(January 3, 2012 at 12:32 am)Tiberius Wrote: Richard Dawkins
I'll start off with possibly the most well known atheist in the world. I used to respect Dawkins a lot; he was one of the people who got me to be more open about my atheism, to start a blog, to even start these forums. I used to hold his book "The God Delusion" in high regard, and indeed I got a copy signed when I met him a few years ago.
That book is ironically one of the reasons I've lost most respect for him. If you read it as your first book on atheism, or even on philosophy, you think it's brilliant. If however, you start to read other books on atheism, or delve into philosophical thinking even more, you realise that "The God Delusion" is a pile of crap. It tries to make several philosophical points, as well as commenting on various theological ones as well. The problem is, Dawkins has no training in philosophy, and certainly no training in theology either...and it shows...really badly.
I don't disagree with your assessment of the book, but it was intended to be a first book on atheism. I don't claim that Dawkins could have written a more scholarly version if he wanted to, but if he had, I doubt it would be a best seller and thus would have reached far fewer people. As an introduction to skepticism about theistic claims, it was a great success.
