Richard Dawkins

As I mentioned, my recent stint away from the public eye was spent not only perfecting my bunker shot – but discovering the case against God. Like millions of other people I recently bought a copy of The God Delusion, written by British Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins. This most recent publication follows a life time of works that have explored the issues of evolution, genetics and religion. Since 1995, Dawkins has held Oxford’s Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science – but more importantly he has found himself at the forefront of the growing debate over the existence of God.

At a time when Religion is reaching a peak in our politics and the very fabric of our society, it is a brave man who stands against the tide. But stand he does. Dawkins eloquently and simply lays out a cohesive and logical argument not just against the existence of a God – but also points to the harm done by the entrenchment of this faith across generations. He argues that as a people we indoctrinate our children in a chosen ideology, often segregating them in specialist schools, and teach them above all else to revere Religious Faith as a topic which cannot and should not be challenged – and yet which is not substantiated by a shred of evidence.

Strong words indeed, but words which are well supported by science. Dawkins speaks at length about the elegant way in which Evolution (and Darwinian Natural Selection) explains the diversity and complexity of life as we know it. His emphasis here is not only a reflection of his own specialty but a rebuttal of a commonly employed argument for God that points to irreducible complexity as evidence. As in: “Eagles are so complex that they couldn’t have developed by chance, therefore God exists”. For brevity, you’ll have to take my word for it that this is an ill founded argument, and maybe I’ll have a separate post on evolution (considering the stat that half of Americans believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old!). Suffice to say that Evolution has nothing to do with random chance, and the reality that it is still treated as a theory by some, appals me.

Dawkins additionally addresses the question the Origin of Life, which is particularly relevant as it has become for some, the last bastion of God. While even some of religious persuasions believe in Evolution, they claim that it was set in motion by a Divine architect. Strikingly, he immediately asks (I paraphrase) If God created the universe, who created God? Indeed. Again for brevity, his argument for the Origin of Life (a highly improbable event) is based on the billions of billions of universes in existence, and the necessity for only one life starting event to take place before evolution took over.

Clearly, I’m not doing the man justice by summarising his whole book into a couple of paragraphs. I can only implore you to read it and judge for yourself. He systematically addresses and debunks many of the common myths of religion like: “I believe because my bible says so”, “how would I know right from wrong without my religion”, “My life would be empty without my Faith”… and so forth. He challenges the growing tide of evangelical fanatics (he calls them the American Taliban) whose influence in America is worrying at the least. In the coming weeks I might raise a couple here, because each requires some discussion (You could also check out Dawkins recent documentary The Root of All Evil? - which covers similar ground).

Overall, Dawkins argues (compellingly) that we could actually be much happier, more moral beings if we would cast aside blind faith and re-learn the ability to ask questions and search for evidence. The physical world is so wondrous and awe inspiring in itself that it is perhaps better to live a full life now - rather than a life lived in pursuit of false hope. Implicit in all this is also the equitable treatment of all our fellow humans on the basis of mutually agreed morals and ethics, in contrast to those passed to us from a bronze-age book. His world view, contrary to expectations is actually much rosier than the one many have now. It’s a brave book by a brilliant man, and I urge you to read it as soon as you can.

The clip that follows will give you a taste of his reasoning. While it seems facetious, think about what he’s saying.