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I don't see why anybody with any opinion shouldn't compete on a level playing field. The idea that you can't challenge religion "because you just can't" is absurd. People with irrational positions usually are offended by a rational argument, so if they're backed into a corner they will usuallly...

In The Great Convergence, reprinted in A Devil's Chaplain, Dawkins makes it very clear that he considers that non supernatural gods are not gods at all, and that awe of nature is not religion. Here are a few apt quotes: “Ursula Goodenough's lyrical book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, is sold...

Who is the author?

My internet access is rationed to an hour in the local library, so I haven't had time to read your references. A fundamental difference between science and religion is that scientists can usually accept the answers that they didn't want to hear, they wouldn't have made any progress otherwise. My...

I've read most of Dawkins' work, and I have to say I think that anyone who has this impression is badly mistaken. Dawkins is arguing against any God, up to an including Uncreated Creators who are deemed responsible for Man/Life/The Universe etc. There is no more reason to believe in a creator...

As there have been no takers, I assume that nobody has already read it. I mentioned above, it's about risk analysis and society's attitude to risk. Sometimes I think it should be a criminal offence to contribute to a public debate without reading it first. Read it if you're interested to find...

It's about both, the title of one of the chapters is something like 'Why God Almost Certainly Doesn't Exist'. But why not judge by reading the book, instead of this thread?

It took the vatican 400 years to admit that Gallileo was right, so I don't suppose there's much point in expecting them to concede to Darwin any time soon.

If you're reading a book as old as this, it's worth bearing in mind that some of it's very out of date. Darwin didn't know the mechainism for genetic inheritance at the time he wrote Origin. For anyone interested in evolutionary theory as it stands today, The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins...

I really enjoyed Blind Watchmaker, it was my first Dawkins, and first on evolution. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an introduction to evolutionary biology. Selfish Gene is a good follow up to BW, though perhaps not if you found it a bit dry. It's evolution as...

Which brings us back to the 'whats bad is false' arguments that I mentioned earlier! Have you read Bad Thoughts by Jamie Whyte? It's an analysis by a Cambridge philosopher of the irrational arguments that people use to debate. Very good, and very funny. (I see some American spelling in your...

Pinker and Boyer are pretty much singing from the same song sheet too, insofar as the subject matters overlap. If you enjoyed Pinker, try reading Judith Rich Harris: The Nurture Assumption. It also gets a glowing reference from Pinker. They all seem to be Psychologists with their feet grounded...

I never normally need to, including on 'moneysavingexpert.com' which apparently uses the same forum software as this. This computer is a communal one in the local library, does that have any implications? (PS This message went on first time without error!)

It does what it says on the tin......

This sounds quite similar to Pascal Boyer's analysis in Religion Explained. Rational reasoning is not a skill that comes naturally, rather it is something that needs to be learnt. By contrast religious modes of thinking arise quite naturally as a sort of parasitic by-product of the cognitive...

When I try to post a message the forum throws an error, saying that I'm not logged in, even though the top right corner of the reply window is acknowledging that I am. If I then take up the invitation to log in again, a second attempt at posting the message is met with a complaint about posting...

Yes, I quite appreciate your point, but it wasn't an ill-considered ploy. It's about risk analysis, and society's attitude to risk. Adams is Professor of Geography at UCL, and specialises in risk analysis in general, and road safety in particular. However, much of the book is counter...

Has anyone else read it?

19 I've read nearly all Dawkins' work, and found little in it for any open minded reader to argue with. Dawkins is generally portrayed as the rabid arch-atheist, usually by creationists, but this is not a role he has chosen for himself. Rather, it is one that has been thrust upon him by the...

Has anyone else read it?