[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Case <Case at iSpots.com>:

> [Platt]
> Can there be communism without a totalitarian government? History answers
> with a resounding, "No." 
> 
> [Case]
> Pretty much every one who ever lived on this planet before about 5000 years
> ago lived under communism. In a tribal society the workers own the means of
> production. Examples of pure communism in the historic world are nearly as
> rare as examples of pure capitalism. You don't fine either because they are
> both extremes. What you do find is social democracies whether both are
> blended.

Well not in North Korea, China, Cuba or Stalinist Russia.

> [Platt]
> If I ever argued that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness could
> legitimately be taken away by force, other than in defense of those rights,
> I hereby take it back. However, I can't imagine that I ever argued for
> sending people to gulags "for no justification whatsoever." A bit of
> hyperbole on your part?
> 
> [Case]
> If insisting that justification requires more than an accusation and that
> any accusation demands due process of law, call me hyperbolic. But in this
> instance the point is men establish, enforce and determine each others
> treatment under the law.

I agree accusation is not enough, although any foreign group who threatens us
and demonstrates a clear and present danger to our way of life doesn't qualify
for due process of our law.

> I would agree with you that the United States was founded under the
> influence of Christian ethics. I am not sure that that means much though and
> not all of the contributions of Christians were positive. For example the
> founders gave us freedom FROM religion precisely because of their
> experiences with religious colonies and the way the established churches
> treated peoples of other faiths during the colonial period.
 
Agree. I think the influence of Christian ethics was expressed in the Declaration
that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that belong
to us as individuals and cannot be taken away by government because our Creator
outranks government. This idea of individual rights stemmed I believe from the
Protestant reformation which promoted the concept that individuals could relate
directly to God with the necessity of church intermediaries.


  


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