The God Delusion By Richard Dawkins - Closing thoughts

So despite how much am enjoying the new book and really want to write about it I felt I had to offer some closure to the God Delusion. As I look back at the various topics it raised and thoughts it provoked I have to say am very glad that I read it and would recommend it to others as a book to read as well.

As someone who reads a fair amount of religious and spiritual books this was a drastic change for me. The majority of the book focused on Christianity and Islam after all they are the largest part of his target audience so it only seemed fair that they received the lion’s share of the attention. That being said he didn’t leave others out completely he did offer a few references to Zeus and his fellow Greeks. The closest he comes to touching on things like magic is a section on the power of prayer and some studies that were done on the subject.

Richard Dawkins offers up a well laid out argument against religion (any religion) through out the book. He builds on points that he as already made in the book and from time to time refers to points that he will be discussing later in the book. Any argument he that makes are also backed up by science or historical facts. So it makes it very difficult to dismiss or ignore any of points he brings up.

Through out the book a fair amount of devoted to the problems caused by being religious or by religious people. He also shines spot lights on the various and numerous inconsistency that dominant the Christian and Muslim. As I read often found myself having to remind myself of one of the tenants of my own practice, that being “I honour your god” It’s easy when you reading a book like this to forget that. After all if my worship is to be respected and accepted I must in turn accept theirs. (Shame this doesn’t work both ways for the most part)

I haven’t lost my faith after reading it, I have no desire to rush out and become a Humanist. My faith in the God and the Goddess is unshaken and strong as ever, what did leave me with was a much deeper understanding of the Christian faith. It also left me with a strange desire to stop at my local Christian book store and buy an Anti Wicca book just to give it a read.

So pick this book up and give it a read you will be glad that you did.

Is faith evil?

So am getting close to the end of Richard Dawkins book "The God Delusion" and once I've finished I'll post a over all review of the book and my thoughts on it. I've also downloaded a 2 part BBC show that he took part in called "The Root of all Evil" he disliked the name. However the BBC wanted to use it to get peoples attention. Either way it goes well with today's blog about the book.

Like with any talk on religion I honestly don't believe that these things describe everyone who believes. However it certainly does apply to what I would like to think of as a very vocal minority.

The section I just finished was entitled "What's Wrong with Religion" he over the course of the chapter he covers a lot of material and makes a number of interesting points. I won't go in to all of them but will mention a couple that caught my attention. I think the most interesting one was the importance placed and not placed on life. For example the importance placed on the unborn life of a newly conceived baby, one so young it is barely more than a few cells. They cry out that it is murder and that all life is scared, even the potential of life. By that logic a woman being raped shouldn't fight back because there is the potential of life. The logic is clearly flawed in my opinion. I guess it doesn't help that many of the same people who protest and in some cases call for the deaths of Homosexuals, and murders. I would have thought all potential life would include the living.

Richard also introduces the reader to the term 'American Taliban' not a phrase he coined but one that certainly seems to fit. A lot of the quotes that the site shows go hand in hand with the believes of the Taliban just change it from Christianity. It doesn't matter if your Christian, Pagan or Atheist click on that link at the start of this paragraph and read through some of the quotes. Many of them made me just shake my head while others disgusted me. Sadly a lot of these people represent (Or pretend to represent) a large number of Christians and as such they are often seen as a representation of Christianity as a whole.

But lets get on to the real subject of this blog "Is Faith Evil?" Richard makes the argument through out the book and more directly in this chapter that Faith is Evil not just in reference to the extremists like the Taliban (In either Country) but faith in general. Here is what seems to be the root of his logic that led to it.

Faith is evil because it requires no justification and brooks no argument.

The argument continues on to say that even teachings moderate religions though not extremist in themselves are an open invitation to extremism. Due to the way all principles of faith must be respected. After all if everyone is to be expected to accept and respect your religion, you should be expected to respect others. That includes the Osama bin Laden, suicide bombers, the abortion doctor killers all of them do what they do out of faith.

Here is where I have to disagree I certainly expect people to respect my own faith path as a Wiccan. I respect people of other faiths, I don't in anyway feel the need to or the responsibility to respect any person whose faith leads them to hurt, kill or even threaten other people. My own belief includes the words "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill — an ye harm none, do what ye will" To put it simply you're free to do what you want so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. It's a straight forward and to the point I suppose you could argue that under that rule abortion wouldn't be allowed, but then you would have to figure whom the pregnancy would hurt more the unborn fetus without nerves to feel or the mother (A whole and complete person)

Faith itself isn't evil what is done in the name of faith often is. I could post a laundry list of evil things done in the name of religion and include them all. My own is in that list as well although not on the same scale as the big 3 religion, after all we haven't been around for more then a hundred years. We as people need to look beyond our faith and realize that people worship how they worship and it is up to them to decide how they do it. Its not my(or anyone else) place to tell them what they can and can't do, so long as they are not doing it to me.

