On the Limits of the Human

The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. -- Albert Einstein

What I've learned from debating religious people around the world. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

I haven't yet run into an argument that has made me want to change my mind. After all, a believing religious person, however brilliant or however good in debate, is compelled to stick fairly closely to a "script" that is known in advance, and known to me, too.

Atheism: class is a distraction | Carlo Strenger | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

According to the Pew survey, 85% of humanity is religious in some way, and that's probably a low estimate, since nobody knows the true figures about China. This doesn't mean that religion is true (it can't, because religions contradict each other), but that there are strong cognitive and motivational factors that give religions an evolutionary advantage in the market of ideas. A scientific worldview is cognitively and emotionally more difficult, and hence at a disadvantage..... None of what I have said here is new except for recent data. It has become quite fashionable to bash Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens et al and to call them "new atheists" as if they say something new. It is even more fashionable to think that atheism betrays a lack of cultural sensitivity or sophistication, exemplified by Terry Eagleton's moniker "Ditchkins", used to make fun of Dawkins and Hitchens. But basically they restate the very cogent analyses of thinkers like David Hume, Marx, John Stuart Mill, Nietzsche and Freud that explain why humans hang on to the strangest beliefs despite evidence to the contrary..... While some critics of the "new atheists" have made valid arguments, primarily that their optimistic humanism is far from realistic, they are missing out on a simple point: adhering to a scientific worldview requires discipline; it requires giving up on the certainties of childhood and the belief in ultimate protection. I don't know whether doing so turns us into better human beings, but it certainly makes us intellectually more responsible.

Posted by Vanderleun at October 27, 2009 12:22 PM