Terry Eagleton | Richard Dawkins and The New Atheists

[@manjay49]

Well said Terry. An actual "voice of reason".Earn your atheism and agnosticism. Know what you are rejecting.

[@tonycarton8054]

A brilliant and witty thinker

[@PoltysAlex]

This man is very wise. Religion should save us from self destroy. Problem is religion comes with a lot of mystical things that are not credible anymore. If the Creator of this Universe would intervene in this Universe, preventing our self destruction would be a good reason (I will assume a conscience like ours is the intended output of this Universe). Science can show us how universe works and can be used in a good way or bad way.

[@jimpsky]

From 3:26 - 5:50 : 1. Dawkins (and most other new atheists) takes the doctrine of creation to be about how the universe began. 2. But NO reasonably intelligent theologian takes the doctrine to mean that. 3. So, Dawkins’ argument against christianity is a strawman. 4. Most of Dawkins’ (and other new atheists’) arguments against christianity, are strawman arguments. But if "arguments against christianity", is taken to mean, "arguments against the beliefs of christians", then (3) does not follow. Theologians total less than 1% of all christians. Even if Dawkins is strawmaning some tiny percentage of christians [i.e., reasonably intelligent theologians], so what? Eagleton’s argument seems to fail spectacularly at showing why new-atheists’ arguments have little application/relevance to the overwhelming majority of christians on the planet.

[@Cor6196]

jimpsky I must agree. I’m just a few minutes into this video, and I can’t listen to any more of this hyper-sophisticated cant. I have the good fortune to live in a fairly reasonable part of the United States, but I am surrounded by Christians, including instructors at Christian Universities, whose intelligence admits only the most literal, i.e. crazy, interpretation of the stories and rules - even the crudest and cruelest - of the Bible. Do a poll among Christians and ask them how the Earth was created. You’re not going to get a “fairly intelligent” answer. Instead you’ll get the fairy tale. Yes, there are intelligent Christians, but they are so few! And they are the only ones that Mr Eagleton has ever become acquainted with. I would urge him to become more knowledgeable about those whose brains have been dulled and deadened by religious propaganda. Some of them, bearing many scars, wake up from their religious indoctrination thanks to the New Atheists. It is not Mr Eagleton’s right to ignore the ongoing evil that Mr Dawkins and others are opposing with all their might. “All I know about him is that his wife played a role in Dr Who.” Supercilious son of a b!

[@8301TheJMan]

Brilliant as always, though im not completely with him when he was talking about power. Power itself may now be a bad/negative thing, but those seeking it are at best those with dubious as well as quite selfish reasons for seeking it, or are people who are convinced of their own righteousness and that of their cause and those are usually the most dangerous of them all.

[@josephorlando5244]

?

[@lsobrien]

The New Atheist zealots are out in full, whiney force in the comments. Best avoided.

[@eyebee-sea4444]

Dawkins never feared verbal disputes with anyone. Wonder where this intelligent theologians are hiding.

[@dxd15-u1j]

They think -and they are right- that it is not worth engaging with someone who foes not evem undertand the first think about theology or science. He is a scientist, and he will know facts, but he does not undertand what science is what are its limitations. Btw, I say this as an atheist myself.

[@josephorlando5244]

Dawkins? Yawn . . .

[@petertaylor8922]

He knows who Richard Dawkins is, but prefers to offer an inane comment about his wife.

[@tunisianfisherman3102]

whenever a video is critical of atheism , watch the rate of like to dislikes , this shows how tolerant they actually are ...

[@tomgreene6579]

People wan a nasty God ....so that he will punish others!

[@martynfenton4862]

Interesting guy

[@alinepereira7014]

Que maravilha isto.

[@robertberger8981]

Nothing is more powerful than power true religions good or bad makes no difference. I could believe that God himself uses atheists to stop this abuse Think if you have 2 dogs one loves all humans and sometimes even disobey you to play with a child or a cat. The other dog only obeys you and bites left and right to protect you believing he is doing you a favor.

[@myothersoul1953]

4:30 If the doctrine of creation doesn't have to do with how the world started what does it have to do with? Something other than creation? That's just giving theology of the easy out of it doesn't mean what it says. 5:30 " no theologian for a century or so ..." None? At all? Few people are theologians yet many people believe in literal interpretations of theological stories. 6:40 When do the new atheists right off theology as not being powerful? Of course they recognize the power of myth. That's the root of all evil, myth being taken as reality. 7:10 That might be what he thinks the central doctrine of christianity is, but that's not what most christians think the central doctrine is. The beliefs of literary critics don't make much make much difference in the world. The beliefs of the masses do. 9:00 He is right, human history has been a long list of badness. How are you going to change that? Maybe your can't and you should just crawl in a hole and wait until you die. Or maybe you should try to make it better by changing beliefs. 9:30 We all have to face the inevitability of death (at least of the next couple of generations) but we don't have to face the inevitability of rebirth because there is no good reason to believe in rebirth. 10:00 that's not all religion teaches, Theologians don't just talk about justice, they talk about big ideas like how the world was created and how it is. And there is no reason why one can't believe in justice and not believe in theology. 111:30 People secretly want X. Unless he has good evidence he is just engage in the same sort of pseudoscience as Freud. 12:00 Most ideas of god are internally inconsistent or inconsistent with the way the world is. Inconsistent ideas can justify anything good or bad.

[@Sasquatch4lifeX]

Not entirely sure he knows what he is talking about. “New Atheists” is a stupid title to begin with, but talking about Richard Dawkins, he “talks about ideas no theologian believes for centuries”? Really? Is that so? The belief is a conscious being called God that is watching over the events of the universe isn’t what theologians believe? Thats what Dawkins argues, if theologians aren’t theists then maybe you are right.

[@3rdrock]

Is there one example of a working christian society?

[@cachinnation448]

I don't think there's ever meant to be a "Christian society", just Christians in a society, which is very different.

[@3rdrock]

@@cachinnation448 So there are no christian societies, then?

[@tonycarton8054]

religion I walking the walk not talking ,hard to comprehend after the influence of Descartes .Also remember the Irish hunger strikers

[@mikewinter8193]

It’s frustrating and difficult to converse with someone who makes a straw man argument while complaining of the same. Religion needs to be slapped down. Not because it’s wrong, but because religious people are demanding society act in a way counter to what the rest of us think is sensible, then pointing to religion to justify it. It’s the only reason we care. If religion would stay out of government and law making many of us would stop caring. If only everyone could live the way I think they should the world would be perfect. Said every idealist of every idea ever. I wonder if Terry ever listens to himself.

[@josephorlando5244]

Oh. My!

[@merrybolton2135]

If Genesis is not a way to try explaining the start of life .What the hell is it ??? most none thinking people think it is

[@davidfrisken1617]

Wow, this guy thinks belief and gnostic refer to the same thing. For the record, belief is what people believe, and agnostic refers to knowledge and what we do or don't know. Neither of these terms relate solely to religion. So much to say about Christianity while displaying complete ignorance of the subject.

[@josephorlando5244]

Yawn . . .

[@mycount64]

the teaching to help each other is great... there is no evidence of the supernatural. Religion is not about believing in doing good things it is about the supernatural being real.

[@tinkmarshino]

I do not think he really understands what he is saying.. or he can not tell us what his ideas are very well.. although I do grasp and understand a lot of what he says (and I agree with a lot of it) still he contradicts himself a bit and that leads me to think he is having difficulty in his expressions of his thoughts.. I would love to sit down with him myself and have a conversation.

[@EricHWoo]

Not finding him inspiring at all.

[@markphc99]

Mainstay of British Academia? What utter nonsense