When God catches even the attention of a staunch atheist, it’s impressive to see.
I went to see Expelled with my husband on the weekend. The whole bit about the educational system knocking down the idea of intelligent design was interesting, but what really intrigued me was Richard Dawkins’s fascination with God. This was evident mostly near the end of the film, when Ben Stein sat down with the atheist for some face-to-face time. Dawkins read from his book, The God Delusion, a description of what he called the “Old Testament God.” It was scathing and even frightening.
What amazed me is the time that Dawkins, who does not believe God exists, has devoted to God. Writing the book takes time, yes, but there’s also the pondering the whole idea of God over and over in his head to come up with not only one description but a whole bookful of observations and arguments (I haven’t read the book, so please correct me if I’m off track here). I thought about the fact that atheists generally view God as a myth; he’s been compared by some to the fairies or goblins of children’s lore. I considered how difficult it would be for me to, for example, write a whole, serious book on the evils (or benefits) of the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny, considering that I have no doubt in my mind that those creatures are make-believe.
Later in the interview with Stein, Dawkins admitted to believing there could be an intelligent designer—if said designer evolved.
I left the movie wondering that if deep within himself, Dawkins doesn’t have just a tiny bit of doubt in his faith that there is no God.
Bill Said:
on April 24, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I thought it was funny how the first evolutionist interviewed in the movie was Michael Shermer, who is skeptical of aliens, UFOs and creation. The last evolutionist interviewed was Dawkins who espoused the possibility of UFOs and aliens.
Chris Taylor Said:
on April 25, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Dawkins is the ‘Apostle of Atheism’ after all. That poor guy is really deluded.
I saw your post over at AngryXtian’s site. Trying to figure out that guy. I think its a Christian poser – acting like the stereotypical Christian right-wing screwball, but not sure.
God Bless,
Chris
http://sharpeningiron.wordpress.com/
mudandsun Said:
on April 25, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment! I’m not sure about that guy, either. I think he might actually be really representing what he believes, which is sad if he is. He’s angry and that doesn’t necessarily represent Christ well. But he seems to think he is. Hmmm…
Mudandsun
Forrest Said:
on May 1, 2008 at 5:03 am
I haven’t read The God Delusion, but I’ve read The Selfish Gene, and flipped through The Blind Watchmaker. In what I’ve read, which is admittedly older stuff, the man rarely mentions the concept of god; this is the opposite of the interviews he’s been giving lately.
Selfish Gene is about the ways insects signal that they’re poisonous, or have stingers, and how other insects learn to mimic their coloring and patterns. How certain ants grow a type of fungus in their homes, raising it for food, how they keep aphids as domestic animals, pre-digesting sap for them. How animals ( birds, especially ) learned to give danger cries, what some of the risks and benefits of this behavior are, and how genes that promote it might spread through the pool. Blind Watchmaker has an entire chapter on how sonar works in a bat. The man is a biologist, above all else.
I’m not saying the man doesn’t write about god, nor am I trying to speak for him at all … just give my impression, having read a bit of his work. The guy is more like the child who gets a complicated toy purely to take apart and see how it works.
But you’re right in that the man isn’t 100 % certain there is no god. Everything I’ve ever read or heard the man say points to a believe that god isn’t necessary to explain our origins. Dawkins in particular doesn’t see any reason to believe in a god, but that’s a (subtly) different thing from believing there isn’t one. Most people would call me an atheist, but I’m not positive myself, that a god ( or even many of them ) doesn’t exist.
undergroundnetwork Said:
on May 7, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Hi,
Forrest is right, in saying that Dawkins is a biologist and his work is first and foremost interested in science. It is only the God delusion, and numerous essays, that he gets involved in religious discussion.
MudandSun, I highly recommend you read Dawkins God Delusion, if not only so that you can gain some insight into Dawkins and other atheists. I feel you have really missed the point in your post. He has focused his attention onto religion because religion is becoming more politically active recently in most countries, and more extreme. Most countries are seeing conventional religions on the decline, and fundamentalist extremist faiths on the increase. In the US religion has seeped into politics in the Bush presidency and most atheist do not the resulting attack on science. What I believe most irks Dawkins is the rise of the ID movement, a pseudo-scientific model that is asking for equal status in education as evolution. What is clearly a religious movement is trying to appear as a secular scientific movement, when in fact it is entirely anti-science. What self-respecting scientist would not be up in arms about this?
Christians also claim to be more moral than atheists, I have covered the fallacy of this several times in my own blog. Dawkins, also disagreed with this idea, so has dedicated a large part of his book to showing examples of God commanding rape and murder in the Old testament and Jesus espousing anything but ‘family values’ in the New testament. Dawkins then argues that our morality comes from elsewhere, and that we all have the capacity to live ethically, with or without god.
Ben Stein appears to be the ID movement’s Joseph Goebbels, demonising people for their beliefs, spreading hateful lies and deceiving people into believing corrupted science and warped theology. I’m not saying the ID movement is about to kill people like the Nazi movement, but it appears to have adopted many of the same traits, albeit at a lesser level. Dawkins and others should be applauded for standing up to a movement that threatens science and humanity’s drive to discover more about other universe.