The God delusion

Dougal Jeffries

I could hardly disagree more with Simon Fraser's criticisms of Richard Dawkins' powerful book, The God Delusion, and his condescending comments on Simon Curtis' review. Given the content of his letter, with its heavy reliance on the views of Alister McGrath, I wonder if he has actually read the book himself.

Professor (not Mr) Dawkins has produced a thoroughly argued case against the existence of ‘God’ as traditionally understood by the world's major monotheistic religions: that is to say, a god who is responsible for the origin and evolution of life on this planet, who remains interested in the individual fates of its denizens, and who is responsive to intercessionary prayer. Dawkins has read widely and writes with lucidity and intellectual rigour, and entertainingly as well. To describe his book as being marred by ‘excessive reliance on bold assertion and rhetorical flourish’ seems to me a travesty.

It is not true that Dawkins asserts that ‘the elimination of religion would be a solution to the world's ills’, but he clearly believes that it would help. Although I am an unashamed atheist, I'm not sure I agree with him. For what it's worth, my own view is that Dawkins greatly underrates the importance to many people of what might be called ‘religion as metaphor’: that is to say, the choice of many thoughtful people to follow a particular religious tradition (usually, of course, the one they happen to be born into) because they feel it gives them a practical moral framework to live by. I know many such people who would call themselves religious but do not believe in any literal sense in the creed that they espouse. At one point in his book Dawkins admits to failing to understand this stance: that, I would say, is his greatest weakness.

I shall keep a look out for Alister McGrath's book The Dawkins Delusion, but hope that open-minded Christians among your readership will read Dawkins' book as well and not rely on any second-hand critiques — whether by Simon Curtis, Simon Fraser or myself!