Christmas is Cancelled

...which you'd think is would be a bad thing, but Richard Dawkins might change your mind. Since 1976, Richard Dawkins has combined a career as a working scientist with another as a popular science author and opponent of superstition in all its forms. It was in this last guise that he sat down to write The God Delusion, with the stated aim of "raising consciousness" of atheism as a "brave, splendid" position, which can allow a person to live a "happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled" life. The book's ten chapters are tightly argued, packed with quotes, jokes and anecdotes, and, taken together, could make a marvellously controversial Christmas present for pious relatives.

In September 2001, Richard Dawkins delivered a eulogy at the memorial service for the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams. He quoted from a brilliant improvised speech that Adams had given at a dinner in Cambridge shortly before his death, part of which is reproduced in the opening chapter of The God Delusion.

"Religion... has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? Because you're not. If someone votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it... But on the other hand, if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday', you say 'I respect that."

In 1976, Dawkins, then a lecturer in zoology at Oxford published his first book, The Selfish Gene, in which he argued that genes, rather than the organisms that contain them, are the units upon which Darwinian selection processes act. Written in sparkling prose, and setting forth its ideas in an attractively clear and logical manner, the book was a surprise hit, selling over a million copies. Since then, Dawkins has combined a career as a working scientist with another as a popular science author, and yet another as a prominent opponent of superstition in all its forms.

One of the funniest moments occurs when Dawkins, exasperated by the ability of liberal Christians to dismiss 'difficult' elements of the Bible as 'symbolic', and yet still to retain belief in the central Christian doctrine of atonement, blows his top; "Oh, but the story of Adam and Eve was only ever symbolic, wasn't it? Symbolic? So, in order to impress himself, Jesus had himself tortured and executed, in vicarious punishment for a symbolic sin committed by a non-existent individual? As I said, barking mad, as well as viciously unpleasant." Strong stuff, but, as is the case throughout The God Delusion, it's difficult to find fault with Dawkins' reasoning.

What many people do find fault with, is Dawkins' tone, which, as the preceding quote shows, can be abrasive. He is often accused of arrogance, or of being overly aggressive (his nickname among his peers, 'Darwin's Rottweiler', may only be partially complimentary). In his defence, some argue that his style is a healthy sign that he is fully, and personally, invested in his arguments. A quick read of The God Delusion's preface makes it clear that Dawkins really wants readers to understand what he is saying, and despite the occasionally hectoring tone of the book, Dawkins is, overall, a considerate and encouraging guide.

Another objection to Dawkins commonly voiced by his religious opponents is that by refusing their offers of public debate, he fails to follow through on the commitment to dialogue that he alleges in his books. It is true that Dawkins has adopted a 'no-debate' policy, but his justification for doing so is reasonable, since his opponents are in many cases trying to achieve something genuinely insidious. For example, the Intelligent Design movement, which was shown in a legal judgement earlier this year to be nothing more than a well-funded offshoot of its hairier-handed ancestor Creationism, (in Dawkins' words, 'Creationism in a cheap tuxedo'), has the aim of smothering the teaching of evolution in schools. Dawkins knows that simply by appearing on a stage with them, he risks providing their cause with 'The oxygen of respectability'.

The God Delusion has been warmly received by critics since its September release, and has sold well. Less pleased by its appearance was the Marxist literary theorist Terry Eagleton who objected to it, in The London Review of Books, on the basis that as a non-theologian Dawkins is unqualified to assess the truth-claims that religion makes about the world. "What", Eagleton asked, "are Dawkins's views on the epistemological differences between Aquinas and Duns Scotus? Has he read Eriugena on subjectivity, Rahner on grace or Moltmann on hope?" Dawkins would argue, of course, that Rahner on grace is about as relevant to his argument as a (theoretical) genealogy of the unicorn would be to anyone who doesn't believe in them.

Dawkins dedicates The God Delusion to Douglas Adams and returns to his speech in the book's closing pages, quoting this remarkable passage: "There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be." The full text of the speech, (linked to below), continues; "…but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions." The God Delusion is an exciting new step in that slow, but infinitely valuable, process of correction.