Monday 25 June 2007

Dawkins Vs McGrath

As you probably know Alistair McGrath (Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University) has been debating Richard Dawkins (Professor of the Public Understanding of Science,
University of Oxford), particularly in response to Dawkins book "The God Delusion". Dawkins describes himself as "an evolutionist" but has been described (cheekily) by McGrath as a "Fundamentalist Atheist". McGrath's book, "The Dawkins Delusion" has been the catalyst for a series of public debates between the two authors in recent times. One interesting debate at Oxford University recently can be accessed in MP3 format if you're interested. We will also have a short critique of "The God Delusion" in CASE Magazine #12 due out in September, A Skeptic’s view of The God Delusion. This has been written by one of our CASE Associates Kevin Rogers.

2 comments:

Jacques Vuur said...

As a scientifically minded christian I find the reductionistic view of the world that Dawkins espouses hard to counter. At what point does the reductionistic view fail? I've read lots of criticism of Dawkins' sloppy philosophy and naive (distorted) interpretations of faith, but it would be nice to see someone tackle head-on the reductionism at the heart of his ideas. I find this the most insiduous aspect of his ideas - you start question whether anything you think (God, faith, sin) is really meaningful at all. Help!

Trevor Cairney said...

Hi Jacques, have you seen Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett's book "Evolution: From creation to new creation" (distributed in Australia by Willow Connection - www.willowconnection.com.au)? They presented a great seminar to 95 people at New College last night. We'll post their talk on our website soon as an MP3 file. You can find a review of the book at http://www.ctns.org/news_102103.htm
They provide a wonderful overview of the continuum of views on creation fron Biblical Creationism to Atheism and in the process critique Dawkins work. The authors describe themselves as Theistic Evolutionists. Others might have more to say. Have a look and let us know if this answers some of your questions. Thanks for commenting, Trevor.