richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion
A R G U M E N T S FOR G O D ' S E X I S T E N C E 97Jesus must fulfil Old Testament prophecies. It is even possible tomount a serious, though not widely supported, historical case thatJesus never lived at all, as has been done by, among others,Professor G. A. Wells of the University of London in a number ofbooks, including Did Jesus Exist?.Although Jesus probably existed, reputable biblical scholars donot in general regard the New Testament (and obviously not theOld Testament) as a reliable record of what actually happened inhistory, and I shall not consider the Bible further as evidence for anykind of deity. In the farsighted words of Thomas Jefferson, writingto his predecessor, John Adams, 'The day will come when themystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, inthe womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generationof Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.'Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, and the film made fromit, are arousing huge controversy in church circles. Christians areencouraged to boycott the film and picket cinemas that show it. Itis indeed fabricated from start to finish: invented, made-up fiction.In that respect, it is exactly like the gospels. The only differencebetween The Da Vinci Code and the gospels is that the gospels areancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction.THE ARGUMENT FROM ADMIREDRELIGIOUS SCIENTISTSThe immense majority of intellectually eminent mendisbelieve in Christian religion, but they conceal thefact in public, because they are afraid of losing theirincomes.BERTRANDRUSSELL'Newton was religious. Who are you to set yourself up as superiorto Newton, Galileo, Kepler, etc. etc. etc.? If God was good enoughfor the likes of them, just who do you think you are?' Not that itmakes much difference to such an already bad argument, some
98 T II E C; O D D E L U S I O Napologists even add the name of Darwin, about whom persistent,but demonstrably false, rumours of a deathbed conversion continuallycome around like a bad smell,* ever since they weredeliberately started by a certain 'Lady Hope', who spun a touchingyarn of Darwin resting against the pillows in the evening light, leafingthrough the New Testament and confessing that evolution wasall wrong. In this section I shall concentrate mostly on scientists,because - for reasons that are perhaps not too hard to imagine -those who trot out the names of admired individuals as religiousexemplars very commonly choose scientists.Newton did indeed claim to be religious. So did almost everybodyuntil - significantly I think - the nineteenth century, whenthere was less social and judicial pressure than in earlier centuriesto profess religion, and more scientific support for abandoning it.There have been exceptions, of course, in both directions. Evenbefore Darwin, not everybody was a believer, as James Haughtshows in his 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with theCourage to Doubt. And some distinguished scientists went onbelieving after Darwin. We have no reason to doubt MichaelFaraday's sincerity as a Christian even after the time when he musthave known of Darwin's work. He was a member of theSandemanian sect, which believed (past tense because they are nowvirtually extinct) in a literal interpretation of the Bible, rituallywashed the feet of newly inducted members and drew lots to determineGod's will. Faraday became an Elder in 1860, the year afterThe Origin of Species was published, and he died a Sandemanian in1867. The experimentalist Faraday's theorist counterpart, JamesClerk Maxwell, was an equally devout Christian. So was that otherpillar of nineteenth-century British physics, William Thomson,Lord Kelvin, who tried to demonstrate that evolution was ruled outfor lack of time. That great thermodynamicist's erroneous datingsassumed that the sun was some kind of fire, burning fuel whichwould have to run out in tens of millions of years, not thousands ofmillions. Kelvin obviously could not be expected to know about* Even I have been honoured by prophecies of deathbed conversion. Indeed, theyrecur with monotonous regularity (see e.g. Steer 2003), each repetition trailingdewy fresh clouds of illusion that it is witty, and the first. I should probably takethe precaution of installing a tape-recorder to protect my posthumous reputation.Lalla Ward adds, 'Why mess around with deathbeds? If you're going to sell out,do it in good time to win the Templeton Prize and blame it on senility.'
