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Seminar 2:
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Richard Dawkins is an atheist. He is a learned, persuasive and highly articulate atheist. Already his book, The God Delusion, has topped best seller lists for non-fiction with sales of a million copies. His book has already had a wide influence. Dawkins has been interviewed on radio and has been the subject of television programs. To broadcasts he brings wit and eloquence and the lustre of being Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Hundreds of reviews of the book have been published, plus hundreds of commentaries on it. It is the Da Vinci Code of atheism in that it is popular. For this reason, Christians and other theists need to take it seriously. "I propose to examine Dawkin's arguments which attempt to show conclusively that God fails to exist. His arguments are based on the premiss that science has utterly discredited belief in God. He is able to write on philosophical theology becasue he can be confident that very few of his readers are acquainted with the long tradition of Christian rationality. Indeed, to many Christians the notion of providing proofs for God's existence is repugnant. In criticising Dawkins, I shall sketch an argument for God's existence. "A recent survey in Britain shows that many people distrust religion — it causes more trouble than anything else. Dawkins trades on this. I shall show that his appeals to history of religion are far from warranted."
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