QuoteFrom Dawkins to sex on the same page

Can I talk about big engines then too please?

Quote from: edo on September 21, 2011, 01:42:04 PM
In what way do you think Dawkins is fanatically reductionist, Brian?

Well, his position seems to be "there is no god, just science", and anyone who disgrees seems to be pigeon-holed as a Bible-thumping fundie.

The entire premise of "The Selfish Gene" is that we are nothing more than automatons for our genes. The wider human experience becomes an irrelevant by-product. And that was in the days before he *really* start hammering it out against the Christian Creationists.

Quote from: I, Brian on September 21, 2011, 02:25:18 PM

Quote from: edo on September 21, 2011, 01:42:04 PM
In what way do you think Dawkins is fanatically reductionist, Brian?

Well, his position seems to be "there is no god, just science", and anyone who disgrees seems to be pigeon-holed as a Bible-thumping fundie.

The entire premise of "The Selfish Gene" is that we are nothing more than automatons for our genes. The wider human experience becomes an irrelevant by-product. And that was in the days before he *really* start hammering it out against the Christian Creationists.

I agree that's a perception a fair few people have about Dawkins but I feel it's unfair. He consistently argues in favour of the human experience and the incredible diversity of life. Hence his newest book is called The Magic of Reality.

In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins describes biological processes, just as Einstein described different ways to understand the physics of the universe. The fact is we are automatons for our genes, just as gravity does bend space/time. That doesn't mean to say our lives have no meaning - far from it - just that there are forces at work that we have no control over. I really don't see why he should be criticised for just stating scientific fact.

As for hammering it out against the creationists, good on him. I put evangelical Christians on a par with psychics. Both expoit the vunerlable and ignorant for monetary gain.

Re: religion and sex

My old neighborhood was working class and mostly Catholic, there was plenty of sex and plenty of premarital babies going around.  Later I went to a fairly liberal university, most of the students there were (at least temporarily) agnostics/atheists and very liberal. In contrast the university were largely frustrated celibate.

You compare the data between two places like say Texas and Finland and the Texans have more sex at a younger age, they also have more teen and early adulthood babies, which is just the the opposite of the dominant values of the area.  The differences go deeper than just the decisions to use contraception.