| Richard Dawkins - #1 Enemy of Christians? by Warren Krug (January-February, 2007) |
He’s called “the world’s most prominent atheist.” He’s confident that the theory of evolution has
eliminated any possibility that God exists. He treats religious faith as a lethal disease and billions of
believers as being rather stupid.
Britain’s Richard Dawkins seems to relish being among Christianity’s most vocal critics and now
that Madalyn Murray O’Hair has long since passed from the scene, perhaps its most hated
opponent.
Dawkins isn’t shy. He thinks sexual molestation of children may be less damaging than religious
training. He calls the Old Testament God “a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive,
bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Dawkins can be clever. He takes the Boeing 747 argument (i.e. the odds of life evolving on Earth
through unguided evolution are equivalent to a jumbo yet being assembled by a tornado sweeping
through a junkyard) and turns it around. Any God who can assemble such a complex universe must
be too complex Himself to exist, Dawkins claims.
Dawkins sets forth his views in his new book, The God Delusion. By coincidence, another scientist’s
popular treatment of science and religion, The Language of God, has appeared at the same time.
In the Language of God, Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, discusses why he
left atheism and became an evangelical Christian. Collins points to the complexity of biology and the
laws of physics which if even slightly different wouldn’t permit life to exist.
Dawkins shows clearly that faith is absolutely necessary to understand life and the universe. But,
would you rather put your faith in a blind, unproven process called evolution or in God? LSI
—Warren Krug, editor
eliminated any possibility that God exists. He treats religious faith as a lethal disease and billions of
believers as being rather stupid.
Britain’s Richard Dawkins seems to relish being among Christianity’s most vocal critics and now
that Madalyn Murray O’Hair has long since passed from the scene, perhaps its most hated
opponent.
Dawkins isn’t shy. He thinks sexual molestation of children may be less damaging than religious
training. He calls the Old Testament God “a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive,
bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Dawkins can be clever. He takes the Boeing 747 argument (i.e. the odds of life evolving on Earth
through unguided evolution are equivalent to a jumbo yet being assembled by a tornado sweeping
through a junkyard) and turns it around. Any God who can assemble such a complex universe must
be too complex Himself to exist, Dawkins claims.
Dawkins sets forth his views in his new book, The God Delusion. By coincidence, another scientist’s
popular treatment of science and religion, The Language of God, has appeared at the same time.
In the Language of God, Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, discusses why he
left atheism and became an evangelical Christian. Collins points to the complexity of biology and the
laws of physics which if even slightly different wouldn’t permit life to exist.
Dawkins shows clearly that faith is absolutely necessary to understand life and the universe. But,
would you rather put your faith in a blind, unproven process called evolution or in God? LSI
—Warren Krug, editor
