Did You Really Read It

[Simoli]

So I'm just about done with "The God Delusion", its time to move on to the next book.  I grabbed "The Origin Of Species" off my shelf and hauled it up to the bedroom.  Flipped through the book real quick and was amazed at how tiny the lettering is and how many pages there are.  I'm thinking to myself this is gonna take forever.  Hope I can stay awake long enough to start getting through some of the chapters.  Now I am wondering if you guys have read through the whole book or did you pick out certain areas to read?

[donkeyhoty]

I haven't read it, but it's on my list of stuff to read if I had no obligations.

Also, do I really need to read it if I already understand most of its concepts.  I mean, people that don't believe in evolution should probably be forced to read it (yep that's a fascist statement).  

It's not really going to do much for me except further my understanding of something I already believe.  And, that is why it's on my list of stuff.... along with such things as Moby Dick, Poetics, Wealth of Nations, Leviathan, Das Kapital, Candide, and the U.S.A trilogy among others.

[SteveS]

Simoli, I have not read it at all.

When the Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on my door and surprised me by giving me books that said evolution was wrong I was motivated to learn more about Evolution and I.D. (not because I thought they had reasonable arguments, but because I realized that without a better understanding I would have a hard time defending myself in a compelling manner, and I was honestly shocked that people really believe that I.D. drivel).  So, I watched some online debates (like Michael Shermer vs. Jonathan Wells) and read a lot of stuff.  I figured that rather than just blow off arguments, I would very much like to take an in depth look at evolution and be able to defend it, at least against other "non scientists".

Far and away the best resource I personally found was the Talk.Origins archives over at http://www.talkorigins.org.  They have an article there, called "29+ Evidences for Macroevolution: The Scientific Case for Common Descent" that is really excellent, IMHO.  It was written by Douglas L Theobald.  Here's a link in case you want to check it out:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

[Squid]

So I'm just about done with "The God Delusion", its time to move on to the next book.  I grabbed "The Origin Of Species" off my shelf and hauled it up to the bedroom.  Flipped through the book real quick and was amazed at how tiny the lettering is and how many pages there are.  I'm thinking to myself this is gonna take forever.  Hope I can stay awake long enough to start getting through some of the chapters.  Now I am wondering if you guys have read through the whole book or did you pick out certain areas to read?

Yep, I have.  I won't lie to you my friend - a lot of dry material.  Darwin was was a brilliant naturalist but he definitely didn't have the readability of, say, Carl Sagan.

[Whitney]

I have only read part of it...I'm not in a big hurry to read that particular book since I'm already familiar with the theory from other sources and other books are higher on my list of to reads.

[User192021]

Nope.  With the benefit of the internet, I think it's hardly necessary to actually take the time to read the entire book cover to cover when I can easily learn the main points of evolution from various internet sources.  It is, however, on my list of things to do when I have some time since I think it would be worth reading as an historical document.

[Scrybe]

Is this sort of like a Christian not reading the Bible?

[Squid]

Not necessarily.  Since not all atheists accept evolution - I've run into a couple of people who were atheists and accepted "alternative theories" - one was convinced of some odd form of Lamarckian evolution and the other had his own "alien hypothesis".

I've run into countless people who call themselves Christians and have never read the bible.

[Johndigger]

The Bible isn't the be-all and end-all of Christianity, well, maybe some deluded American groups think so - but certainly not in mainstream Catholicism. Which is undoubtedly the biggest Christian group in the world.

That's not to say it isn't very important, of course.


I tried reading the God Delusion - then it dealt with St Thomas Aquinas' Five reasons for God in about a page. I 'd and closed it shut.

JD

[donkeyhoty]

What is the end-all be-all of christianity then?

[Johndigger]

Jesus Christ.

[Scrybe]

Indeed.

[Johndigger]

I mean, people could (and have) write (wrote) libraries on what Christianity is all about.

But at the absolute (beginning) end of the day - it all boils down to Jesus Christ.

Hence why it's called Christianity. Not [Insert random noun here]ianity.

JD

[donkeyhoty]

Wait, Chistianity comes from christ, as is je-sus christ?

And where praytell did you hear of this precocious scamp named jesus?

[Eclecticsaturn]

im waitinhg for the god delusion to come in the mail first. then i might crake open the darwin one. I would be interested on what he has to say.