Dawkins told an audience member: "I didn't insult you, I insulted God"

[Finder]

and it reminded me of the way any insult to or critique of organized religion or certain deities is taken as a personal insult by some posters here. Of course the same thing happens when generalizations are made about other groups as well, may it be scientists, atheists, liberals, moderates, conservatives, americans, etc...

Tribal mentality lives on...It is a pure case of evolutionary irrationality.

What I am finding fascinating is how we(humans)seem to have/form so many sub-tribes that we have become easy to divide as well as easy to rally.

We have become both tools and weapons...

[Avalux]

1. Are you criticizing members of this message board?

Interesting - it seems to me your post is precisely that of which you speak.

[hunter]

2. God can take care of Himself.

I can take cares of myself pretty good too.

But Dawkins is falling into a "love the sinner, hate the sin," kind of trap when he does that.

I'm not insulting you, I'm insulting your nose. It's ugly!

[Sinti]

3. Tribal mentality lives on... funny, I feel there's a horrible loss of tribe mind

People are so individually driven, they rarely look outside of themselves. We have an "I got mine" thing going. Lacking the tribe, however, we feel powerless - we measure our power in this world by what and how much crap we own.

This destruction of tribe mind enables International Megacorp to make all the rules for us, and generally create wage slaves wherever it wants to - we work mostly for them to buy the crap that they tell us we want. What are you going to do about it? You're just one individual trying to survive. If you're doing okay today, it's all good - tomorrow and your brother be damned.

If people realized fully that Mary Jane's suffering would soon be their suffering, and took responsibility for one another, as well as themselves, International Megacorp and her blood thirsty friends wouldn't stand a chance, because there are so many more of us.

Different world view I suppose :shrug:

[Finder]

6. That is sort of the point I was trying to make...

but doesn't seem to have come across. Our natural tribal instinct can be a tool or a weapon depending on who is doing the manipulation.

Rather than see ourselves as part of the "human" tribe, we constantly join or create new sub-tribes. Family, nation, religion, gender, ethnicity, class, etc. are even further separated into subgroups...

I have no idea whether this is good or bad. On one hand it goes against absolutism which I personally feel is a good thing, but on another hand it makes it difficult to unify to solve issues such as global warming and poverty.

I disagree that individualism is always "I got mine" but I know what you mean.

[TlalocW]

4. I'm insulted!

Apologize. :)

TlalocW

[NAO]

5. I agree with Dawkins, but understand why the person felt insulted

Telling a theist that "God is just pretend" is telling them that they believe in something that no sane, rational person should believe.

Now, I think that is true - no sane, rational person should believe in the Easter Bunny, God, Santa Claus, the Resurrection, Thoth, Wotan, Zeus, Neptune, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

However, many apparently sane, rational people do believe in some of these imaginary things.

So, I can't fault Dawkins for stating the facts, nor can I fault the believer for feeling personally insulted.

Dawkins clarification that he was only insulting God is little comfort to the person who believes in God. Believers realize that they are being ridiculed for their ridiculous beliefs, but that does not mean we should coddle them and indulge them in their fantasy worlds.