THE DAWKINS DELUSION

I've just finshed re-reading Alister McGrath's The Dawkins Delusion. Alister McGrath is an ex-atheist and is presently Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University. Having studied in chemistry and researched in the field of biophysics he knows his way round the science lab.

His book The Dawkins Delusion is, of course, a response and rebuttal to and of the rant of Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion.

Maybe sometime in the future (if God spares him) Dawkins can have a go at dismantling the Triune God rather than raving on about whacko religious people who believe and do crazy stuff - as he does in The God Delusion! Tackle God next time Richard, I dare you!

Also, perhaps Dawkins would like to show us where, eg, Adolf Hitler went wrong in his application of The Theory of Evolution. Yes, perhaps Dawkins could do one of those How To books. "You all know the theory, now let's all put it into practice!" "But isn't that what that maniacal nut-case Adolf Hitler tried to do?" "Er..."

Frankly, I much prefer tried and true Reformed Christianity!

Anyway, back to The Dawkins Delusion. I like the way McGrath conludes his book with the following:

"Dawkins seems to think that saying something more loudly and confidently, while ignoring or trivializing counter-evidence, will persuade the open-minded that religious belief is a type of delusion. Sadly, sociological studies of charismatic leaders - religious and secular - indicate that Dawkins may be right to place some hope in this strategy. For the gullible and credulous, it is the confidence with which something is said that persuades, rather than the evidence offered in its support. Yet the fact that Dawkins relies so excessively on rhetoric, rather than the evidence that would otherwise be his natural stock in trade, clearly indicates that something is wrong with his case. Ironically, the ultimate achievment of The God Delusion for modern atheism may be to suggest that this emperor has no clothes to wear. Might atheism be a delusion about God?"