You always hear his name ( Richard Dawkins ) but I have never read his book before. Back in 2011, our flat mate was reading it. So I decided to give it a chance too and bought the book in the original language. I have to confess time to time as he is talking about some scientific, genetic stories there have been many terms I was not acquainted with. There are many chapters in the book that handle different issues related to religion. I was especially impressed by the parts that were comparing different stories from holy books and discuss them. As a person from a country where the majority is Muslim ( Turkey is said to be 99%, however I believe that this data is taken from national IDs where there is a statement of religion is by default written Muslim if your parents are so when they register you. And it stays there if you do not change it), I was not very familiar with stories from Old and New Testament. I was literally shocked to read some of them which are mainly based on human sacrifice, women trafficking( Genesis19: 7-8, Judges 19: 23-4 ), virginity, rape ( Judges 19: 25-6) even incest (Genesis 19: 31-6).
“Behold, here is my daughter a maiden and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so vile a thing”
Translation: Enjoy yourselves by humiliating and raping my daughter and this priest’s concubine, but show a proper respect for my guest who is, after all, male.
Another thing that stroke me was different attitudes of God for similar occasions. Abraham’s sacrificing of his son Isaac ( Ishmael in Muslim scripture) story VS. Jephthah’s bargain with God burning whatsoever cometh forth on the doors of his house to meet him, indeed his daughter and YES, he cooked her. God did not intervene in the second one.
Yet another, The Great Beethoven Fallacy. I read this myself before in internet and I did not know it was actually misinforming me. It is about terminating pregnancy ( an abortion decision to be taken); asking you what would you do with the upcoming child if the parents were syphilitic and tuberculous and the siblings blind, dead and dumb. If you decide to abort, DAMN, you would have murdered Beethoven. How easy to deceive people making up such stories right? Most of the people does not really then look for more info about this and just believe in this made up story…
Here are some of the paragraphs that I underlined while reading:
MONOTHEISM
The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are sky-god religios. They are, literally, patriarchal- God is the Omnipotent Father- hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those contries afflicted by the sky-god and his earhly male delagates. Gore Vidal p:58
Why is God considered an explanation for anything? It’s not – it’s a failure to explain, a shrug of the shoulders, an ‘I dunno’ dressed up in spirituality and ritual. If someone credits something to God, generally what it means is that they haven’t a clue, so they’re attributing it to an unreachable, unknowable sky-fairy. Ask for an explanation of where that bloke came from, and odds are you’ll get a vague, pseudo-philosophical reply about having always existed, or being outside nature. Which, of course, explains nothing. p:161
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension p.182
The nineteenth century connection is now clear. The nineteenth century is the last time when it was possible for an educated person to admit to believing in miracles like the virgin birth without embarrassment. When pressed, many educated Christians today are too loyal to deny the virgin birth and the resurrection. But it embarrasses them because their rational minds know it is absurd, so they would much rather not be asked. Hence, if somebody like me insists on asking the question, it is I who am accused of being ‘nineteenth century.’ It is really quite funny when you think about it. p:187
Organized religions are organized by people: by priests and bishops, rabbis, imams and ayetollas. But, to reiterate the point I made with respect to Martin Luther, that doesn’t mean they were conceived and designed by people. Even where religions have been expolited and manipulated to the benefit of powerful individuals, the strong possibility remains that the detailled form of each religion has been larlgey shaped by unconscious evolution. p.233
So, no doubt, many of those Asian holy men who blamed the 2004 tsunami not on a plate tectonic shift but on human sins, ranging from drinking and dancing in bars to breaking some footling sabbath rule. Steeped in the story of Noah, and ignorant of all except biblical learning, who can blame them?Their whole education has led them to view natural disasters as bound up with human affairs, paybacks for human misdemeanours rather than anything so impersonal as plate tectonics. By the way, what presumptuous egocentricity to believe that earth-shaking events, on the scale at which a god (or a tectonic plate) might operate, must always have a human connection. Why should a divine being, with creation and eternity on his mind, care a fig for petty human malefactions? We humans give ourselves such airs, even aggrandizing our poky little ‘sins’ to the level of cosmic significance! p:270
You always hear his name ( Richard Dawkins ) but I have never read his book before. Back in 2011, our flatmate was reading it. So I decided to give it a chance too and bought the book in the original language. I have to confass time to time as he is telling some scientific, genetic stories there have been many terms I was not acquainted with. There are many chapters in the book that handle different issues related to religion. I was especially impressed by the parts that were comparing different stories from holy books and discuss them. As a person from a country where the majority is Muslim ( Turkey is said to be 99%, however I believe that this data is taken from national IDs where there is a statement of religion is by default written Muslim if your parents are so when they register you. And it stays there if you do not change it), I was not very familiar with stories from Old and New Testament. I was literally shocked to read some of them which are mainly based on human sacrifice, women trafficking( Genesis19: 7-8, Judges 19: 23-4 ), virginity, rape ( Judges 19: 25-6) even incest (Genesis 19: 31-6).
