Sunday 12 October 2008

The Dawkins Delusion

I have been reading Dawkins' 'The God Delusion', and I have to say I am disappointed. I thought I would find an intellectual argument against God, which would sharpen my thinking. Instead, it is, so far, a very poorly argued set of prejudices. As a work by a serious scientist, it is very unscientific, both in approach and argument.

There are some things I like about it: he speaks highly of P G Wodehouse, so he can't be all bad. And I like his robust and intemperate approach - very refreshing in these times of political correctness: at least you know precisely where he stands.

But where he stands is such a silly place. He ridicules theists for assigning to 'mystery' things which are beyond our comprehension, but then does exactly the same thing himself, with the pseudo-scientific term 'singularity'.

I will return to this theme as I read - and reflect - more.

But one thing is clear to me: Cardinal Newman was right when he wrote:
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to teach astronomy for a planetarium and my boss was a vehement and vocal atheist. At some point we discussed singularities and their great cloud of unknowing, relating them to the incomprehensibility of God. He later converted to Catholicism and said some interesting things about the nature of light and immortality which I've since forgotten.

I haven't read Dawkins but my wife's been reading books from the standpoint of evolution about why it behooves a species to be socially conscious rather than the "might = right".

I'm italian (Calabrese) and my grandma used to call me "capatosta" (means "hardhead")

Ben Trovato said...

Great that your boss converted: it's important to see that atheism, and atheistic Darwinism are (false) religions - witness the fanatical adherence of many of their proponents.