NetGrrl: Zeitgeist

I’ve been reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I couldn’t help but be curious - here’s a book about atheism which rises to the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller List after only 9 weeks! (#2 on the Amazon list in Nov. 2006!)

From www.richarddawkins.net

A preeminent scientist – and the world’s most prominent atheist – asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11.

With rigor and wit, Richard Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, forments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe’s wonders than any faith could ever muster.

I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s interesting reading.

I’ve always been deeply agnostic when it comes to the subject of God, and organized religions give me the willies. You won’t find me screaming “God is dead!” or “there is no god!” — even Dawkins only goes so far as to say that “God almost certainly doesn’t exist.”

The older I get, the less convinced I am. We’re like 5 year old children happy in our belief of Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m very afraid of religious zealots. People who don’t reason and have a cause higher than themselves are so very dangerous. Abortion suicide bombers. Anti-American Muslims.

My latest disdain are for those Baptists out of Topeka who protest military funerals. They claim the US is losing the war because of its tolerance of homosexuality. There’s no reasoning with these people.

I guess the Baptists are okay with the war because God told Bush to invade Iraq. But they think we’d be winning the war if it was only straight people getting killed?

Have I got that right?

All this brings me to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who is mentioned by Dawkin’s in his book.

I’d consider being a Pastafarian, if it just weren’t so high in carbs.

I think I’ll stick with George Carlin’s “Frisbeeterianism.”

When you die, your soul enters a frisbee lands on someone’s roof.