Why Dont You Blog?

Following the last post (about The God Delusion), I had a look on Technorati to see what others were saying.

This URL is interesting: http://adricv.vox.com/library/post/3-reasons-why-richard-dawkins-is-an-arrogant-prick-despite-having-some-good-ideas.html. Mainly because it is apparent that the author of the blogpost has not read the book.

It is a short blog entry – only having three real points:

• God ‘Delusion’? Is he a psychologist?
• God ‘Delusion’? Who gave him the authority to conclusively say there is no form of deity?
• God ‘Delusion’? I beleive in God in my way – not as a force concerned with terrenal matters, but as something unnamable and higher, a form which could explain the Big Bang – something which Dawkins can’t do

In the book, Dawkins addresses the title in the first few page and explains why the term “delusion” is used and sets the context for it’s use. This largely renders the first point above meaningless.

The second one, is equally irrelevant and meaningless. What authority can be granted to say there is or isn’t a form of deity? Who gave the author of the blog post the authority to challenge Dawkins’ imaginary authority?

The third point hammers home the playground level of the blog post. Dawkins is a Biologist, who expects him to explain the Big Bang. What “explanation” is actually provided by the cop-out “God did it” that does anything but end further learning?

All in all, and this goes for most English language blogs which rail against The God Delusion, most of the critique comes from people who have not read the book and have couched their “complaints” in the terms of a nine year old.

Well, December is always hectic at WhyDontYou, as you can imagine. This tends to mean that our blog posts concentrate into two periods – autumn (fall) and spring. This is not always a bad thing. Sorry for the recent lack in posts, it isn’t because we have run out of ideas – just time!

Oddly (given that Richard Dawkins can be a bit annoying), I have been reading “The God Delusion” and it certainly is something I would recommend to everyone else. The book is interesting, insightful, at times witty and always well written.

In the past I have been concerned that vocal atheists, especially scientists, are running the risk of creating Atheism as a religion. The God Delusion has actually managed to make me re-assess this idea, and see that within reason there is a “need” for vocal, outspoken, well educated, intelligent opponents of “Religion.”

Some of the more pertinent points of the book (and another interesting book – Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris – even has its own “mySpace” space), is how the devout followers of various religions respond to criticism. I frequently read on the Internet and USENET, times where followers of the supposededly peaceful religions threaten non-believers with all manner of physical harm in the name of their peaceful Deity. Strangely, the error in this thinking seems to escape them. In the US, abortionism seems to draw the same sort of response. Killing a collection of cells is “morally wrong” but killing fully grown humans is OK.

I am sure there is some logic there somewhere……

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