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Dawkins now convinced even if he saw a miracle, he wouldn’t believe in God

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The section of interest starts at 12:30 where Dawkins is asked, “what would it take to make you believe in God.”

Short answer by Dawkins, “nothing”. He presumes if he saw a miracle it would be a hallucination or technologically advanced aliens. This is a change from his previous claim that his mind could be changed.

[youtube qNcC866sm7s]

NOTES

0. Dawkins response reminds me of some of the Darwinists at UD responding to questions about 500 fair coins. Even if they saw credible evidence of design, they’ll find a way to disbelieve it, whereas by contrast they’ll rush to accept the most flimsy explanation in defense of mindless evolution and mindless OOL.

1. Regarding hallucinations, HT selvaRajan for finding the answer to my question about a particular malady called Charles Bonet Syndrome.

2. For all our criticism of Dr. Dawkins, the man is quite charming. If charm were the sole mechanism for what truths I hold dear, I think I would have become a Dawkinist. I felt somewhat the same way watching Bill Nye and thinking how happy I was to sit in the classroom being taught science by my Darwinists professors. How seductive it is to be deluded to think the human mind can be the salvation for the human soul. I suppose I’m a believer today in ID and God because I came to the realization science and art for all their grandeur and majesty cannot cure the deepest needs of the human soul, and this need began my quest for evidence of God.

3. The opening 12 minutes was actually good, and when Dawkins was asked what is the best argument for God, he says, “fine tuning”, but then appeals to the multiverse as an explanation.

4. The rest of the interview after 12 minutes got boring quickly.

5. HT Mike Gene

7 Replies to “Dawkins now convinced even if he saw a miracle, he wouldn’t believe in God”

  1. 1
    Blue_Savannah says:
    February 26, 2014 at 12:34 am

    How much more evidence do we need that Dawkins doesn’t care about discovering the truth? If he is willing to say that nothing would convince him GOD exists, he’s the most illogical and irrational man on the planet. How does he receive any respect in the academic world?!?!

  2. 2
    kairosfocus says:
    February 26, 2014 at 5:14 am

    SalC,

    This is so sad, and sadly revealing.

    It brings forcefully to mind the following from John Locke in the Introduction, section 5 to his Essay on human Understanding:

    Men have reason to be well satisfied with what God hath thought fit for them, since he hath given them (as St. Peter says [NB: i.e. 2 Pet 1:2 – 4]) pana pros zoen kaieusebeian, whatsoever is necessary for the conveniences of life and information of virtue; and has put within the reach of their discovery, the comfortable provision for this life, and the way that leads to a better. How short soever their knowledge may come of an universal or perfect comprehension of whatsoever is, it yet secures their great concernments [Prov 1: 1 – 7], that they have light enough to lead them to the knowledge of their Maker, and the sight of their own duties [cf Rom 1 – 2 & 13, Ac 17, Jn 3:19 – 21, Eph 4:17 – 24, Isaiah 5:18 & 20 – 21, Jer. 2:13, Titus 2:11 – 14 etc, etc]. Men may find matter sufficient to busy their heads, and employ their hands with variety, delight, and satisfaction, if they will not boldly quarrel with their own constitution, and throw away the blessings their hands are filled with, because they are not big enough to grasp everything . . . It will be no excuse to an idle and untoward servant [Matt 24:42 – 51], who would not attend his business by candle light, to plead that he had not broad sunshine. The Candle that is set up in us [Prov 20:27] shines bright enough for all our purposes . . . If we will disbelieve everything, because we cannot certainly know all things, we shall do muchwhat as wisely as he who would not use his legs, but sit still and perish, because he had no wings to fly. [Text references added to document the sources of Locke’s allusions and citations.]

    And, beyond, it brings to mind grim words from one of the underlying Scriptures in Locke’s thought, Rom 1:

    Rom 1: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things . . . .

    28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [ESV]

    Similarly, Jesus warned in a well known parable:

    Luke 16:19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.[f] The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers[g]—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” [ESV, cf discussion on that very sign here on in context.]

    Let us pause, and think again.

    KF

  3. 3
    bornagain77 says:
    February 26, 2014 at 6:01 am

    “He presumes if he saw a miracle it would be a hallucination”

    And how does Dawkins, as an materialistic atheist, know that his belief in atheism is not itself a hallucination?

