Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Is Richard Dawkins a Level Five Atheist?

Perhaps Richard Dawkins is at least a level five atheist (see previous post - Level Five Agnostic). This quote from a Fr Frank Brenan SJ's book review of Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion would seem to indicate this:


Dawkins claims that moderation in faith fosters fanaticism: “even mild and
moderate religion helps to provide the climate of faith in which extremism
naturally flourishes”. Dawkins’ “take home message is that we should blame
religion itself, not religious extremism – as though that were some kind of
perversion of real, decent religion”. The same argument would not be put for
scientific inquiry. Imagine a call to ban all scientific inquiry because those
who engage in responsible scientific inquiry may be providing the opportunity
for fanatics to harness science for their own purposes. Dawkins and his ilk
think religious belief of any kind is meaningless, infantile and demeaning, so
nothing is lost by agitating in the most illiberal way for the suppression
of all religion and not just religious extremism which causes harm to others.

Makes sense to me. What do you think? Comments please.

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