Peter Kirby

You have given no evidence that you understood it.
True.
I am certainly content that people follow various religions. If I would hope for anything, I would hope that they would attach themselves to the humanistic elements in their respective religious traditions.

I have no plans to get married. With what little I understand of love, however, it 'conquers all'. So, perhaps if my love were Christian, it would be rocky and interesting but not a dealbreaker.

--
Peter Kirby

Johnny Skeptic

I'm not. Religion is the most divisive and destructive social force in human history. Religion causes doubt, hatred, and wars. It needlessly wastes hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars, and lots of time.

Religion often affects the way that people vote in political elections, and the way that people vote in political elections sometimes unduly harms people. I can give you some examples if you wish. When religious books determine what morality it, that is bad for society.

Now are you going to tell us that you do not oppose fundamentalist Christianity?

Nobel laureate, philospher, and mathematician Bertrand Russel strongly opposed religion. If you haven't read some of what he says about religion, you should.

And how do you intend to accomplish that by getting a Ph.D. in religion? Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. You believe that he didn't. Paul basically says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, nothing else matters. Do you intend to try to convince people that Jesus did not rise from the dead, or do you have no interest in the matter or anything else of a biblical historical nature?

John Kesler

I think that this is a much more realistic goal than the apparent aim of some atheists to "deconvert" theists. Let's be honest. Although there are those seemingly few people who find truth to be its own reward, I would say that for the vast majority, the support, camaraderie, sense of identity, etc. obtained at church provide a real disincentive to investigate Christianity's putative theological foundation, especially since by and large, atheism offers nothing comparable to said benefits.

I like what Kinky Friedman said when he was running for governor of Texas. He was all in favor of gay marriage--so that gay people could be as miserable as the rest of us. (Yes, I'm married.)

Wayne Delia

Yeah, I have a few thoughts. From what I remember of you on alt.atheism, you were half my age and four times as smart, and I recall being extremely jealous of your abilities and reasoning even when you were still in your teens. That jealousy quickly turned to sincere pride over your many significant accomplishments. You published articles, as a teenager, which had persuaded me to change the way I had looked at things for several decades, particularly your opinions on the Testimonium Flavianum.

So, my assessment is that your target schedule for this proposed course of study, squarely in your line of expertise, is not a realistic schedule. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you acquired a PhD by 2010.

WMD

Peter Kirby

I am glad that you should mention good old Bertrand Russell. Russell received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, and in his acceptance speech, he noted what the actual social forces in human history are, under the labels of "acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power." Treating the impact of religion on politics, he says, "There is, of course, the odium theologicum, and it can be a cause of enmity. But I think that this is an offshoot of herd feeling: the man who has a different theology feels strange, and whatever is strange must be dangerous." What is divisive and destructive is not religious conviction, which was held by such men as Ghandi and MLK Jr., but the base attitude that a difference of ideology is a matter for beating the war drum. The desire to "destroy religion" can only be regarded as a piece of the same fabric.

The Ph.D. is a formalization of the notion that a person has learned how to think and to research to the satisfaction of academic standards. It is a cultivated habit of thinking well that I want to develop and to pass on.

And if you read what that nobel laureate had to say, you would sense his agreement: "I would say, in conclusion, that if what I have said is right, the main thing needed to make the world happy is intelligence. And this, after all, is an optimistic conclusion, because intelligence is a thing that can be fostered by known methods of education."

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Peter Kirby

mountainman

May god have mercy upon your soul.

And a toast ....

"To the strength of love behind
and the beauty of the road ahead."

Good luck Kirby.



Pete Brown

cajela

Best of luck to you, mate!

R.M.S.

On the other hand: getting a professorship might take years and years or might just never happen; there's really a lot of luck and indeed, ass-kissing involved.

By the way, what are religious studies about in the US? Here in Belgium you can either follow cultural anthropology which thinks of religion as an object of study, or you can follow religion studies/'science' which is basically by and for religious people, e.g. you learn about christian ethics instead of philosophical/secular ethics. I've always been surprised the latter sort still exists (although there is only one institution here in Flandres that organizes it) considering it is very much like organizing a course on astrology.

Roller

Isn't that the school where Burton Mack is?

seebs

Well, it's a definition used by millions of religious people.

And, what with this being BC&H, I'd think that a definition given in the Bible of what religion is might seem vaguely relevant.

Certainly, when I talk about my "religion", that's what I have in mind. I mean, broadly speaking; I would include "girls whose boyfriends knocked them up and then disappeared", not just actual literal widows.

I dunno, I see a lot of very reactionary anti-religious sentiment that makes me think that the majority of the theists vs. atheists and atheists vs. theists action out there is nothing more than team jerseys. I can't tell the players apart, certainly.