- Paperback: 96 pages
- Publisher: SPCK Publishing (Feb 16 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0281059276
- ISBN-13: 978-0281059270
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 0.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 141 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #180,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Alister McGrath invariably combines enormous scholarship with an accessible and engaging style.' Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 'Oxford University?s McGrath has distinguished himself not just as an historical theologian, but as a generous and witty writer who brings to life topics that would turn to dust in others? hands.' Publishers Weekly 'Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism.' Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project
Product Description
World-renowned scientist Richard Dawkins writes in The God Delusion: ?If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down.? The volume has received wide coverage, fuelled much passionate debate and caused not a little confusion. Alister McGrath is ideally placed to evaluate Dawkins? ideas. Once an atheist himself, he gained a doctorate in molecular biophysics before going on to become a leading Christian theologian. He wonders how two people, who have reflected at length on substantially the same world, could possibly have come to such different conclusions about God. McGrath subjects Dawkins? critique of faith to rigorous scrutiny. His exhilarating, meticulously argued response deals with questions such as: Is faith intellectual nonsense? Are science and religion locked in a battle to the death? Can the roots of Christianity be explained away scientifically? Is Christianity simply a force for evil? This book will be warmly received by those looking for a reliable assessment of The God Delusion and the many questions it raises ? including, above all, the relevance of faith and the quest for meaning.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fair-minded rebuttal to Dawkins,
By
This review is from: The Dawkins Delusion? (Paperback)
I'll keep my remarks brief, like the McGraths' little book. I agree with the basic premise that science and religion are not incompatible, and that Dawkin's book is a badly flawed tome that displays an appallingly superficial misunderstanding of the religious side of the issue. Dawkins' book is offensive in the extreme to readers like myself who are not naive about science, the scientific method, empirical evidence, and so on, but who also realize that religion offers a complementary approach to life's most fundamental questions. Vitriolic assaults such as Dawkins' say far more about the attacker than about the object of the attack. "Dawkin's Delusion?" is, among other good things, a lesson in civilized response.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Book Atheists Like Me Want You To Read,
By
This review is from: The Dawkins Delusion? (Paperback)
If this is the best one can do in challenging the ideas of Mr. Dawkins, then he really has nothing to worry about. But of course better books and essays can, and I am sure will be written in reply to some of the more interesting ideas Richard Dawkins has set out in The God Delusion.However there is no need to catalog here the errors and frailties of The Dawkins Delusion, as a gentleman by the name of Dan J. Bye of the Sheffield Humanist society has written an excellent essay listing at length the errors and weaknesses of The Dawkins Delusion, which can be found here: http://homepages.shu.ac.uk/~llrdjb/shs/delusion.html It is an interesting read and the gentleman has certainly done his homework. As for The Dawkins Delusion, well, it is kind of pathetic. As an atheist I look forward to reading challenges to the more interesting ideas advanced by Mr. Dawkins such as the notion that it is child abuse to indoctrinate young children into any religious faith given that young children lack any real capacity to engage in critical thought about such weighty matters. Saying to Mr. Dawkins words to the effect of: "OH Yeah? Well reading kids your book would also be child abuse then, wouldn't it?" is hardly a compelling comeback, but about the only one I could find from the Mcgraths. That of course is just one example of not meeting Mr. Dawkins head on. Anyway, the only thing reading this book made me want to do it to go back and re-read The God Delusion, if only to prove to myself that even I could have written a better book in rebuttal. (I have also heard about a book called The Dawkins Letters, so I think that would be interesting to read.)
5 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Richard Dawkins, you're mean!,
By
This review is from: The Dawkins Delusion? (Paperback)
To be fair to the believers among us, I decided to look for a critical response to the God Delusion, preferably written by a well educated, non-theologian who could make relevant arguments without quoting the bible. McGrath seemed to fit the bill in this regard. However at only 65 pages, this book falls a bit short and the author merely flails at Dawkins, hardly having time to mount any sort of real rebuttal. Many of the points Mcgrath makes are indeed true, eg. Dawkins can be nasty and does quote a few outdated sources. However the author fails to make any justification for his belief in a supernatural being, which is really the key issue in the debate. Interestingly he calls the now famous "orbiting teapot" analogy ridiculous but fails to explain why an omnipotent magical being is any less ridiculous.Anyone fascinated by the whole "God" debate should, in all fairness, read this book if only to reassure yourself that the true believers really don't have any leg to stand on.
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