Now my own faith is a mystery religion and people who follow it are actively encouraged to study and learn. In fact people regular question the basic tenants of faith that we follow. It is through questioning that we learn and come to better understanding of the mysteries. We don't take things on blind faith, that's one of the things that love most about Wicca. I encourage people of every faith to do the same, question everything, learn and research it. All it should do is strengthen your faith, if it does something else perhaps your following the wrong path. If someone is telling you just to believe something and not to question it them maybe they have something to hide. By questioning and furthering our own understanding of our faith and our beliefs we can better stop people from doing with evil acts under the banner of our faith.

Ethical Decisions

I’m reading a section in the God Delusion discussion how our ability to make moral decision has come about as part of the evolutional process. He goes on to describe thing moral questions that have been posed to people as part of test that was done to examine the thought process of moral and ethical decisions. It really caught my attention because it goes along really well with the current serious of questions am posting as part of the QotW I do on Communitas Paganus. Basically as a group we have discussed the traditional rules and beliefs of being a Witch or Wiccan and now am posing some ethical questions and putting the beliefs to the test.

Here are the three questions that are posed where do you stand on them?

• A train is out of control and racing down the track towards another car with 5 passengers who are trapped inside. You are at the switch and can redirect the car however the only track you can redirect it to has a single person trapped in a car. Do you redirect the runaway train, to kill the one person or let it continue towards the five?
• Now what if the same on coming train could be stopped by dropped a heavy weight from and over head bridge. Would you drop the weight? Even if the only weight available was a very fat man sitting on a bench admiring the sun set?

Both options require you to kill one person to save five. To quote Spock “The good on the many out way the good of the one?” So on the surface they would seem similar but there is a difference in that the second one requires us to talk direct hands on action resulting in the death of the very fat man. I think the argument runs on the same line of thinking that people often use when complaining about the automation of war. It becomes too impersonal, and it is much easier to cause someone’s death by throwing a switch or pushing a button.

• If you found that you able to kill the one to save the five then I offer you this last possibility which is an all too real situation. A doctor in a hospital has five patients all terminal each with a different organ failing and causing their deaths. In the waiting room sits a healthy man, who is also the perfect match to all five patients. Would it be moral to take the life of the healthy man to save the five?

They may seem like silly questions on the surface, but they go to how we think and also how we value or devalue life. My own personal take on each of them is that I wouldn’t take any of the options posed. I certainly wouldn’t throw the switch to divert the train, I have no right or desire to decide who lives or dies. I would have to pick the third unmentioned option try and rescue the trapped people.

The God Delusion - Pagan Point of View

So as am sure you've seen on the book shelf widget on the left that one of the books am currently reading is the The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It's a very enjoyable read so far and am maybe a quarter of the way through it. He doesn't pull any punches in his writing style and doesn't make any excuses for his opinions. I can easily see how it could really be a difficult read for Christians to work through. While the author makes it clear from the beginning that he applies the same logic to any and all gods he does make his primary arguments against the Christian God since that will be the one that the majority of his readers will be familiar with.

As an avid reader I was pleased by the start of the book, which opens with the following instead of a dedication. Once I read that I was excited to read on.

In Memoriam

Douglas Adams

(1952 - 2001)

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful

without having to believe that there are

fairies at the bottom of it too?"

He spells out his main goals in the preface of the book giving the readers an a good idea of where he is heading with the book. As some one who believes in the Divine, I have to say I agreed with a lot of what he had to say and his goals. The one thing that really stood out for me was the concept of a Muslim Child and a Christian Child. There is no such thing, children are far to young to make decisions about things like that. So it would be much better to describe them as children of Christian / Muslim parents. As a parent myself this idea really hit home, I remember having to deal with my eldest daughter who was raised part time in a born again Christian house hold. Where she was taught that various things where evil and would result in people 'burning in the fires of hell' . It caused a lot of problems for her and our house over the years since a lot of the people she knew at our house and liked fell in to the groups she was being taught to hate.

In the early portion of the book he uses for terms fairly regularly when talking about various historical figures.

Atheist - a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Agnostic - One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.

Theist - belief in the existence of a god or gods

Deist - The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

The first two terms I had heard in the past and knew what they meant, but I had never heard the term deist used before, I find the term very interesting. Despite being a Wiccan I would put myself some where between Deist and Theist. On one hand I believe in the existence of Gods and of Goddess, but am not so certain that they really care what we do one way or the other. The best description I've every used to describe it is that the Divine is like a diamond. While the various Gods and Goddess's that we use in worship are facets of that Divine source.

The book goes on to deal with common arguments in favor of a God, but again it focuses on Christian arguments in favor of a Christian God. So while they are interesting to read from a pagan prospective they are not all that relevant. Personally I've found that the majority of them I've had brought to me by Christian friends when they lean am Wiccan. In response I used a lot of the same points that are being used by Richard and the people he is quoting.

Well that brings you to the same place I am in the book. I'll post more as I read on.