I'm Reading...

John Galt · 06-24-2008, 07:57 PM

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I've only started to read it, so I'm not into the arguments against religion yet.

John Galt · 07-05-2008, 12:00 PM

So, I'm a few pages into the second chapter of the book. So far, I've only seen one thing that pisses me off...

"There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate. Assuming that the majority of these 535 individuals are an educated sample of the population, it is statistically all but inevitable that a substantial number of them must be athiests..."

Correct me if I misunderstood Dawkins' point, but I think he's trying to say that an educated, intelligent person cannot believe in a higher power. What the hell? I consider myself to be fairly well educated and moderately intelligent and I believe in God.

Like I said, correct me if I mistunderstood his point.

**Deku Trii** · 07-05-2008, 12:37 PM

How did he follow up what he said? Seemed like he was setting up some point, even if he was using statistics he didn't reference to suggest that some vague number of them would be atheists.

John Galt · 07-05-2008, 12:53 PM

"There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate. Assuming that the majority of these 535 individuals are an educated sample of the population, it is statistically all but inevitable that a substantial number of them must be athiests. They must have lied, or concealed their true feelings, in order to get elected. Who can blame them, given the electorate they had to convince? It is universally accepted that an admission of atheism would be instant political suicide for any presidential candidate."

**Deku Trii** · 07-05-2008, 01:07 PM

It's retarded as a statistical argument, since the House and Senate are not randomly selected from the population of educated citizens, and there selection is probably not independent of their religious beliefs.

06-24-2008, 07:57 PM	#1
John Galt Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Little Ireland Gender: Posts: 490 Thanks: 20 Thanked 32 Times in 20 Posts	I'm Reading... The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I've only started to read it, so I'm not into the arguments against religion yet.

07-05-2008, 12:00 PM	#2
John Galt Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Little Ireland Gender: Posts: 490 Thanks: 20 Thanked 32 Times in 20 Posts	So, I'm a few pages into the second chapter of the book. So far, I've only seen one thing that pisses me off... "There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate. Assuming that the majority of these 535 individuals are an educated sample of the population, it is statistically all but inevitable that a substantial number of them must be athiests..." Correct me if I misunderstood Dawkins' point, but I think he's trying to say that an educated, intelligent person cannot believe in a higher power. What the hell? I consider myself to be fairly well educated and moderately intelligent and I believe in God. Like I said, correct me if I mistunderstood his point.

07-05-2008, 12:37 PM	#3
Deku Trii PP&R Mod Current Events Mod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Texas Gender: Posts: 9,031 Thanks: 521 Thanked 1,099 Times in 583 Posts	How did he follow up what he said? Seemed like he was setting up some point, even if he was using statistics he didn't reference to suggest that some vague number of them would be atheists.

07-05-2008, 12:53 PM	#4
John Galt Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Little Ireland Gender: Posts: 490 Thanks: 20 Thanked 32 Times in 20 Posts	"There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate. Assuming that the majority of these 535 individuals are an educated sample of the population, it is statistically all but inevitable that a substantial number of them must be athiests. They must have lied, or concealed their true feelings, in order to get elected. Who can blame them, given the electorate they had to convince? It is universally accepted that an admission of atheism would be instant political suicide for any presidential candidate."

07-05-2008, 01:07 PM	#5
Deku Trii PP&R Mod Current Events Mod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Texas Gender: Posts: 9,031 Thanks: 521 Thanked 1,099 Times in 583 Posts	It's retarded as a statistical argument, since the House and Senate are not randomly selected from the population of educated citizens, and there selection is probably not independent of their religious beliefs.