I was already a disbeliever when I read "The Selfish Gene" but the younger Dawkin's arguments in that book, many dozens of explanations of why various animals and plants are the way they are and how they got that way, were so compelling and self-evident that any doubt I might have still had was erased. And the The Extended Phenotype, A Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, all just gave more and more material from zoology that continued to fall in line with the theory of natural selection so well that it was undoubtably true. Sure, I went back and read the Origin of Species too. Once you accept slow random mutation and the environment killing off the unsuited (defined by whatever the environment happens to kill), the theory is self-evident: evolution MUST happen. Dawkin's insight (in contrast to Gould) was that it wasn't the species being selected, or the individual, but the gene, and a lot of examples show how that works out.
The older Dawkin's who debates believers isn't really interesting to me.
I haven't read Nietzsche either (I can't read German, and even the translations are difficult) but I've read enough about what people say of his writings to get some of the gist. I should probably just read him.
German and English are practically the same language - like Russian and Ukrainian. Once i read the translation of any German Lyrics in a song it all falls into place and i can sing along just as if it was English. This doesn't happen with ACTUALLY foreign languages like Arabic or Hebrew which just seem insane to me. Although Arabic and Hebrew are obviously similar to each other.
as for evolution in the G-dless Soviet Union where i was born that shit is taught in school unlike in America. in USSR they go as hard on Biology as they go on Math in China. Dawkins could have been an elementary school teacher in USSR. nobody coming out of Soviet education system needs to be explained how evolution works or that religion is ridiculous.
even living in NYC i didn't realize people actually went to churches in America, because NYC is of course not part of America but an international city.
it's only when i became a shitposter on the internet to my amazement i discovered Americans take religion seriously. i remember Mitt Romney being asked during presidential debates whether the Bible was word of G-d and he answered "Absolutely" and i expected everybody to burst out laughing but apparently that was the right answer in American Right-Wing politics.
It's a complicated topic - humans have always had spiritual aspirations even from before recorded history. On the other hand, organized religion is ALWAYS corrupt. So in general, my position has been that I don't know whether spiritual or religious pursuits might have some value or not, but I certainly don't trust any institutional religion nor follow them. But at least in the past they did things like patronage of art and high culture, whereas now they are indistinguishable with the worst of trash culture, while all the innovation is done underground.
spirituality is superstition
religion is exploiting it
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