Okay... so it's late and I'm going through The God Delusion courtesy of Richard Dawkins. I have some things I need to get out there before I can sleep.
The largest and most frustrating concern is that of Mr. Dawkins position that somewhere around 90% of the educated/intelligent world is atheist. I find this very affronting and completely opinion based. He equates that for one to be intelligent, an evolution based worldview is necessary. This excludes a theistic evolutionary world view (one who believes that matter was created by a diety, but left to it's own evolutionary devices: aka Deism.) First of all Dawkins constantly affirms that in order to hold a view you must have evidence. Indeed, I couldn't agree more... so, according to Dawkins, he must provide evidence of his claim that in order to be an intelligent person you must hold an evolutionary worldview. I have evidence contrary to Mr. Dawkins statement. For instance, Albert Einstein. Al was and is still considered to be one of the most brilliant scientific minds. He was a deist. He believed there was an initial deity that started the course of history. Stephen Hawking is one more deist. He's kind of smart... right? C.S. Lewis... professor at Cambridge, pretty sure intelligence is a pre-requisite to teach at one of the most prestigious Universities in the world. These are just a few, I'll give a list, but for the sake of sleep I won't describe them (I would be thrilled if you would look them up for yourself... I also agree with Dawkins on the subject of folks needing to think for themselves...). Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Origen, Iraeneus, Luther, Paley (though enduring much scrutiny), Pascal, T.S. Eliot, G.K. Chesterton just to name a few. These people are massively influential throughout history and in academia. Although not all of them are Christian per se, they all believe that some sort of a being created the cosmos. Dawkins is constantly playing to his ego in this book. He uses several different cases of anecdotal and testimonial evidence to show how much he has changed people's lives. Within the first 30 pages, it is difficult to trudge through the ego, and his statements mentioned above only help to further inflate his ego.
So, I have a difficult time dealing with people who have an ego that permeates all of their logic... I'm trying to be humble about this, but it's very difficult to have this guy bashing on what you believe, and not bash back a little. Forgive me.
Also, I want to point out something. In TGD, Dawkins implies, quite heavily, that scientists are completely unbiased. He makes claims that lead you to believe that his views are completely evidentially based, for example, "If all the evidence in the world turned in favour[sic] of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind. As things stand, however, all available evidence (and there is a vast majority of it) favours[sic] evolution." (pg. 19, Preface to the Paperback Edition) This statement implies absolute objectivity. I question the truth and validity of this statement. Most people, including Dawkins, would say that based on Mr. Dawkins field of study (Biology) it is natural for him to take evidence to it's natural conclusion... much like Carl Sagan claims in The Cosmos... but, if the case were that all evidence pointed to creationism, I'm quite sure that Dawkins still wouldn't accept it. You see, when doing scientific research, if you are wrong, so what. The conclusion of your evidence generally has small ramifications, but in the case of the origins of existence, it has direct bearing on one's worldview. If evidence suggests a conclusion contrary to your presuppositions, you must completely toss out all of your assumptions about life. Everything you have ever known is now tossed into doubt. One must completely reorient their lives in order to account for this new shift in paradigms. Dawkins uses science to imply his actions, yet Dawkins didn't factor in the variable, the shift in perception of reality. So, as much as he proclaims to the contrary, his claim is entirely circumstancial.
So, now I've gotten a little bit off, but I need sleep cause I have to be up early tommorrow (at least early for me), so even though I have more I'll save it for later. If you are interested in this subject, shoot me a message and tell me what you think. I guarantee I'll have more to say on this book, so stay tuned...lqtm. Good night to all and to all a good night-or something like that- !!!!!!
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