Every year

I think “this has to be the silliest thing Richard Dawkins will ever write about religion”. And every year, I’m wrong.


There’s a certain irony in this, because the last conversation I had with him was to urge him to get bishops to sign his letter denouncing the creationists of Gateshead. I don’t know if this only encouraged him to do something he’s smart enough to do anyway, or if put the idea into his head.

But I really don’t understand why he can’t see that the most destructive answer to bad religion is better religion.

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One Response to Every year

  1. RupertG says:

    Dawkins is a beautiful example of Orwellian metamorphosis — he has become indistinguishable from that he affects to despise. Actually, I can’t say that with any confidence as I don’t know what he was like when first he found his soapbox. Does he really think that loudly blowing his scorn will do any good, or is it a role he loves playing so much he doesn’t want to stop?

    It’s all done in the same spirit as the strand of 20t century medicine that thought appendix and tonsils atavistical lumps of meat best removed as a matter of course before they did any damage. A more thoughtful approach has them as valid parts of being human, despite our not fully understanding why they’re there. Dawkins is a vestigial virgin, stuck in the mindset that says “We should be rational beings above all else, and our emotions are irksome damaging throwbacks” and unable to comprehend that religion is also an important, valuable part of being human that has informed our evolution.

    God, I love irony. I thought it was a youthful infatuation, but my love affair with it has grown over the years. It and paradox are my two favourite windows onto the world, and I can’t understand how anyone lives without them…

    R (in purple mode)

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