RE: Just Curious
August 10, 2013 at 5:02 am
(This post was last modified: August 10, 2013 at 5:18 am by fr0d0.)
A Google search will bring you lots of examples stimbo if that's what you want. Personally I'm surprised that you're on the side of dumb here.
When Dawkins steps outside of his field—into
theology or philosophy—he’s a lightweight, and even fellow atheists acknowledge this. The atheist philosopher of science Michael Ruse at FIU has said, “Richard Dawkins makes me embarrassed to be an atheist.” [1] Terry Eagleton, an English literature and cultural theory professor (not a theist, so far as I know), severely criticizes “Ditchkins”—his composite name for Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. He considers them to be both out of their depth and misrepresenters of the Christian faith: “they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be.” [2] Sociologist Rodney Stark (at that time writing as an agnostic-moving-toward- Christianity) put it this way: “To expect to learn anything about important theological problems from Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett is like expecting to learn about medieval history from someone who had only read Robin Hood .” [3]
[1] Michael Ruse’s comment is found on the cover of Alister and Joanna McGrath’s book The Dawkins Delusion ? (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).
[2] Terry Eagleton, “Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching,” London Review of Books (October 19, 2006). Available at URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/print/eagl01_.html (accessed November 25 2007). Eagleton gives a fuller critique in Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
[3] Rodney Stark, What Americans Really Believe (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008), 120.
When Dawkins steps outside of his field—into
theology or philosophy—he’s a lightweight, and even fellow atheists acknowledge this. The atheist philosopher of science Michael Ruse at FIU has said, “Richard Dawkins makes me embarrassed to be an atheist.” [1] Terry Eagleton, an English literature and cultural theory professor (not a theist, so far as I know), severely criticizes “Ditchkins”—his composite name for Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. He considers them to be both out of their depth and misrepresenters of the Christian faith: “they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be.” [2] Sociologist Rodney Stark (at that time writing as an agnostic-moving-toward- Christianity) put it this way: “To expect to learn anything about important theological problems from Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett is like expecting to learn about medieval history from someone who had only read Robin Hood .” [3]
[1] Michael Ruse’s comment is found on the cover of Alister and Joanna McGrath’s book The Dawkins Delusion ? (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).
[2] Terry Eagleton, “Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching,” London Review of Books (October 19, 2006). Available at URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/print/eagl01_.html (accessed November 25 2007). Eagleton gives a fuller critique in Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
[3] Rodney Stark, What Americans Really Believe (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008), 120.
