Ok, so perhaps I should write a little to explain my thoughts on Dawkins. I’m about halfway through the book, The God Delusion and thus far he has explored his major argument against a god, which is based upon probability. As far as it goes, his argument holds well enough. Nor is it especially new.
I quoted Tennyson because, published in the period immediately preceding Darwin’s Origin of the Species, In Memoriam struggles explicitly with the current scientific debates over nature and man’s existence, and what these might mean for religious faith. You can check out here for a short run down on it.
The poem is very long, and there are many details that could be discussed – his use of evolutionary imagery, his thoughts on doubt… “There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.” These are all worth exploring.
And yet, beyond all our calculations, if God is there, then his existence rests on him alone. Dawkins’ arguments, for all that science has come far since Darwins’ day, were still anticipated by Tennyson. Positive toward scientific advance, and yet sceptical of what it could tell him about meaning, love, life and faith, as indeed he was sceptical of many things.
This is by no means a rejection of all Dawkins’ arguments – rather a dialogue, that I hope to continue. There is much that Dawkins does not cover – and so I hope to visit a couple of these.
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