MILITANT ATHEISM EXPOSED

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"We Believe in God" -- The Greatest Minds Believed

 

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RICHARD DAWKINS: CRITICISMS AND REBUTTALS

     Richard Dawkins is beyond any doubt the new high priest of the militant atheist movement. With his work, The God Delusion, he has officially declared war on religion and has made clear his aim to fight it until its demise is accomplished.  But brilliant believing minds are not declaring defeat that easily, as the following rebuttals indicate.


"After reading a great deal of this bombast, I have come to the conclusion that Richard has never assumed the duties of a Professor of the Public Understanding of Science - a position he holds due to the patronage of a zillionaire from Microsoft.  He seems to lack the intellectual confidence to say anything of substance, so he sticks to the very safe path of appealing to materialist  prejudices." 

Philip Johnson, "Richard Dawkins." Philip Johnson's Weekly Wedge Update. <http://www.arn.org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_010709.htm> (31 July, 2008).

(Philip Johnson is a former Law professor at Harvard University, who authored the book, Darwin on Trial.)


"To give an example: The God Delusion trumpets the fact that its author was recently voted one of the world's three leading intellectuals. This survey took place among the readers of Prospect magazine in November 2005. So what did this same Prospect magazine make of the book? Its reviewer was shocked at this "incurious, dogmatic, rambling, and self-contradictory" book. The title of the review? "Dawkins the dogmatist."

But what of the arguments themselves? The God Delusion is often little more than an aggregation of convenient factoids, suitably overstated to achieve maximum impact, and loosely arranged to suggest that they constitute an argument. This makes dealing with its "arguments" a little problematical, in that the work frequently substitutes aggressive, bullying rhetoric for serious evidence-based argument. Dawkins often treats evidence as something to shoehorn into his preconceived theoretical framework. Religion is persistently and consistently portrayed in the worst possible way, mimicking the worst features of religious fundamentalism's portrayal of atheism.

In one of his more bizarre creedal statements as an atheist, Dawkins insists that there is "not the smallest evidence" that atheism systematically influences people to do bad things. It's an astonishing, naďve, and somewhat sad statement. The facts are otherwise. In their efforts to enforce their atheist ideology, the Soviet authorities systematically destroyed and eliminated the vast majority of churches and priests during the period 1918-41. The statistics make for dreadful reading. This violence and repression was undertaken in pursuit of an atheist agenda -- the elimination of religion. This doesn't fit with Dawkins' highly sanitized, idealized picture of atheism. Dawkins is clearly an ivory tower atheist, disconnected from the real and brutal world of the twentieth century.

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. For the gullible and credulous, it is the confidence with which something is said that persuades, rather than the evidence offered in its support. Dawkins' astonishingly superficial and inaccurate portrayal of Christianity will simply lead Christians to conclude that he does not know what he is talking about -- and that his atheism may therefore rest on a series of errors and misunderstandings. Ironically the ultimate achievement of The God Delusion for modern atheism may be to suggest that it is actually atheism itself may be a delusion about God. "

Alister McGrath, "The Dawkins Delusion," AlterNet. <http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/47052> (31 July, 2008).

"Alister McGrath is a biochemist and Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University. He may be Richard Dawkins' most prominent critic. As the author of Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life, he was interviewed  for Dawkins' recent documentary, "The Root of All Evil." Not a frame of these interviews made it into the final edit." (Ibid)                                                             


"Dawkins's mockery of religion is based on a distortion of the worst kind, though. It flows from him so effortlessly, I doubt he sees it for what it is. He is so thoroughly imbued with the naturalist/materialist/atheist mindset that he cannot step outside of it to take an honest look at another view."

Tom Gilson, "What's Going On In The God Delusion?" Thinking Christian. <http://psom.blogspot.com/2006/01/root-of-all-evil-part-1-god-delusion.html> (31 July, 2008).


"Why would someone be so much of a grinch as to write a book as mean-spirited as this? Part of the answer may be that the author feels threatened by creationism and religious fundamentalists. Fear, along with a sense of victimhood (which is a unifying factor in many special interest groups), is one of the few emotions that can produce such smallness of spirit."

T. J. Nelson, "The God Delusion,"  (Book review). <http://brneurosci.org/reviews/god-delusion.html> (31 July, 2008).

"This is the only context that can explain Dawkins's programme, a piece of intellectually lazy polemic which is not worthy of a great scientist. He uses his authority as a scientist to claim certainty where he himself knows, all too well, that there is none; for example, our sense of morality cannot simply be explained as a product of our genetic struggle for evolutionary advantage."

Madeleine Bunting, "No Wonder Atheists are Angry: They Seem Ready to Believe anything." The Guardian. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jan/07/raceandreligion.comment> (31 July, 2008).