“Behold, here is my daughter a maiden and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so vile a thing”
Translation: Enjoy yourselves by humiliating and raping my daughter and this priest’s concubine, but show a proper respect for my guest who is, after all, male.
Another thing that stroke me was different attitudes of God for similar occasions. Abraham’s sacrificing of his son Isaac ( Ishmael in Muslim scripture) story VS. Jephthah’s bargain with God burning whatsoever cometh forth on the doors of his house to meet him, indeed his daughter and YES, he cooked her. God did not intervene in the second one.
Yet another, The Great Beethoven Fallacy. I read this myself before in internet and I did not know it was actually misinforming me. It is about terminating pregnancy ( an abortion decision to be taken); asking you what would you do with the upcoming child if the parents were syphilitic and tuberculous and the siblings blind, dead and dumb. If you decide to abort, DAMN, you would have murdered Beethoven. How easy to deceive people making up such stories right? Most of the people does not really then look for more info about this and just believe in this made up story…
Here are some of the paragraphs that I underlined while reading:
MONOTHEISM
The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are sky-god religios. They are, literally, patriarchal- God is the Omnipotent Father- hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those contries afflicted by the sky-god and his earhly male delagates. Gore Vidal p:58
Why is God considered an explanation for anything? It’s not – it’s a failure to explain, a shrug of the shoulders, an ‘I dunno’ dressed up in spirituality and ritual. If someone credits something to God, generally what it means is that they haven’t a clue, so they’re attributing it to an unreachable, unknowable sky-fairy. Ask for an explanation of where that bloke came from, and odds are you’ll get a vague, pseudo-philosophical reply about having always existed, or being outside nature. Which, of course, explains nothing. p:161
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension p.182
The nineteenth century connection is now clear. The nineteenth century is the last time when it was possible for an educated person to admit to believing in miracles like the virgin birth without embarrassment. When pressed, many educated Christians today are too loyal to deny the virgin birth and the resurrection. But it embarrasses them because their rational minds know it is absurd, so they would much rather not be asked. Hence, if somebody like me insists on asking the question, it is I who am accused of being ‘nineteenth century.’ It is really quite funny when you think about it. p:187
Organized religions are organized by people: by priests and bishops, rabbis, imams and ayetollas. But, to reiterate the point I made with respect to Martin Luther, that doesn’t mean they were conceived and designed by people. Even where religions have been expolited and manipulated to the benefit of powerful individuals, the strong possibility remains that the detailled form of each religion has been larlgey shaped by unconscious evolution. p.233
So, no doubt, many of those Asian holy men who blamed the 2004 tsunami not on a plate tectonic shift but on human sins, ranging from drinking and dancing in bars to breaking some footling sabbath rule. Steeped in the story of Noah, and ignorant of all except biblical learning, who can blame them?Their whole education has led them to view natural disasters as bound up with human affairs, paybacks for human misdemeanours rather than anything so impersonal as plate tectonics. By the way, what presumptuous egocentricity to believe that earth-shaking events, on the scale at which a god (or a tectonic plate) might operate, must always have a human connection. Why should a divine being, with creation and eternity on his mind, care a fig for petty human malefactions? We humans give ourselves such airs, even aggrandizing our poky little ‘sins’ to the level of cosmic significance! p:270
İsmini çok duyduğum ama hiçbir kitabını okumamış olduğum bir bilim adamıydı Richard Dawkins. 2011 yılında ev arkadaşlarımdan biri okuyordu; ilk o zaman dikkatimi çekmişti. Ben de bu kitabı orijinal dilinde okumaya karar verdim. Açıkçası biraz zorlayıcı oldu: çok fazla terim, çok fazla biyolojik ve zoolojik açıklamalar.
