Theism, Evidence, and Rationality: Contra Plantinga

[sehoy]

I suppose so. Bennies is also slang for benefits.

[robsia]

Ah - thank you. Not an abbreviation I am familiar with.

[sehoy]

[Air of Winter]

[sehoy]

Hi Air of Winter,

Okay. It was just a nagging question that wanted to be asked and I thought I should ask it. It's kind of weird what you find out about people you think you know really well. [Or maybe that's just me.]

When I reverted to Catholicism, my mother-in-law sent me my husband's rosary, prayer book, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I didn't even know he'd been Confirmed and had gone through Confession and First Communion or had his own rosary. I stumbled onto my dad's Baptismal certificate one day, going through some papers. He had actually gone to the effort of getting baptized. That's very different from the dad I know. I had assumed he was an atheist.

Well anyways... I keep hoping something I say might be the right thing, but I guess not....I'm out of ideas...I've handed it over to the Holy Ghost...which I guess is what I should have started with from the beginning...

Take care and love,
Christina

p.s. I saw fives all day yesterday. It got so bad I stopped looking at numbers. It made me kind of bold, that maybe something was afoot. That's why I asked.

[Josh]

[Karen]

[AllanS]

[Air of Winter]

[robsia]

[AllanS]

[robsia]

[AllanS]

Hi Linda,

Here are some quotes from reviews on the web. Few fail to see what he's driving at.

:Terry Pratchett also rather sneakily uses his humoristic podium to teach his readers about life, the universe and the rest; indeed, books like Small Gods seem to me more an exercise in school-marming by a humanistic preacher than novels.

:Agnostics and athiests will enjoy this tale of God come to earth in the guise of a tortise.

:I would say that this book makes a satirical strike against Organized Religion as an institution, but it pretty much goes after the disorganized ones as well,

:Pratchett and I have some very different ideas when it comes to theology. I find the "Tinkerbelle theory of gods' existence" (if you don't believe in them they disappear)nearly as offensive as monotheism, but that doesn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying this intelligent, wise and utterly hillarious novel.

:As an athiest I particularly enjoyed this book,

:The inherent message of the story is simple: as ridiculous as everything associated with a particular god may be, there is certainly no doubt in the fact that we cannot live without them.

:The combination of satire with sometimes sadness, and the parallelism of the Omnian religion to Christianity/Catholicism is quite amazing.

:The way Pratchett describes how gods and goddesses come into power and shrivel into a mere ghost of their previous forms by basis of belief is superb.

:It really does stand on its own as a perfect satire of religion, and what it means to be religious (or more simply put, to believe).

:Suffice to say that this is one of the best religious parodies I've read. Some other reviewers have found this book offensive, but unless you're a very touchy religious conservative or a Catholic from several hundred years ago, I doubt you'll mind.

:The book really started light, but turned into a very heavy and philosophical novel about the nature of religions and gods - and of people and belief.

:it's still a great parody on religion and... well... the meaning of life.

:However if you read very carefully, you may spot coincidental resemblances to Tomás de Torquemada, Jesus, any number of classical Greek philosophers, early Christian saints, Old Testament prophets, and Galileo Galilei.

:This story reminds me a little of Douglas Adams' "Long Dark tea-time of the soul."

:The story is a very interesting comment on religious practices. It covers everything from organized religion to the creationism/evolution debate.

:Screw the bible, this is better.

:Terry Pratchett makes a funny and yet serious critic to the instituon of the church. But he goes further, he also makes a critic to the persons who are draged into it, sometimes unwillingly. And he continues by critiking the gods themselves, who at least aparently don't give a damn to us, his worshipers.

:He satires the idea of church, but not faith. If you do not have a sense of humor when it comes to religion, this book is not for you. His story unfolds that every religion starts out with good intentions, but ends up mired in dogma.

[robsia]

[AllanS]