The name Richard Dawkins may be familiar to you. How about Alister McGrath? Well, to better understand the purpose and content of this book, I’ll take a moment to introduce them to you.
Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and one of the world’s most well-known atheists. His books, including the “Selfish Gene”, “The Blind Watchmaker” and “The God Delusion” are, among other things, scathing critics of both creationism and intelligent design. According to Dawkins, evolutionary science proves that there is no supernatural Creator and that religious faith is a delusion.
Introducing . . . Alister Edgar McGrath
Alister McGrath holds both the DPhil in molecular biophysics and an earned doctorate in theology from Oxford. A politic writer, McGrath is an international recognized theologian and Christian apologist.
The book is a critique of Dawkins work. And the thesis of the book is found on p.53:
“The scientific method is incapable of delivering a decisive adjudication of the God question. Those who believe that it proves or disproves the existence of God press that method beyond its legitimate limits, and run the risk of abusing or discrediting it. Some distinguished biologists (such as Francis S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project) argue that the natural sciences create a positive presumption of faith; others (such as the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould) that they have a negative implications for theistic belief. But they prove nothing, either way. If the God question is to be settled, it must be settled on other grounds.”
One more thing, Richard Dawkins views faith as “a kind of mental illness . . . as a cop-out . . . an excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.” Faith, for Dawkins, is a form of “blind trust.”
McGrath takes great pains to expose Dawkins views as highly simplistic and suggests that atheism in itself is a faith (thus the title Dawkins’ God).
He writes:
“The highly simplistic model proposed by Dawkins seems to recognize only two options: 0 percent probability (blind faith) and 100 percent probability (belief caused by overwhelming evidence.)” p.89
“I still love the sciences. Yet it is now clear to me that some natural scientists use rhetoric beyond acceptable limits in pressing their case – often, it must be said, when venturing beyond their field of competence, or when attempting to cover up a deficit of experimental evidence with a verbal smokescreen.” p.107
“When it comes to dealing with the behavior of religious people, Dawkins seems to step outside this rigorously empirical approach.” p.110
McGrath concludes:
This book has barely scratched the surface of a series of fascinating questions raised by the writings of Richard Dawkins.
"I am sure that we all have much to learn by debating with each other, graciously and accurately. The question of whether there is a God, and what that God might be like, has not – despite the predictions of overconfident Darwinians – gone away since Darwin, and remains of major intellectual and personal importance. Some minds on both sides of the argument may be closed; the evidence and the debate, however, are not. Scientists and theologians have so much to learn from each other. Listening to each other, we might hear the galaxies sing. Or even the heavens declaring the glory of the Lord.” (Psalm 19:1) p.158-159
Having never read Dawkins, this book was very helpful to me. McGrath gave a wonderful, respectful review of Dawkins work and a very fair critique of his work.
Out of 5 stars, a 5 plus!
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