man's Passage. I don't usually read biographies, but I'd been looking in the history section for something on Cromwell, and when I couldn't find anything, Clary's biography was the obvious alternative :o :P! Clearly. How could it be otherwise? A whim, indeed, but it was quite interesting and somewhat as you'd expect of the Joan Collins Fan Club, and somewhat more. His boyfriend Christopher and another friend died of AIDS, and his care of his partner showed him in a very different light.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm glad you thought the Da Vinci Code was rubbish - I can't believe how some people seemed to think it was the most earth-shattering book ever. Apart from the fact that the subject matter was hogwash, it's stunningly badly written.

I caught bits of the documentary myself, and thought it was reasonably good, and fairly well-balanced, making the point that fundamentalism and extremism of any kind, be it religious or not, can have extremely nasty results, and that we run into trouble as soon as we become so convinced we're right that we deny others the right to disagree with us.

Moderation and tolerance are good things.

I get heartily sick of people harping on about evolution and whether it proves or disproves God or not, it seems such a pointless discussion.

I think Richard Dawkins does atheism a great disservice by his extremely spiteful attitude towards religious people, and I'd have a lot more respect for him if he wasn't so nasty and vindictive. Likewise, I've got no time for Christians who delight in telling atheists that they're all going to burn in hell.

Let's play nicely, boys and girls. :)

Mephitis said...

I can agree that the Rottweiler doesn't help atheists on the whole arrogance and tolerance side of it.

I don't know where he gets the energy. :D