Kitap, dinlerin yaklaşımıyla evrimsel yaklaşımların kıyasıyla başlıyor. Genel örgü içerisinde bu kıyas hep var. Her bölümde farklı bir noktaya değinmiş yazar. Benim en çok dikkatimi çeken bölümlerden biri kutsal kitaplarda geçen hikayeleri tartıştığı kısımdı. %99’unun Müslüman sayıldığı bir ülkeden geldiğimden, ( Tabii, bu data neye göre hesaplanıyor bilmiyorum, sonuçta Türkiye’de ailesinin kimliğinde Müslüman yazan her bebek nüfus kaydına Müslüman diye geçiyor ve birçok kişi de inancını değiştirse de kimliktekine üşenebiliyor) Eski ve Yeni Ahit hikayelerini çok da fazla bilmiyorum. Bazı hikayeler beni tam olarak şoke etti diyebilirim. İnsanların kurban edilmesi, kadın pazarlanması (Yaratılış 19: 7-8, Hakimler 19: 23-4 ), bakireliğin satılması, tecavüz ( Hakimler 19: 25-6) ve hatta ensest (Yaratılış 19: 31-6).
“Bakın, daha erkek eli degmemis kızımla adamın cariyesi içerde. Onları dısarı çıkarayım, onlarla yatın, onlara dilediginizi yapın. Ama adama bu kötülügü yapmayın.”(Hakimler 19:24)
Beni hayrete düşüren başka bir şey ise benzer durumlarda Tanrı’nın farklı tepkiler vermesi durumuna dikkat çekmesi oldu. İbrahim oğlu İsmail’i ( Hristiyan metinlerine göre Isak) kurban etmesi VS. Jephthah’ın savaşı kazanırsa evine geldiğinde kapıyı açan ilk kişiyi Tanrı adına kurban edeceğine adak adaması ve kapıyı açan kişinin kızı olması. Gerçekten de kızı yakarak öldürmesi ve Tanrı’nın müdahale etmemesi. Bu birbirine benzer iki durumda Tanrı’nın olaya farklı tavırlar sergilediğinden bahsediyor Dawkins…
Bir başka konu da Beethoven Aldatmacası. Buna internette ben de rastlamıştım.
“Bir kadın var. Bu kadın frengi hastası ve tam sekiz tane çocuğu var. Bu çocuklardan üçü sağır, ikisi kör ve biri zeka özürlü. Ama kadın yine hamile. Sizce bu çocuğu dünyaya getirsin mi, yoksa kürtaj mı yaptırsın?
Kürtaja Evet dediyseniz, Beethoven’ı öldürdünüz”
Birçok insan gerçek mi değil mi araştırmadan bu okuduğuna inanıyor elbet. Dawkins, bu hikayenin tamamen uydurulmuş olduğunu anlatıyor. Hatta çeşitli varyasyonları da mevcut aynı hikayenin. Yani kürtaja karşı gruplar savunmak için bu tip hikayeler yaratıp insanların beynine farklı mesaj vermeye çalışıyor…
Okurken dikkatimi çeken bazı kısımlar:
TEK TANRICILIK
Kültürümüzün kalbindeki büyük, ağza alınmayacak kötülük monoteizmdir. Eski Ahit adıyla bilinen barbar bir Tunç Çağı metninden üç insanlık karşıtı din meydana çıkmıştır. (Yahudilik, Hıristiyanlık ve İslam. Bunlar gök tanrılı dinledir. Ve tamamen ataerkildirler. Tanrı her şeye kâdir Baba’dır.) Bunun sonucunda gök tanrı ve dünyevi erkek elçileri sundukları kadın nefretiyle 2000 yıldır bu diyarlardaki kadınlara eziyet etmişlerdir. GORE VİDAL
Neden Tanrı her şeyin bir açıklaması olarak kabul edilsin? Değildir. Bu bir açıklama noksanlığıdır, bir omuz silkmedir, bilmiyorum demenin ruhsal ve ayinsel kılık değiştirmesidir. Eğer bir insan bir şeyi Tanrıyla ilişkilendirirse genelde bunun anlamı bu kişinin elinde bir ipucu olmamasıdır. Böylelikle bu bilinmezi erişilmez, çözülmez bir gök perisine dayandırır. Bu yaşlı adamın nereden geldiğinin açıklamasını talep edin. Büyük ihtimalle bu yaşlı adamın her zaman var olduğunu ya da hep doğanın ötesinde olduğunu söyleyen hayal meyal, sahte felsefi bir yanıt alacaksınız. Lakin bu yanıt elbette hiçbir şeyin izahı değildir”
Tanrı ve akıl arasında herhangi bariz bir fark olduğunu düşünmüyorum. İdrak sınırlarımızın ötesine geçildiğine akıl Tanrı haline gelir.
