Dawkins and the God Delusion

Richard Dawkins is about to publish his latest book which is not about biology but about religious belief (or rather about why religious belief of any flavour is no more than a delusion). He had a substantial slot on the prestigious UK 'Tonight' programme tonight where he was interviewed by 'Rottweiler' Jeremy Paxton (on a bizarre set comprised of terminally uncomfortable chairs that I can only suppose were prescribed by the BBC producer in the hope of making Dawkins squirm. He didn't, although both Dawkins and Paxman in their suits looked like ragged crows confronting one another in a doctor's waiting room).

Dawkins gave an extremely good account of himself (even though Paxman pushed him hard - I think Paxman is sympathetic to Dawkins's views but you wouldn't know it by viewing this programme).I look forward to reading the book. It is interesting that in this year of the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of his great work, 'The Selfish Gene', he is focusing more on debunking the delusion of religion than on biology.

Good for Dawkins. It's time we stopped pussy-footing around the fantasies and delusions that provide the foundation for religion, and stand up for the truth - supernatural religion is an evolutionarily developed mechanism that helps humanity to cope with the hard aspects of life and particularly with death, but that has absolutely no basis in reality. It's time for us to grow up and give up our belief in fairy tales. The universe will seem colder and lonelier, but we can live prouder and more fulfilled lives if we accept the truth.

Vatican Evolution Debate Group

Ratzinger organises an annual debate for his former theology students. This weekend the topic was evolution - why anyone, including Ratzinger, would think that a group of theologians should have anything interesting or of value to say about evolution is beyond me. Still, the press had speculated that the group might come down on the side of Intelligent Design (obviously Schönborn would have liked that) which would be a tragedy for the Church, reason and scholarship. Not much is known about the detail of what the theologians had to say about biology this weekend but apparently the minutes of the meeting will be published later this year. Don't expect any important scientific insights.

The press reports here, here, here and here seem to reach a consensus that the theolgians' conclusion was that evolution is a fact and not incompatible with Catholic theology provided it doesn't seek to explain God away as the Prime Mover. Well, science as a mode of knowing has nothing formal to say about the existence or non-existence of God, which topic is beyond its competence, so we can give them that (which is not to say that scientists should not use their knowledge of nature to reach the conclusion that God is unnecessary to explain the existence of the Universe and intelligent life within it, as many, convincingly, do). Maybe Catholicism, in spite of Schönborn's ill-advised foray into the debate on the side of ID, will remain a beacon of reason and a defender of science amongst increasingly fundamentalist and anti-science Christians. Now that would be cause for celebration.