05-22-2007, 11:29 AM
[quote spearmint]I don't read it that way. It sounds like it refers to all believers.
Well, I wrote it and I was quoting Dr. Miller, who was not referring to "all believers".
[quote spearmint][Of course I will never watch it. Why should I? Arrogant atheists and hope stifling jerks are not my cup of tea.
Then why post to this thread?
The documentary under discussion is not what you imagine it to be. It is -- as the title says -- a discussion of the history of disbelief, of disbelievers. It explains arguments against a belief in god put forth by philosophers and scientists from antiquity to the present, and places these arguments in historical context.
At the end, the author of the documentary explains what prompted him to undertake the series. He explains it in plain language, without any mealy-mouthed apologies or conciliation directed towards believers.
Consider what it is like for a skeptic living in world where the majority of the population believes in demonstrably false things? Where superstitious thugs take and hold positions of power and try to stifle free thought?
It was, for a disbeliever, refreshing and encouraging to hear someone acknowledge that this is a dangerous state of affairs, and that it should not be tolerated simply because it is impolite, or impolitic, to point out to the religious that they are being very silly.
Well, I wrote it and I was quoting Dr. Miller, who was not referring to "all believers".
[quote spearmint][Of course I will never watch it. Why should I? Arrogant atheists and hope stifling jerks are not my cup of tea.
Then why post to this thread?
The documentary under discussion is not what you imagine it to be. It is -- as the title says -- a discussion of the history of disbelief, of disbelievers. It explains arguments against a belief in god put forth by philosophers and scientists from antiquity to the present, and places these arguments in historical context.
At the end, the author of the documentary explains what prompted him to undertake the series. He explains it in plain language, without any mealy-mouthed apologies or conciliation directed towards believers.
Consider what it is like for a skeptic living in world where the majority of the population believes in demonstrably false things? Where superstitious thugs take and hold positions of power and try to stifle free thought?
It was, for a disbeliever, refreshing and encouraging to hear someone acknowledge that this is a dangerous state of affairs, and that it should not be tolerated simply because it is impolite, or impolitic, to point out to the religious that they are being very silly.