Atheism

Some fail to grasp the true nature of the conflict. It is not about evolution versus creationism, the real battle is between rationalism and superstition. Science is but one form of rationalism but religion is the most common form of superstition.

I have wondered long and hard why Dawkins gets up peoples noses, more so for me than Hitchins. In my case this may be due to approaching Hitchins writings from a political angle and Dawknis from a scientific one. The answer seems more to lie in where you start from. I was brought up an atheist, taught to reason, in our house the debate was already settled. Once I left home I had to learn that not all believers are stupid, some just have a blind spot. See, I start to sound as provocative as Dawkins. He is right but one wonders why someone that intelligent would spend so much time argueing his point. With Hitchins it is clear that the turning point was when the death sentence was put upon his close freind Salman Rushdie. He didn't run to Rushdie to promote his views but felt forced to defend a close freind as I hope I would in his position. There will be no long piece of rational on Skreeworld to uphold reality but it does scare me when political leaders such as George Bush and Osama Bin Laden murder people due to superstitions they hold. It is up to the rational to live as if the question is answered.

In The God Delusion Dawkins does raise some good points that I hadn't considered. Evolution moves from simple to complex. The self aware entity able to design happens a long way down the line and certainly would not have been there at the bog bang or whatever point creationists think he made the universe at. Also, the idea that the magisteria of science and religion do not overlap. The idea that we may have no proof of God but having a gut feeling suggests that we think with our stomachs which leads me to think that the expression of such thought is liable to come from the arse.