Do people who believe in God also believe in Richard Dawkins?
Richard Dawkins’s book, The God Delusion, has been out for years but is still hotly debated. Dawkins laments that so many otherwise rational people, including up to 10% of scientists believe in God. The world “delusion” alludes to his idea the religion, like a meme, or a virus, spreads like a disease, as delusion implies a pathological origin.
Delusion suggests mental pathology, and his point here is taken.
Yet most readers will see this as an attack on their sanity, so it does not bode well for him winning converts this way.
Dawkins sets out to raise the consciousness of closet atheists. He notes that no politician, especially in the United States could openly avow atheism. He also disparages the fact that so-called Christians, can be intolerant and even cruel, at times.
If belief in the supernatural is delusional, then it is a very common delusion. This is not at all unbelievable, as the human species overwhelmingly tend to hold untenable positions of unwavering concepts day today. A major defense mechanism common to the species is a need to feel certainty, then move on to other survival actions. We live in denial, certainly, of many things, such as our impact on the planet, and our assuming that our enemies are different than ourselves.
Dawkins believes Albert Einstein was an atheist
Einstein often alluded to God but was more than likely a noninterventionist agnostic. Einstein marveled and delighted in the beauty and complexity of the Universe, and had tremendous compassion, so Jews, Christians, Atheists, and everyone wants to say: “This smart guy is on OUR side”
But like God himself, Einstein’s faith, and Dawkins’s views, seem to be beyond claims of certainty.
The need for evidence to support the God Hypothesis and prove the probability of God is discussed at length in the book. The idea that irreducible complexity confounds all arguments for a creator, as every question about a creator leads to the question of who created the Creator? Dawkins does not see a similar problem, however for what/or who created the Universe, or Multiverse. Or, who, what, and why was matter, time, and space created?
Natural laws seem to be the fundamental basis for the incremental creation of everything, and the mystery of it all is not reduced by this. Dawkins posits that the zero probability of God can be proven, and that evidence just needs to be collected, to do so.
Dawkins is quite correct about the need to keep irrationality out of science.
Evolution, for example, should be taught in schools, as a part of biology.
He is also correct that some Christians are perverse, and allow very little, if any, Christ-like love toward atheists. He is even correct to point out that tax-exempt status for churches, and terrorizing people with the fear of hell, or loss of salvation, are not great selling points of religion.
However, to dismiss agnosticism, and the ability to simply declare: “We don’t know.” seems very strident at times, and many would label that too, as intolerant.
If anything wonderful can come of this book, it is that people will allow that religion has been very intolerant, and that religious person of every kind are often full of conviction and outrage, but little common sense, and compassion.
That we dismiss others different than ourselves as heathens, or evil, is truly something humanity needs to recognize works against our, and every other, species.
Human beings tend to be very judgmental. At risk of sounding judgmental, some clearly see that we should stop that.
