Archbishop of Canterbury attacks Atheism and Dawkins' 'God Delusion'
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has attacked atheism and the author of the best-selling book The God Delusion.
by Daniel Blake
Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007, 14:07 (BST)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has attacked atheism and the author of the best-selling book The God Delusion.
Addressing more than 1,000 people at Swansea University, Dr Williams gave a lecture rebutting Richard Dawkins' assessment of Christianity in his book, saying that atheists had missed the point and failed to understand what Christians actually believe in.
He said, "There are specific areas of mismatch between what Richard Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing."
He added that he believed Dawkins to be a leading scientist, but a poor philosopher.
"Our culture is one that deeply praises science, so we assume because someone is a good scientist, they must be a good philosopher," Dr Williams said.
He added: "Don't distract us from the real arguments by assuming that religion is an eccentric survival strategy or irrational form of explanation."
When asked "whose fault is Dawkins?", the archbishop replied that religious believers themselves were partly to blame.
He said that in the past God had often been reduced "to the kind of target Dawkins and others too easily fire at".
"When believers pick up Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, we may feel as we turn the pages: 'This is not it. Whatever the religion being attacked here, it's not actually what I believe in'," explained Dr Williams.
The first argument against religion he looked at was that of it being explained as an evolutionary survival strategy - something passed on through generations.
Dr Williams said that Darwinian Theory had wrongly been used as a way to interpret culture, not just biology, by Dawkins.
In addition, he rejected Dawkins's theory which assumes culture is transmitted in a similar way to biology. He sad, "I find this philosophically crass and undeveloped at best, simply contradictory and empty at worst."
The Church of England leader said that interpreting religion as a survival strategy was to misunderstand it.
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Added: Friday, August 15, 2008, 11:07 (BST)
Professor Dawkins never claimed that he knew everything; this is in stark contradiction to preachers of all faiths. With all due respect to Dr Williams, he falls into the same mistake that he attributes to Prof Dawkins of knowing everything by simply implying that he knows something more subtle to faith than others, which mostly atheists miss.
Before labelling Prof Dawkins’ logical arguments as “absolute pile of doss”, I would invite any believer to state his or her beliefs with the same logical clarity and consistency. I would challenge any believer to state his or her beliefs without using logical fallacies, and when confronted not to resort to claiming that it is a matter of faith not logic. If it is a matter of faith, one does not need explaining, but when one tries to rationalise faith, there is no way out. Faith is by definition not rational, therefore any attempt to rationalise it will fail ludicrously. Atheists are just not convinced by arrogant and inconsistent revelations that cannot be and more importantly are forbidden to be tested. The god described by all religions is the god of the gaps, and the more the gaps close, the more ludicrous becomes faith. It is not the fault of the atheists that believers have a lower threshold for convincing, which is commonly termed as gullible.
Jean DuBois, Canberra, Australia
Added: Thursday, October 18, 2007, 17:30 (BST)
Please could you give a summary of an SPCK book called, The Dawkin's Delusion. I saw in a secular bookshop in the UK, but I cannot remember the author. Thank you.
Malcolm Coombes, France
Added: Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 9:07 (BST)
I've read Dawkins' book and can I say what an absolute pile of dross. He writes as if he is an expert and knows everything, yet he is way off the mark, and lacks a comprehension of what having faith actually means.
There is a deeper world than what you can see around you, but some people, like Professor Dawkins will go around their whole lives looking down at the ground without realising something much greater.
TJ, Luton
