God, Aquinas, and Dawkins: Preface to The God Delusion

In the preface to his work, Dawkins lays out what he hopes to accomplish in The God Delusion. He seeks to encourage those raised in a religious tradition who “are unhappy in it, don’t believe it, or are worried about the evils that are done in its name; people who feel vague yearnings to leave their parents’ religion and wish they could, but just don’t realize that leaving is an option” to realize that “atheism is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one”. He assures the reader that atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled. He goes on to bolster the self-esteem of his fellow atheists by stating that being an atheist “is something to be proud of, standing tall to face the far horizon, for atheism nearly always indicates a healthy independence of mind and, indeed, a healthy mind”.


He continues by delineating numerous evils committed in the name of religion asking us, along with John Lennon, to imagine a world with no religion. To his credit, he admits that religion is not the root of all evil, but he is clear that he considers religion to be a great force for evil. He continues to juxtaposition religion with reason – identified with the natural sciences. From this he draws the conclusion that religion is not necessary to leading an ethical life.


He presents belief in God as one hypothesis about the universe that should and can be tested just as other hypotheses. He goes on to assert that Darwinian natural selection and similar scientific theories are superior to this "God hypothesis" —the illusion of intelligent design— in explaining the living world and the cosmos.

In his refutation of religion, he describes the religious training of children as child abuse.  Children should not be labeled as “Christian children” or “Muslim children” for they are not capable of giving free assent to these religious views.  Rather they are the subjects of indoctrination.  As he says in the preface, “If you are religious at all, it is overwhelmingly probable that your religion is that of your parents.   If you were born in Arkansas and you think Christianity is true and Islam false, knowing full well that you would think the opposite if you had been born in Afghanistan, you are the victim of childhood indoctrination.  Mutatis mutandis if you were born in Afghanistan”.


As I mentioned in my last post, the ideas and arguments put forward in this book are nothing new.  The passionate attack on religion and religious belief that marks the tenor of the book is also not new.  What is new is that a book so short on well reasoned argumentation; so short on accurate portrayals and descriptions of opposing views; so impoverished of a true understanding of histroy can be such a powerful influence on so many.  This fact alone is enough to indicate the weakness in our educational system.


With that rant complete, let's look at the argument that religion and science necessarily oppose each other.