Monday, January 19, 2009

Richard Dawkins: Scientist or Priest?

Since I joined the Education Network - scroll down to the bottom of the page, please - I found a little post about one of my favorite .... ahem .... pets: Mr. Dawkins, possessed by The Selfish Gene - no, not Gene Simmons! - and other viruses.

Richard Dawkins: Growing Up in the Universe - Designed and Designoid Objects

Instead of relying on high-minded philosophical reasoning, awesome as it is, Dawkins explains these wonderful insights to the lucky children attending this Faraday lecture through the use of a great number of intelligently designed examples :) from the natural world and computer models.
I could spend the entire day writing about this, but I will condense all this to: WE JUST DON'T KNOW. WE MAY SPECULATE, HAVE FANTASIES, BUILD RELIGIONS, SCIENTIFIC "MODELS" OR WHATEVER, BUT WE STILL JUST DO NOT KNOW. PERIOD.

Anybody who pretends to have THE ANSWER is nothing but yet another fanatic. Welcome to the mothership, Mr Dawkins.

3 comments:

  1. Who ever said we KNOW anything with absolute certainty? Dawkins certainly did not. I certainly did not... I'm not sure who you're attacking here other than some made-up straw man you've built up in order to easily refute...

    Having said that, it is worth mentioning that even though no one may have THE ANSWER, some answers are better than others and have more evidence and better arguments supporting them than other alternatives, so even if they cannot be proven with absolute certainty, that doesn't mean that they can't be rationally held and endorsed.

    Anyone who KNOWS no one has any answers seems just as fanatical as those he attacks... just some food for thought.

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  2. I agree with the top commenter. There will really never be an answer. I don't see the accumulation of knowledge coming to an end. Not to mention that humans have a limited perception of the world.

    On a side note. What is this blog about? I've been trying to find out but I can't. Are you learning hanzi and kanji at the same time?

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  3. >>> Anyone who KNOWS no one has any answers seems just as fanatical as those he attacks... just some food for thought.

    Interesting twist .... I don't I think I said ANY answer, did I? Those pretending to know THE answer is another issue. Usually a fundamentalist in some way. But I prefer a scientifically oriented fundamentalist before a fundamentalist creationist, only trusting the most letter-by-letter interpretation of the bible (or koran etc.)

    fairykarma: Yes, this WILL BE focused on Kanji/Hanzi, Japanese/Chinese, but why not some recreation while waiting for more readers? :-)

    Take care,
    Kanji Hanzi

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