"It’s all in good fun when Dawkins mocks a buffoon like Pat Robertson and fundamentalist pastors like the one who created “Hell Houses” to frighten sin-prone children at Halloween. But it is less edifying when he questions the sincerity of serious thinkers who disagree with him, like the late Stephen Jay Gould, or insinuates that recipients of the million-dollar-plus Templeton Prize, awarded for work reconciling science and spirituality, are intellectually dishonest (and presumably venal to boot). In a particularly low blow, he accuses Richard Swinburne, a philosopher of religion and science at Oxford, of attempting to “justify the Holocaust,” when Swinburne was struggling to square such monumental evils with the existence of a loving God."

Jim Holt,. "Beyond Belief." New York Times, Sunday Book Review. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/books/review/Holt.t.html?ex=1319169600&en=d9a0ba69b41f32df&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss> (31 July, 2008).


"The God Delusion is liberally sprinkled with imaginary opponents (‘Here is the message that an imaginary “intelligent design theorist” might broadcast…’, ‘the following statement from an imaginary apologist…’, ‘My imaginary religious apologist…’, ‘Let’s invent an imaginary quotation from a moral philosopher…’), as if Dawkins can’t be bothered to engaging with the real opposition. The best that can be said about Dawkins’ The God Delusion, then, is that it is a mixed bag. Jim Holt’s assessment is, in my opinion, actually rather understated:

"The book fairly crackles with brio. Yet reading it can feel like watching a Michael Moore movie. There are lots of good, hard-hitting stuff about the imbecilities of religious fanatics and frauds of all stripes, but the tone is smug and the logic occasionally sloppy."

Peter S. Williams, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Richard Dawkins' Failed Rebuttal of Natural Theology." Access Research Network. <http://www.arn.org/docs/williams/pw_goddelusionreview2.htm> (31 July, 2008).

 

We Believe in God

The Greatest Artists, Musicians, Philosophers, Scientists, Writers and Poets Believed in God...(And a great many Nobel-Prize winners).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Unlike what atheists propagate, the greatest minds of the past believed in God. Read the fully-referenced proofs in this book.
AVAILABLE IN BOTH PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK FORMAT ON  AMAZON.              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Booklet from UCG.org

Life's Ultimate Question: Does God Exist?

(No Follow Up)

Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OTHER DAWKINS PAGES ON THIS SITE

Dawkins Lack of Brilliance Exposed -- From His Own Words: One paragraph from the Preface to The God Delusion tells all.

The God Delusion, Preface Analysis: A close look at the aims, fanaticism and irrationality of Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins and Einstein, on the Bible and Jesus Christ: Unlike Dawkins, Einstein saw great value in Biblical morality.

Is Richard Dawkins Satan Possessed? Is Dawkins possessed by the Devil?

Dawkins and Nobel Prize Winners:  To Dawkins almost all Nobel Prize winners are unbelievers. What are the facts?

Chapter by Chapter Analysis of, The God Delusion:  An in-depth analysis of this intellectually frail work by a major apologist.

Extraterrestrials? Yes!  God? No way!  Dawkins reaches the peak of absurdity, in Ben Stein's "Expelled...."

A Crucial Message to Richard Dawkins: A brief appeal to a man who might still mend his ways.

God and a "Gigantic Intelligence": Dawkins is open to the possibility of a "Gigantic Intelligence" -- but not God.

RELATED WEB SITES

conservapedia.com/Richard_Dawkins 

Dave Crofts, "The Root of all Evil? Part 1' Part 2"

John Lennox, "God and Richard Dawkins" Bethinking.org.

Nick Pollard, "The Root of all Evil? The problem with Richard Dawkins' faith."

Peter S. Williams, "Is Life Designed or Designoid? Dawkins, Science and the Purpose of Life."

Peter S. Williams, '"What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" - Comparing Dawkins' Blind Faith with Flew's Evidence."

Alister McGrath, "Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life." (Blackwell, 2005)

Peter Williams, "Calling Dawkins' Bluff.".

Terry Eagleton, "Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching."

Robert Slane, " " A Rebuttal of Richard Dawkins The God Delusion."

"Richard Dawkins' Failed Rebuttal of Natural Theology."

“The Dawkins Confusion” Rebuttal."

Bede's Review of The God Delusion

"Climbing Mount Improbable, A review of Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins"

"A Critique of Richard Dawkin's Views on Religion"

"The Dawkins Confusion"

"The Devil's Chaplain"

"Lennox-Dawkins Audio Debate"

"No wonder atheists are angry: they seem ready to believe anything"

"Reflections on Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker "

"Some thoughts on Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion "

"Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder"

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The Dawkins' Delusion (Alister E. Mc Grath)

 

God is No Delusion (Thomas Crean)

 

 

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