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The Existence of God is under Review
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Does God Exist? Ask Ayn Rand
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Friends, here is a great interview by Phil Donahue in the late seventies. Ayn Rand, the philosopher is being interviewed. She is an entertaining guest and does not mince her words. She has many strong beliefs, and among them is the idea that God does not exist. So here you have a confirmed atheist who tells things such as they are. She is a rationalist who does not think there is any room for mysticism in the life of man. She also states that she is not afraid of death - she has had a good life and when it is over it is over. Video number 3 below is the one that spends some time on the existence of God. At one point in the interview Donahue says to Rand: " You are not smart enought to know whether God exists or not. " And, Rand responds by saying: " Yes, I am and so is everybody else..." Her base argument is that you cannot prove a negative.
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As an aside here...Ayn Rand acts as a very good commercial for the neocons and their wars, if you know what I mean. This enclosed five part interview ( see below ) with Phil Donahue ( I suspect it is the late seventies since President Carter's name is mentioned ) also details for us philosopher Rand's philosophy regarding the Middle East. She speaks negatively, for example, of places like Iran and Saudi Arabia, who dare to nationalize their oil. That oil, believes Rand, should belong to the people of the United States since they signed contracts for it and they developed it with their technology. At one point in the interview she even called the Arabs " primitives ". She did have some support from the audience concerning the issue of oil ownership, certainly more than for her strict altruism or atheistic views. So, even if you do not like her atheism you might be attracted to her ideas about U.S. supremacy if nothing else. And, there really is a connection between religion and foreign policy when you are talking about the United States of America - and that is precisely what the neocons are counting on.
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In this interview with Phil Donahue there were moments when it was a bit of a tough battle for philosopher Rand. Her views on altruism and individualism are clearly intact in her mind, and can be controversial indeed. I could see the questioning faces in the audience as Rand spoke and some clearly were not in total agreement with all of her various stances on the issues being discussed. And, I suspect that there were many religionists in the audience that day as well who, undoubtedly, would have nothing to do with her atheism. Someone would have to challenge her. And, during the question period someone did. This person proclaimed to be a former supporter of Ayn Rand's ' cult ' and that statement started the controversial interplay between a female audience member and philosopher Rand. The issue was elitism. But, Rand is a tough woman and she smelled out her adversary right away and took care of her and put her away as it were. She is a forceful woman with equally strong views and actions, particularly in her discourse. You may not appreciate or even like her ideas about altruism and self interests, but you cannot deny her atheism - it is as real as it gets. Too bad you cannot get everything you want in a human being; there always seems to be some kind of cost, or in business as they say, you have to take the good with the bad. And, the good for me a la Ayn Rand is the atheism, the bad parts are some of her views which just don't quite seem to fit into a society that requires a social conscience in order to fully function properly. Rand, the philosopher would disagree with me of course and that is to be expected. If there is a Heaven or some other venue for dead matter to debate among themselves, then I think Ayn Rand and myself will find time to do battle over this business of collectivism and what is good and bad for the state and how to produce those results. She is my kind of woman with a few reservations as you might expect.
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Here is the video with Ayn Rand and Tom Snyder. The issue of Rand's atheism is discussed in video number 2.
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You can also watch a related video here. It is the interview in 1959 with Mike Wallace:
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Ayn Rand: some random thoughts on her philosophy
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