And so. The thing that has happened.

1.5 cheers for Richard Dawkins

Steven Tomkins has written a review of The God Delusion on Ship of Fools. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but Lydia discussed her thoughts with me after she read it. She was struck by the degree to which Dawkins' theories have no way to deal with people like her: i.e. those who didn't grow up in the church but were somehow foolish enough to buy into the whole farce as thinking adults.

From what Lydia told me, Dawkins has the same attitude as some other people I have met: anyone who is halfway intelligent and still a Christian just hasn't been lucky enough to have met their atheist savior, and he is happy to oblige. The possibility that a person might subject their faith to serious intellectual consideration and still come out in favour of it doesn't enter his thinking.

You can read the full review here.

My favourite section:

"He says that religion must be fought because of its attitudes to homosexuality, of which he offers a survey: the Taliban, the 1950s British justice system (not strictly speaking a religious group), Jerry Falwell, Senator Jesse Helms, Pat Robertson, Gary Potter and, you guessed, Fred Phelps. "This," we are told, "is the sort of morality that is inspired by religious faith." A slightly skewed sample, perhaps? You might as well list CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and GP Taylor and say that Christians tend to write bestselling fantasy novels. We who are many may be one body, but we sure as hell aren't of one mind."

Teehee. It's nice to know that Christians aren't the only ones who engage in clumsy one-sided proselytization attempts.

posted by annika fox @ 3:00 p.m.