{"id":293,"date":"2004-09-08T09:24:50","date_gmt":"2004-09-08T17:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2004\/09\/08\/dubious-dawkins\/"},"modified":"2004-09-08T09:26:48","modified_gmt":"2004-09-08T17:26:48","slug":"dubious-dawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2004\/09\/08\/dubious-dawkins","title":{"rendered":"Dawkins Dubiously Debunks Divinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I stum\u00adbled across a link to an arti\u00adcle by renowned athe\u00adist Richard Dawkins<\/a> titled What Use is Reli\u00adgion?<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With a title like that, how could I not read it?<\/p>\n

I was dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00aded. Dawkins is a skilled essayist\u2013even though I usu\u00adal\u00adly dis\u00adagree with him I enjoy his writ\u00ading style. He throws in the most fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading illus\u00adtra\u00adtions, and his log\u00adic is engag\u00ading.<\/p>\n

This arti\u00adcle, how\u00adev\u00ader, fell flat. <\/p>\n

The key para\u00adgraph:<\/p>\n

Nat\u00adur\u00adal selec\u00adtion builds child brains with a ten\u00adden\u00adcy to believe what\u00adev\u00ader their par\u00adents and trib\u00adal elders tell them. And this very qual\u00adi\u00adty auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly makes them vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble to infec\u00adtion by mind virus\u00ades. For excel\u00adlent sur\u00advival rea\u00adsons, child brains need to trust par\u00adents and trust elders whom their par\u00adents tell them to trust. An auto\u00admat\u00adic con\u00adse\u00adquence is that the \u201ctruster\u201d has no way of dis\u00adtin\u00adguish\u00ading good advice from bad. The child can\u00adnot tell that \u201cIf you swim in the riv\u00ader you\u2019ll be eat\u00aden by croc\u00ado\u00addiles\u201d is good advice but \u201cIf you don\u2019t sac\u00adri\u00adfice a goat at the time of the full moon, the crops will fail\u201d is bad advice. They both sound the same. Both are advice from a trust\u00aded source, and both are deliv\u00adered with a solemn earnest\u00adness that com\u00admands respect and demands obe\u00addi\u00adence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So reli\u00adgious faith is a byprod\u00aduct of child\u00adhood naivete? <\/p>\n

The prob\u00adlem with his argu\u00adment is that it does\u00adn\u2019t explain why so many adults<\/strong> con\u00adtin\u00adue to believe this spe\u00adcif\u00adic \u201cbad advice\u201d received in child\u00adhood. <\/p>\n

After all, we reject both spe\u00adcif\u00adic mytholo\u00adgies (San\u00adta Claus) and spe\u00adcif\u00adic beliefs (bad peo\u00adple always have bad things hap\u00adpen to them). Why then do so many keep believ\u00ading in God (espe\u00adcial\u00adly so many smart ones<\/a>) if it\u2019s just anoth\u00ader piece of bad advice?<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m not sure his the\u00ado\u00adry could account for adult con\u00adverts from athe\u00adism.<\/p>\n

His argu\u00adment, intrigu\u00ading though it is, does\u00adn\u2019t hold water.<\/p>\n

Dawkins hatred of reli\u00adgion is fair\u00adly well known, and has always inter\u00adest\u00aded me. It\u2019s one thing to not be reli\u00adgious, it\u2019s anoth\u00ader thing to hate reli\u00adgion utter\u00adly.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was struck by this anec\u00addote:<\/p>\n

\nI have nev\u00ader for\u00adgot\u00adten a hor\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading ser\u00admon, preached in my school chapel when I was lit\u00adtle. It was hor\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading in ret\u00adro\u00adspect: at the time, my child brain accept\u00aded it as intend\u00aded by the preach\u00ader. He told the sto\u00adry of a squad of sol\u00addiers, drilling beside a rail\u00adway line. At a crit\u00adi\u00adcal moment, the drill sergeant\u2019s atten\u00adtion was dis\u00adtract\u00aded, and he failed to give the order to halt. The sol\u00addiers were so well schooled to obey orders with\u00adout ques\u00adtion that they car\u00adried on march\u00ading, right into the path of an oncom\u00ading train. Now, of course, I don\u2019t believe the sto\u00adry now, but I did when I was nine. The point is that the preach\u00ader wished us chil\u00addren to regard as a virtue the sol\u00addiers\u2019 slav\u00adish and unques\u00adtion\u00ading obe\u00addi\u00adence to an order, how\u00adev\u00ader pre\u00adpos\u00adter\u00adous.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t know Dawkins, but I can\u2019t help but won\u00adder if that sto\u00adry (and oth\u00aders like it) help account for his zeal\u00adous athe\u00adis\u00adtic con\u00advic\u00adtions. <\/p>\n

While try\u00ading to explain away adult beliefs via child\u00adhood expe\u00adri\u00adences, it seems that Dawkins inad\u00adver\u00adtent\u00adly does the same to him\u00adself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stum\u00adbled across a link to an arti\u00adcle by renowned athe\u00adist Richard Dawkins titled What Use is Reli\u00adgion?. With a title like that, how could I not read it? I was dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00aded. Dawkins is a skilled essayist\u2013even though I usu\u00adal\u00adly dis\u00adagree with him I enjoy his writ\u00ading style. He throws in the most fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading illus\u00adtra\u00adtions, \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cDawkins Dubi\u00adous\u00adly Debunks Divin\u00adi\u00adty\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-of-random-interest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-4J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}