EDGE: The Richard Dawkins delusion

There is NO DELUSION here, he was merely MUSING as the article states. What a completely misleading headline. Get some journalistic integrity or stop writing, I'll read one more of your articles and if it's as SMALL MINDED as this I'll never read you again.

Speaking of dessicated, my brain has dried along with my eyes as I went searching for this delusion you spoke of. Couldn't agree more with the first comment, but of course many of us realize integrity, journalistic or otherwise, is not a component of what we not so affectionately call New School Journalism. Just take a look at scholarly reviews of their 'job' this past election cycle. Journalists my---- ss.

Thanks for calling out the materialist for what he is; a religious zealot. If there's no imagination in scientific discovery, and no purpose in existence, then what is left to drive scientific discovery?

I find Dawkins comment: "the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious effect on rationality..." to be priceless. He really needs to examine his own imagination. Perhaps if we add billions of years of evolution between the frog and prince in the Potter books he'll find them to be rational and even realistic.

I think this reporter has the wrong idea here. Dawkins just said that this might be an area for research. Dawkins says that "he doesn't know" if fairy tales, which are in his opinion anti-scientific, have a pernicious effect. That comment surely doesn't deserve an entire article by the WT reporter. As for the comparison of Dawkin's "objection" to Harry Potter with religous people's objection, I don't think that's fair. Dawkins isn't saying that kids should not read HP, he is just wondering what the effect is. Get a grip WT, don't be so defensive.

If you haven't exercised your imagination throughout life with vigor, how could you possibly be expected to wrap your mind around the constant influx of radical new ideas that science produces every year. I think everything Dawkins says simply boils down to an attempted rationalization of his hatred for religion. His entire oeuvre on the subject seems to consist of attempts to justify his bigotry, attempts that merely diminish his standing as a scientist and as a rational and mature human being.

This guy is a$$. He is spending too much of his supposedly adult brain thinking about things that delight children, that fascinate children. Just because he's deranged, doesn't mean the rest of us are. Properly taught children know the difference between reality and fantasy. Too bad he doesn't.

Faith and Reason (Part 2) Moreover, in the life of Jesus, the sound use of soul, heart, and mind is further exemplified. His teaching required careful listening and comparison, as in the Sermon on the Mount. He asked questions which were structured to require reasoning, such as in the healing of the paralytic. (See Matthew 9:1-8.) Even when asked by John about whether he was the Christ (Matthew 11:1-6), Jesus essentially tells John to think through his own conclusions, sending messengers back to report what they heard and saw. Christ's use of questions, parables, and dialogues shows boldly that reasoning is not ruled out of our spiritual life but is a central component of it. Indeed, when reason and faith are set up as juxtaposing postures, much is lost. Authors R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley describe the current divisions among us with a warning: "The church is safe from vicious persecution at the hands of the secularist, as educated people finished with stake burning circuses and torture racks. No martyr’s blood is shed in the secular west. So long as the church knows her place and remains quietly at peace on her modern reservation, let the babes pray and sing and read their Bibles, continuing steadfastly in their intellectual retardation: the church’s extinction will not come by sword or pillory, but by the quiet death of irrelevance. But let the church step off the reservation, let her penetrate once more the culture of the day and the face of secularism will change from a benign smile to a savage snarl." In a world of many voices and demanding messages, faith and reason must be seen as interrelated partners and not enemies. The outcome of faith is a more complete understanding of truth than is possible otherwise. The outcome of seeking, knowing, and following Christ is a coherent and abundant life of which no mind has conceived all that God has prepared for those who love Him. Stuart McAllister is vice president of training and special projects at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

Faith and Reason (Part 1) by: Stuart McAllister In many circles today, we are given the impression that we face a choice between thinking and faith. We are given the impression that somehow the postures of faith and reason are mutually exclusive. We live with words in our culture that seem to confirm a divide between fact and value. There is a real world of objective things, science, and hard realities; and there is the world of tastes, opinions, and personal values. The gulf, we are told, is real and to be held to at all times. This division is further reinforced by the notion of public and private worlds, whereby one set of values or criteria rules in one sphere and a different set rules in the other. And this is then often compounded in the church with the divide between sacred and secular. The language employed is one that clearly divides that which is deemed "of God"--preaching, praying, and evangelism--and that which is deemed of "the world"--business, politics, media, and so forth. Within such a context, belief is seen as something mystical, existential, and defying rational boundaries or requirements. For the Christian in such a context, thinking, theology, and reasoning can be seen as unnecessary distractions to "simple" or "pure" faith. Yet the biblical reflection of faith is quite the contrary. Throughout Scripture we are reminded of what it means to be made in the image of God, and what it means to live and function in a created order. God has given us various faculties that are the vehicles of our knowing and understanding. Reason, experience, and revelation are all legitimate means and provisions of God for us and to us. In the words of the prophets and the cries of the psalmist we see many references to reason in relation to faith. The book of Job is an extended discussion on the "reasonableness" of Job's situation, and though reason does not discover a right answer and makes many blunders, it is not refuted in and of itself. The entire wisdom tradition enjoins the pursuit of knowledge and understanding as an expression of worshipping God. Nowhere do we get the impression of blind faith or esoteric leaps into ecstatic union. (Part 2 continues, below)

And to sum up Dawkins, and all like him: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" His end will be rightly earned.

Listening to this guy talk is like figuring out a complicated math problem. He uses logic and reason, not hackneyed "beliefs" to make his point. It's absolutely refreshing to hear him "and all like him," as the poster so ominously refers to him. You'd think religious people would come up with new arguments, but no, it's always, "his end will be rightly earned." Maybe God will punish those who did not use the human brain he gave them but rather followed the rear end of the sheep in front.

The best course, as our founding fathers realized, is to keep your religion to yourself. No noisy sack cloth and ashes, just quiet meditation.

Mr. McAllister, your points have been both well thought out and appreciated. If one does not seek to find, lack of understanding prevails. This I can attest to on my own account. I was lost, but have been found, and have been overwhelmingly grateful since. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

"In the beginning there was nothing--then nothing exploded and became something--then that something evolved into everything."