Richard Dawkins’ Failed Rebuttal of Natural Theology

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Peter S. Williams (MA, MPhil) The man described as ‘Darwin’s Rotweiller’ (by supporter Charles Simonyi) has evolved to metaphorically resemble the big bad wolf of nursery rhyme fame, and he is on a bestselling mission to liberate the pigs (the analogy is mine, not his) from what he sees as their prisons of straw. Zoologist Richard Dawkins, who is Oxford University’s Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, has been described as ‘materialistic, reductionist and overtly anti-religious.’ Nevertheless, The God Delusion – which is descended by design from Dawkins’ controversial two-part television series The Root of all Evil? – is his first book written to make a direct (undoubtedly well-intentioned) attack upon theistic religion: ‘If this books works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down.’…Dawkins’ attack upon the historical reliability of the bible, which draws upon scholars like agnostic Bart Ehrman (who follows Hume’s discredited proposal that miracle claims cannot in principle be supported by evidence), is full of demonstrably false and misleading claims. Indeed, Dawkins’ critique constitutes a ‘greatest hits’ of the sort of thing I expect to hear from students who have uncritically lapped up philosophically outdated sceptical treatments of scripture that confirm their prejudices. Plenty of contemporary scholars reject Dawkins’ opinions concerning the reliability of the bible, on evidential grounds…

Full article and citations:
http://www.arn.org/docs/williams/pw_goddelusionreview2.htm

More reviews of Dawkin’s book:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/eagl01_.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/books/review/Holt.t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bu&oref=slogin
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061023&s=nagel102306