    Why No One (Can) Believe Atheism/Naturalism to be True – video
    Excerpt: “Since we are creatures of natural selection, we cannot totally trust our senses. Evolution only passes on traits that help a species survive, and not concerned with preserving traits that tell a species what is actually true about life.”
    Richard Dawkins – quoted from “The God Delusion”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4QFsKevTXs

    Evolutionists Are Now Saying Their Thinking is Flawed (But Evolution is Still a Fact) – Cornelius Hunter – May 2012
    Excerpt: But the point here is that these “researchers” are making an assertion (human reasoning evolved and is flawed) which undermines their very argument. If human reasoning evolved and is flawed, then how can we know that evolution is a fact, much less any particular details of said evolutionary process that they think they understand via their “research”?
    http://darwins-god.blogspot.co.....their.html

    “One absolutely central inconsistency ruins [the popular scientific philosophy]. The whole picture professes to depend on inferences from observed facts. Unless inference is valid, the whole picture disappears… unless Reason is an absolute, all is in ruins. Yet those who ask me to believe this world picture also ask me to believe that Reason is simply the unforeseen and unintended by-product of mindless matter at one stage of its endless and aimless becoming. Here is flat contradiction. They ask me at the same moment to accept a conclusion and to discredit the only testimony on which that conclusion can be based.”
    —C.S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry (aka the Argument from Reason)

  4. 4
    bornagain77 says:
    February 26, 2014 at 6:17 am

    Myself, though at the time I really hated the situation I had somehow managed to put myself in, I am very grateful for low time(s) in my life where I was at a complete end of myself, with no place to turn, and ‘finally’, in such deep humility, turned to God and then, to my complete surprise, found that He was there for me. i.e. a ‘small miracle’ happened!

    “Bless The Broken Road” – Rascal Flatts Official Music Video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vZlrBYLSU

    The Easter Question – Eben Alexander, M.D. – March 2013
    Excerpt: More than ever since my near death experience, I consider myself a Christian -,,,
    Now, I can tell you that if someone had asked me, in the days before my NDE, what I thought of this (Easter) story, I would have said that it was lovely. But it remained just that — a story. To say that the physical body of a man who had been brutally tortured and killed could simply get up and return to the world a few days later is to contradict every fact we know about the universe. It wasn’t simply an unscientific idea. It was a downright anti-scientific one.
    But it is an idea that I now believe. Not in a lip-service way. Not in a dress-up-it’s-Easter kind of way. I believe it with all my heart, and all my soul.,,
    We are, really and truly, made in God’s image. But most of the time we are sadly unaware of this fact. We are unconscious both of our intimate kinship with God, and of His constant presence with us. On the level of our everyday consciousness, this is a world of separation — one where people and objects move about, occasionally interacting with each other, but where essentially we are always alone.
    But this cold dead world of separate objects is an illusion. It’s not the world we actually live in.,,,
    ,,He (God) is right here with each of us right now, seeing what we see, suffering what we suffer… and hoping desperately that we will keep our hope and faith in Him. Because that hope and faith will be triumphant.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....79741.html

    Temple Veil – video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDNHoijNO2I

    God Can Be Personally Known and Experienced – Dr. Craig – video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWL5QhBQB30

    (GodWinks) SQuire Rushnell & daughter of Emmett Kelly on FOX & FRDS 6/16/13
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....9xPfNtbrqw

  5. 5
    chris haynes says:
    February 26, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    Please don’t call Dr Dawkins “charming”

    Anyone who promotes legalizing the killing of newborn infants…….should get nothing but condemnation.

  6. 6
    JGuy says:
    February 27, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    Luke 16 (English Standard Version):
    […]29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

  7. 7
    Barb says:
    February 27, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    There’s a scripture that describes atheists as “supercilious”. Doing a little research, I find that supercilious is synonymous with disdainful pride and arrogance, or haughtiness. Haughtiness is the opposite of humility. The Greek and Hebrew words translated “haughty” and “haughtiness” have the basic meaning of causing oneself to appear “high,” “exalted,” “lofty,” “eminent.” One who is haughty is, in his own esteem, superior, lifted up above his fellowmen. As a result, such a person usually claims honor and attention beyond what is due and treats others with disrespect and insolence.

    Atheistic disbelief, in some cases, appears to be a deliberate refusal to face the truth. The psalmist wrote: “The wicked one according to his superciliousness makes no search; all his ideas are: ‘There is no God.’”—Psalm 10:4.

    Such a person who refuses to make an open-minded search of the evidence will never arrive at the truth. Dawkins might hold personal ideas about God, but proudly refuses to check to see whether or not they are correct.

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