Celebrating 150 years of Darwin's theory - "Minds Eye"

Message from discussion Celebrating 150 years of Darwin's theory

Pottsie

More options Jul 20, 11:49 am

From: Pottsie <pottsie...@yahoo.com>

Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:49:00 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: Celebrating 150 years of Darwin's theory

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The more I think about it, the more laughable this becomes.

Dawkins, calls himself an atheist......then turns around and admits,
for all intents and purposes, that there is such a thing as
spirituality. There can't be, regardless of whether he calls it such,
a secular spirituality. The word "secular" means "Worldly RATHER THAN
spiritual" according to American Heritage Dictionary. That leaves us
with simply Spirituality. or.....The state, quality, manner, or fact
of being spiritual. (again AHD)

spir·i·tu·al
1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not
tangible or material. See Synonyms at immaterial
2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.
3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.
4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.
5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit;
supernatural.

If there is condition called spirituality which pertains or relates to
the spiritual.....which relates the the Spirit.....why does Dawkins
deny it?

I wonder if it could be that he just wants to show us how intelligent
he is. It couldn't possibly be that he is simply an egoist......(says
Pottsie, tongue firmly imbedded in cheek.)

This man may be a preeminent evolutionary biologist and work at
Oxford.......but he obviously hasn't been hanging around the Semantics
department. ;)

Namaste

Pottsie

On Jul 19, 1:24 pm, "Ian Pollard" <ian.poll...@gmail.com> wrote:

> This August is the 150th anniversary of Darwin presenting his theory of
> evolution through natural selection to the Linnean Society of London, and
> this year is the 200th anniversary of his birth. There's lots going on to
> commemorate this, including a 4 part TV programme by Richard Dawkins, called
> Dawkins On Darwin. It starts on the 4th of August on Channel 4, and will not
> doubt be availabe for download following its broadcast.

> The Times has a great interview with Dawkins about the programme, where he
> makes numerous interesting points. Here's two...

> The first is about secular spirituality:

> "... there is almost a spiritual side to Dawkins, a childlike wonder and joy
> in the marvels of the universe. He talks about being moved almost to tears
> when he took his two-year-old daughter Juliet (his only child, from his
> marriage to Eve Barham), wrapped in blankets, out into the back garden in
> 1986 to see Halley's Comet in the night sky. Dawkins could barely see the
> comet, but, aware that he would never see it again in his lifetime, he
> whispered to Juliet that she might just see it when it passed again, when
> she was 78. He chokes up a little talking about it again, and it reminds me
> of the Ted Hughes poem *Full Moon and Little Frieda*, when Hughes's toddler
> daughter is in the garden in the evening and suddenly shouts "Moon, Moon" in
> the silence. It's not quite pagan worship, but "it's a fine example of
> secular spirituality", says Dawkins."

> And the other is about natural selection itself, which he says is "the most
> important idea to occur to the human mind" and that "in many ways it's weird
> that it's still being debated", but he also notes "it is not debated by
> anyone who knows anything about it."

> Interesting read:

> http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_...

> Ian

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