- Page 50 and 51: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 45Anecdotes of s
- Page 52 and 53: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 47Carl Sagan was
- Page 54 and 55: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 49Huxley was not
- Page 56 and 57: T H E G O D H Y P O T H E SIS 51can
- Page 58 and 59: T H E G O D H Y P O T H E SIS 53in
- Page 60 and 61: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 55McGrath goes o
- Page 62 and 63: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 57the Cambridge
- Page 64 and 65: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 59unequivocally
- Page 66 and 67: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 61non-interventi
- Page 68 and 69: T H E G O D H Y P O T H E S I S 63s
- Page 70 and 71: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 65Another typica
- Page 72 and 73: T H E G O D H Y P O THESIS 67NOMA -
- Page 74 and 75: T H E G O D II Y P O T H E S I S 69
- Page 76 and 77: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 71longer based o
- Page 78 and 79: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 73advanced techn
- Page 80 and 81: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 82 and 83: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 84 and 85: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 86 and 87: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 88 and 89: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 90 and 91: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 92 and 93: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 94 and 95: A R G U M ENTS F O R G O D ' S E X
- Page 96 and 97: ARGUMENTS F O R GOD'S E X I S T E N
- Page 98 and 99: A R C U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 102 and 103: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 104 and 105: ARGUMEN T S FOR GOD'S EXISTENCE 101
- Page 106 and 107: A R G U M E N T S F O R G OD'S E X
- Page 108 and 109: A R G U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S E
- Page 110 and 111: A R Ci U M E N T S F O R G O D ' S
- Page 112 and 113: ARGUMENTS F O R G OD'S E X I S T E
- Page 114 and 115: W H Y T II E R E A L M O S T C E R
- Page 116 and 117: W H Y T H E R E A I. M O S T C E R
- Page 118 and 119: W H Y T H ERE AL.MOS T C E R TAINL.
- Page 120 and 121: W H Y T H f ' R i . A L M O S T C 1
- Page 122 and 123: W H Y T l i l - I U ; A L M O S T C
- Page 124 and 125: W H Y r i-i r R r A I M O S T C t R
- Page 126 and 127: W H Y '11IKRK A L M O S T (.: F R T
- Page 128 and 129: no evidence of its own, but thrives
- Page 130 and 131: W H Y r H E RE A 1. M O S T C F.RTA
- Page 132 and 133: I ! T R t AI.M15S I' ('. I R !' A f
- Page 134 and 135: W H Y T H E R E A I . M O S T C H R
- Page 136 and 137: A I. M O S I C 1 R I'A I N M is X <
- Page 138 and 139: W i I Y 1 II F. R F A 1 Vi (.) S T
- Page 140 and 141: W H Y r 11 r u r -\ i. \i o s r c r
- Page 142 and 143: W 11 Y '1 11 !•; R I. A I VI () S
- Page 144 and 145: !' R I ALMOST l' I U '[ A I \ I Y i
- Page 146 and 147: W H Y T H !• R E A I. M O S "I" C
- Page 148 and 149: extravagant God hypothesis and the
A R G U M E N T S FOR G O D ' S E X I S T E N C E 97
Jesus must fulfil Old Testament prophecies. It is even possible to
mount a serious, though not widely supported, historical case that
Jesus never lived at all, as has been done by, among others,
Professor G. A. Wells of the University of London in a number of
books, including Did Jesus Exist?.
Although Jesus probably existed, reputable biblical scholars do
not in general regard the New Testament (and obviously not the
Old Testament) as a reliable record of what actually happened in
history, and I shall not consider the Bible further as evidence for any
kind of deity. In the farsighted words of Thomas Jefferson, writing
to his predecessor, John Adams, 'The day will come when the
mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in
the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation
of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.'
Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, and the film made from
it, are arousing huge controversy in church circles. Christians are
encouraged to boycott the film and picket cinemas that show it. It
is indeed fabricated from start to finish: invented, made-up fiction.
In that respect, it is exactly like the gospels. The only difference
between The Da Vinci Code and the gospels is that the gospels are
ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction.
THE ARGUMENT FROM ADMIRED
RELIGIOUS SCIENTISTS
The immense majority of intellectually eminent men
disbelieve in Christian religion, but they conceal the
fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their
incomes.
BERTRAND
RUSSELL
'Newton was religious. Who are you to set yourself up as superior
to Newton, Galileo, Kepler, etc. etc. etc.? If God was good enough
for the likes of them, just who do you think you are?' Not that it
makes much difference to such an already bad argument, some
Change language