The following is an open letter to Dr. Richard Dawkins of "The God Delusion" fame. I'm publishing this here because I think discussions like this should be open to everyone and, should people like me choose to be so, anonymous:
Dear Dr. Richard Dawkins,
Epitomizing American laziness, my understanding of your book, "The God Delusion," comes exclusively from YouTube. I've read excerpts from another of your books, "Unweaving the Rainbow," but nothing else. I was happy to remain quietly content that someone was articulating to the world a belief in science and rationalism as the only tool we have for understanding our world. There are, however, some things you seem confused by_for instance, the stupefied look on your face as fundamentalists lashed out at you in your interviews. In your documentary you looked similarly dumbfounded when you said:
"I don't see what future the world has as long as people think like that. And people are going to go on thinking like that, as long as they're brought up_from childhood, from the cradle_to think that there's something good about faith, to think that there's something good about believing because you've been told to believe rather than believing because you've looked at the evidence."
You explained why a belief in God is ignorant. Given that the religious are in the majority, it should come as no surprise to you that this majority is persistently ignorant about all the important questions in life: Where do we come from? Where does the world come from? How does the world work? What is our role in the world? Instead, that majority selects authority figures to answer those questions for them. You represent a threat to the existing authority because you are an alternative authority_one of science. And science's tradition of transparency and self-correction makes it difficult to merely dismiss.
Communism represented a similar alternative, but with it came political, economic, and later cultural revolutions that ultimately proved bankrupt, killing a great many people in the process. As an atheist at my alma mater's underground conservative newspaper, I engaged in frequent debates with my peers about religion and God. Rather than present evidence to validate their scripture, they defended Christianity on the basis of moral tradition, constructing a causal connection between secularism and moral anarchy. With a sigh, my editor said, "I fear the world is moving in your direction." By his arguments, if you were to break God's law on Saturday and ask His forgiveness on Sunday, the church would be the only thing stopping you from being a bad person. As contrary as that sounds, that's the American way of life. Take your friend Ted Haggard for example.
As individuals, most people are wonderful creatures. I cannot judge them any less deserving than you or me. But when we operate as a mob, we are selfish, ignorant and ugly. Science does not proscribe moral law to the mob. It's merely a descriptive tool. So long as the mob looks for a moral authority, it will buy whatever religion comes with it.
Dear Dr. Richard Dawkins,
Epitomizing American laziness, my understanding of your book, "The God Delusion," comes exclusively from YouTube. I've read excerpts from another of your books, "Unweaving the Rainbow," but nothing else. I was happy to remain quietly content that someone was articulating to the world a belief in science and rationalism as the only tool we have for understanding our world. There are, however, some things you seem confused by_for instance, the stupefied look on your face as fundamentalists lashed out at you in your interviews. In your documentary you looked similarly dumbfounded when you said:
"I don't see what future the world has as long as people think like that. And people are going to go on thinking like that, as long as they're brought up_from childhood, from the cradle_to think that there's something good about faith, to think that there's something good about believing because you've been told to believe rather than believing because you've looked at the evidence."
You explained why a belief in God is ignorant. Given that the religious are in the majority, it should come as no surprise to you that this majority is persistently ignorant about all the important questions in life: Where do we come from? Where does the world come from? How does the world work? What is our role in the world? Instead, that majority selects authority figures to answer those questions for them. You represent a threat to the existing authority because you are an alternative authority_one of science. And science's tradition of transparency and self-correction makes it difficult to merely dismiss.
Communism represented a similar alternative, but with it came political, economic, and later cultural revolutions that ultimately proved bankrupt, killing a great many people in the process. As an atheist at my alma mater's underground conservative newspaper, I engaged in frequent debates with my peers about religion and God. Rather than present evidence to validate their scripture, they defended Christianity on the basis of moral tradition, constructing a causal connection between secularism and moral anarchy. With a sigh, my editor said, "I fear the world is moving in your direction." By his arguments, if you were to break God's law on Saturday and ask His forgiveness on Sunday, the church would be the only thing stopping you from being a bad person. As contrary as that sounds, that's the American way of life. Take your friend Ted Haggard for example.
As individuals, most people are wonderful creatures. I cannot judge them any less deserving than you or me. But when we operate as a mob, we are selfish, ignorant and ugly. Science does not proscribe moral law to the mob. It's merely a descriptive tool. So long as the mob looks for a moral authority, it will buy whatever religion comes with it.