Not surprisingly, Richard Dawkins places the evolutionary process at the center of his argument. “This book will advocate an alternative view: any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything, comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution” (p. 31, emphasis in the original). This might be hard …
A Couple Junior High Girls in a Slap Fight
Dawkins spends a goodish bit of time in his first chapter trying to show that belief in supernatural religion is not worthy of the thinking man’s respect. “It is in the light of the unparalled presumption of respect for religion that I make my own disclaimer for this book. I shall not go out of …
Psalter, Claymore and Bagpipes
The first chapter of The God Delusion is divided into two sections. The first section is entitled “Deserved Respect,” and talks about scientists like Einstein, Hawking, and others who use religious terminology to talk about the whoa-factor when it comes to just how cool the universe actually is. It is beyond dispute that lots of …
Let’s Fritz Our Brains At Them
Richard Dawkins wants to raise our consciousness — to “raise consciousness to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one” (p. 1). And his new book, The God Delusion, certainly does have some high aspirations in this regard. As high, that is, as approximately one hundred …