Saturday 25 February 2012

Dawkins "Only an Agnostic"

Some people have jumped on Dr Richard Dawkins' back over his reported admission that he's not 100% convinced God doesn't exist. That strikes me as unfair. The Good Professor is, after all, a scientist. And scientists know all about  the difficulty of defining absolute certainty. In return I'd like to point out that I'm not 100% certain that there is no god, either - there's always that possibility that all the wealth and power I received after sacrificing  that goat was a total co-incidence*. Or, as we like to say, goat-incidence. But I refuse to be called an agnostic - as otherwise the only people that were not agnostic would be either insane, illogical or both.

But Richard Dawkins self-identifies as an atheist, and if that's how we identifies himself that's good enough for me. Even if he clearly doesn't mean it**.
* Not really.
**Joke.

4 comments :

  1. AE, Atheist, agnostic, theist, the label is not important and anyway boiling a person down to a single word is not useful. IMO the recent debate is about which group has the right to a privileged position WRT politics and society in this country.

    One of them or none of them?

    Like Dawkins, I'd argue it would be fairer if none did, a level playing field for all our goats to roam.

    I must say that in the 2nd article you link to I find it alarming that Atheism is being held up as being synonymous with believing the theory of evolution - that truly is illogical, although judging by the comments on the site it's not exactly a beacon of wisdom.

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  2. Steve, I'm with you on the playing field. Goats may safely graze, and all that. That pitch at Yeovil used to be a disgrace.

    I'd certainly not equate atheism with believing in evolution, as you know - though I can't find that implication in the article. Roman Catholics on the whole generally have no problem with the concept of evolution - the whole biblical fundamentalism thing being an early 20th century invention, it's probably a bit modern for Catholics.

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  3. Thanks for your link to protectthepope.com. Most enlightening.

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  4. That's all right, Holger. Always happy to share the Beaker love in all directions.

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