On dokuzuncu yüzyıl bağlantısı şimdi anlaşılmış olmalı. On dokuzuncu yüzyıl, eğitimli birisinin, bakire bir insanın doğurması gibi mucizeleri hiç utanmadan onaylayabileceği son zaman dilimiydi. Baskı yapıldığında, çağdaş birçok eğitimli Hıristiyan, bakireden doğumu ve yeniden dirilmeyi inkâr etmeye oldukça yatkındır. Ancak bu soru yine de onları zor durumda bırakır çünkü akılcı zihinleri bunun saçma olduğunu söyler, bu yüzden bu sorunun hiç sorulmamış olmasını tercih ederler. Sonuçta, birisi bu soruyu sormam için ısrar ettiğinde, neden ‘on dokuzuncu yüzyıldan’ kalmakla suçlanan ben olurum? Biraz düşünün, bu gerçekten epey tuhaf bir durum.
Örgütlenmiş dinler insanlar tarafından örgütlenmiştir: papazlar, piskoposlar, hahamlar, imamlar ve ayetullahlar. Ancak Martin Luther’in ile ilgili değindiğim konuya dönersek, bu dinlerin insanlar tarafından tasarlandığı ve ifade edildiği anlamına gelmez. Dinler nüfuz sahibi bireylerin yararına kullanılmış ve üzerlerinde oynama yapılmış olsa da, kuvvetle muhtemeldir ki her dinin ayrıntılı yapısı büyük ölçüde bilinçsiz evrim tarafından şekillenmiştir.
Asyalı din adamlarının çoğu çok açık biçimde, 2004 yılındaki tsunami felaketinin sebebinin, tektonik bir yer değiştirme değil ancak insani günahlar olduğunu iddia etiler; bu günah yelpazesi barlarda içki içip dans etmekten tutun saçmasapan bir dinsel kuralı çiğnemeye kadar uzanır. Bu kişiler Nuh hikayesinde batmış ve kutsal kitap eğitimi hariç her şeyden bihaber olduklarına göre bu konuda onları kim suçlayabilir? Aldıkları eğitim yüzünden doğal felaketlerin insanoğlu meselleriyle ilişkili olduğunu zanneder ve tektonik levhalar gibi kişisel olmaktan son derece uzak doğa olaylarını insanı kötü emellerin bir bedeliymiş gibi görürler. Diğer taraftan, bir tanrının ( ya da bir tektonik levhanın) gücünün yetebileceği, dünyayı alt üst edebilecek olayların daima insanoğluyla ilgili olduğuna inanmak ne haddini bilmez bir benmerkezciliktir? İsteği yaratma ve sonsuzluk olan ilahi bir varlık, neden suç işleyen küçük insancıklarla uğraşarak kendini tatmin etsin? Biz insanlar bu tarz havalara gireriz, hatta önemsiz, küçük günahlarımızı abartıp bunlara evrensel bir önem katarız! S:219
Something’s telling me i’d end up agreeing with most of the chapters in that book, if i ever read it. After all… i pretty much became a non-believer when i was like 12, and i’ve never looked back ever since.
:) You should check it, it states interesting facts!