Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:46:02 MST http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d en-us BlogDammit! Copyright 2003-2008 No More Mr. Nice Guy! http://www.nmmng.co.uk/ http://www.nmmng.co.uk/Images/avatar.gif Recent comments in this bloghttp://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#700http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#700Mike Haubrich, FCDSuch a person is probably a lost cause anyway, and is certainly not going to read "The God Delusion" - his megachurch preacher has probably already told him it's a satanic book, and he'll scream forever in infinite agony in the Lake of Fire if he so much as goes into a non-Christian bookstore that might stock a copy. More likely, since a MegaChurch is more concerned with preaching "prosperity" than hellfire, the preacher would tell him that he should disassociate from such negativity. Habituating non-Christian bookstores will lead to poverty rather than hellfire. The Megachurches are more concerned with building a "Heaven on Earth" than waiting for the Armageddon. Yeah, it's all ridiculous, but that's how they roll. I got the same sense from reading this book that you did, and it's almost like it was granting me a self-affirmation to be an atheist while I was reading it, than any sort of destroy religion screed.]]>Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:15:02 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#679http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#679Rosito If we follow Kevin's line of thinking to its logical conclusion we would have to declare every child who believed in Santa, the Easter Rabbit or fairies to be legally delusional. While there may be more of a case for applying this declaration to adults who voted Dubya Bush back into presidential power there are extenuating circumstances even here (although one may have to look rather hard to see them). Two facts should be considered before disdainfully dismissing all adult religious people as crazily delusional. First, mental health workers are familiar with the relatively normal person who harbors an "encapsulated delusion". The delusion is generally held apart from most areas of the person's life. It is immune from the mental processes used to interface with daily life and , in turn, may have little persistent impact on that life. A diagnosis of mental illness is proof that the mental wall is imperfect and the delusion is causing significant interference with normal functioning. A benign example of this phenomena is the person who believes they have been abducted by aliens. The difference between "encapsulated" delusional systems which have been diagnosed as "mental illness" and the religious beliefs of those without such a diagnosis is often no more than a dif]]>Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:56:44 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#678http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#678kevinTue, 09 Oct 2007 21:34:03 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#673http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#673J. J. Ramseyin my opinion, but he does discuss it.]]>Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:08:18 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#672http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#672Danny VegaMon, 01 Oct 2007 01:45:26 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#671http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#671J. J. RamseyOrac, had read the book. Also, "Ruse started it" is not a very good defense of Dawkins, since implicit comparisons to Nazis are still being made in Dawkins' Chamberlain analogy.]]>Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:58:17 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#670http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#670Blake Staceyreally bad person to be as bad as the Nazis, so most comparisons to them or their various adversaries will be horribly overblown. The take-home lesson, I guess, is that in a debate, one should defuse the opponent's WWII analogy rather than perpetuating it.]]>Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:16:39 +0100http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#669http://www.nmmng.co.uk/46f9641d#669Blake StaceySun, 30 Sep 2007 17:08:57 +0100