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posted by mrpg on Sunday March 25 2018, @10:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the stay-tuned dept.

Richard Dawkins is responding to what he called the "stirring towards atheism" in some Islamic countries with a programme to make free downloads of his books available in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Indonesian.

The scientist and atheist said he was "greatly encouraged" to learn that the unofficial Arabic pdf of the book had been downloaded 13m times. Dawkins writes in The God Delusion about his wish that the "open-minded people" who read it will "break free of the vice of religion altogether". It has sold 3.3m copies worldwide since it was published in 2006 – far fewer than the number of Arabic copies that Dawkins believes to have been downloaded illegally.

Richard Dawkins to give away copies of The God Delusion in Islamic countries


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 25 2018, @11:16PM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 25 2018, @11:16PM (#658117) Journal

    Both Europe (mostly as independent countries, as the EU hasn't been a thing that long... although plenty of religious violence and just-sub-violent malfuckery has happened since then) and the US have numerous, bloody, reprehensible histories of being religious trouble spots, as well as continuous and significant levels of highly unfortunate rI'eligious meddling in civil matters. They also have histories of going along relatively quietly for a time, then blowing up all over again. I can't imagine why you think they serve as reasonable counterexamples. What are you talking about?

    And yet, neither has had any major wars since the Second World War.

  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday March 26 2018, @12:23AM (3 children)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday March 26 2018, @12:23AM (#658151) Journal

    And yet, neither has had any major declared wars since the Second World War.

    FTFY

    For the US, certainly Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq II were major wars. And there's whole slew of brush-fire level ones as well, many with religious causative factors of one kind or another.

    Also, it doesn't take a war for one group to cause major harm to another, either in large, individual events / legislation, or in the aggregation of many small events.

    From where I sit, everything from "illegal to buy beer on Sunday" to "atheists can't hold public office" to bibles in courtrooms and public official swearing-in ceremonies to abortion clinic bombings to 9/11-class religotardisms fall into this specific class of "trouble."

    Methinks a considerably broader brush than "major wars" is called for here when the criteria is "trouble spots." We've got trouble. We've got lots of very bloody serious trouble.

    Not that formal religious war or terrorism would be excepted, in-country or international. Just more fucktards being... fucktards.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 26 2018, @03:43AM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 26 2018, @03:43AM (#658213) Journal

      For the US, certainly Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq II were major wars.

      Not in the US or Europe.

      Also, it doesn't take a war for one group to cause major harm to another, either in large, individual events / legislation, or in the aggregation of many small events.

      [...whine about blue laws and other minor shit ...] I think given your weak examples, maybe it does take a war.

      • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday March 26 2018, @03:25PM (1 child)

        by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday March 26 2018, @03:25PM (#658475) Journal

        For the US, certainly Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq II were major wars.

        Not in the US or Europe.

        That is both pedantic and wrongheaded. Here are the "it didn't happen here" US-only statistics for the Vietnam war:

        • 58,318 KIA or non-combat deaths (including the missing & deaths in captivity)
        • 1,602 MIA (originally 2,646)
        • 153,303 WIA (excluding 150,332 persons not requiring hospital care)
        • 766–778 POW (652–662 freed/escaped, 114–116 died in captivity)

        Then there was the financial impact. And the social impact. And the business impact. And the international relations impact.

        The US "felt" that war (and the Korean war, etc.) in the classic painful way: our soldiers died and suffered, their families and friends suffered, society changed under enormous pressure. That's as just "it happened here" as it is when you live in NYC and LA gets bombed. Just because it didn't happen right on your doorstep doesn't mean we weren't "in" a war or that the war wasn't "in" this country.

        [...whine about blue laws and other minor shit ...]

        Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. As we have seen. No US government legislation or enforcement should be undertaken backing a specifically religious position. Ever. That's important. If you can't see it, that's a problem with your cognitive process, not a problem with "whining about blue laws."

        I think given your weak examples, maybe it does take a war.

        No, you're not thinking. You're just arguing. Poorly. I expected more from you. Sometimes you present very well thought out arguments. Here, you're not even trying.

        Some other time, then.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 26 2018, @04:32PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 26 2018, @04:32PM (#658504) Journal

          Here are the "it didn't happen here" US-only statistics for the Vietnam war:

          Vietnam is not in North America or Europe.

          Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. As we have seen. No US government legislation or enforcement should be undertaken backing a specifically religious position. Ever. That's important. If you can't see it, that's a problem with your cognitive process, not a problem with "whining about blue laws."

          They didn't get that mile. Most blue laws have been overturned. Same goes for the other stuff.

          No, you're not thinking. You're just arguing. Poorly. I expected more from you. Sometimes you present very well thought out arguments. Here, you're not even trying.

          Maybe you ought to address the beam in thy own eye first.

          Let me elaborate. First, as I already noted, Europe and North America have been peaceful for a number of decades. Wars outside of those regions don't count, because they're not in those regions. And of the wars of the past (up to the Second World War) most were due to rival ideologies like Communism, Fascism, and French/German Nationalism. Second, the Christianity of the region has come up with some pretty cool ideas like science, academic culture, just war and the Western take on pacifism, modern Western art, and well over a thousand years of advancement in Western philosophy and ideas.