My comments on interesting new Brett Keane (TheForsakenChild) video on Richard Dawkins. Check it out at his channel:

I agree that fear of death is the primary motivation for belief in God and afterlife, not lack of intelligence. However, I disagree with the suggestion that Dawkins doesn’t appreciate this. I think it’s clear from comments Dawkins has made in the past that he’s aware of the connection between belief in God and afterlife and fear of death.

I also don’t think Dawkins is unaware of the   more...fact that an intelligent person can believe in God (he himself used to believe in God, after all); what confounds him is how a good scientist could truly believe in God (e.g. Ken Miller, the evolutionary biologist famous for his critique of intelligent design at the Dover hearings, who is also a devout Catholic).

You really can’t fully accept scientific methodology AND believe in a personal creator God that created, knows, and loves you. Full acceptance of either at any given time requires temporary rejection of the other.

Hell, at the present time, you can’t fully accept scientific methodology and fully accept string theory, since it has yet to produce any testable hypotheses!

Having said that, I think it’s also true that many atheists deny death every bit as much as their religious counterparts, they just do it in a far more subtle manner. They don’t deny death by insisting there is an afterlife; they deny death by trivializing it. They try to dilute it’s potency by obfuscating it in the remote, sterile language of science (death is just one of many parts of an organisms’ ‘life cycle’, to be dispassionately noted along with birth, sexual maturity, and senescence). Too often, the main difference between atheists and theists is that theists deny death is the end while atheists deny that the end is horrific.

One of the things I admire about Brett Keane is that he never attempts to trivialize the horror of death. This makes him rather unique among atheists, in my opinion.  less

I am a freethinker who would like to be a friend and/or crew member for fellow freethinker, Brett Keane.

I found out about Brett Keane from YouTube, and found his video here about arrogant atheism worthy of comment.

Brett suggests that the fact that scientific explanations change (such as the explanation for the disappearance of the dinosaurs) is a weakness or flaw of science.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a common misconception oft promoted by religious types, especially creationists,   more...whom I know Mr. Keane does NOT share views or company.

The fact that scientific explanations change over time, as demanded by new evidence which conflicts with existing views, is THE GREAT STRENGTH of science, not a weakness. Unlike religious, faith based views, which remain fixed despite evidence to the contrary, scientific explanations are modified as the best available data require.

Also, it's worth pointing out that the evidence for periodic mass extinctions caused by asteroids is strong and supported by several lines of evidence. It remains the most plausible and strongly evidenced explanation for the most dramatic periodic mass extinctions evidenced in the fossil record. It has not been dismissed by science, as Brett suggested.

I would like to be a friend/crew member of Mr. Keane. In that capacity, I would offer my critical analysis of claims relating to science, such as I have just done. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you for considering my request.  less