Product Description

This is the first book-length response to Richard Dawkins, author of some of the most popular scientific works, such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. Dawkins has become perhaps the world’s best-known atheist, noted for his hostile and controversial views on religion. This wonderfully argued book explains and examines Dawkins’ scientific ideas and their religious implications. Head-to-head, it takes on some of Dawkins’ central assumptions, like the conflict between science and religion, the "selfish gene" theory of evolution, the role of science in explaining the world, and brilliantly exposes their unsustainability. Moreover, this controversial debate is carried on in a style which can be enjoyed by anyone without a scientific or religious background.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #285337 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781405125383
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"In Dawkins' God, McGrath has written a brilliant book, and it is difficult to think that the exposition of Dawkins' writings and their religious implications, will ever be better stated, explored and criticised... at once dispassionate, robust and readable." Richard Harries, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Alister McGrath's book Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life does a fair and sophisticated job of summarising my position." Richard Dawkins, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Dawkins is disposed of with panache, and with McGrath's ususal clarity and conciseness." Theology

"Lucid and brief, without being perfunctory or dismissive, and fulfils the role of guide to the educated layperson without eliciting boredom from the academic familiar with the field ... The end result of this effort by McGrath is that, once again, I would have no hesitation in recommending the book as a basic text for A-level or first-year undergraduate students looking for their appetite to be whetted for a number of connected fields of scholarship, or indeed for the 'educated layperson' seeking a grasp of the issues without having to wade through hundreds of pages of science and theology ... A very finely judged piece of writing." Kaleidoscope

"With clear and incisive argumentation, McGrath takes Dawkins on and exposes many of the weaknesses in his case for atheism." Reformed Theological Journal

"Wielding evolutionary arguments and carefully chosen metaphors like sharp swords, Richard Dawkins has emerged over three decades as this generation's most aggressive promoter of atheism. In his view, science, and science alone, provides the only rock worth standing on. In this remarkable book, Alister McGrath challenges Dawkins on the very ground he holds most sacred - rational argument - and McGrath disarms the master. It becomes readily apparent that Dawkins has aimed his attack at a naive version of faith that most serious believers would not recognize. After reading this carefully constructed and eloquently written book, Dawkins' choice of atheism emerges as the most irrational of the available choices about God's existence."
Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project

“In this tour-de-force Alister McGrath approaches the edifice of self-confident, breezy atheism so effectively promoted by Richard Dawkins, and by deft dissection and argument reveals the shallowness, special-pleading and inconsistencies of his world-picture. Here is a book which helps to rejoin the magnificence of science to the magnificence of God’s good Creation.”
Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Cambridge University

“This is a wonderful book. One of the world’s leading Christian contributors to the science/religion dialogue takes on Richard Dawkins, Darwinism’s arch-atheist, and wrestles him to the ground! This is scholarship as it should be – informed, feisty, and terrific fun. I cannot wait to see Dawkins’s review of Alister McGrath’s critique.”
Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

“A timely and accessible contribution to the debate over Richard Dawkins’s cosmology which exposes philosophical naivety, the abuse of metaphor, and sheer bluster, left, right and centre. Here Alister McGrath announces what every Darwinian Fundamentalist needs to hear: that science is and always has been a cultural practice that is provisional, fallible, and socially shaped – an enterprise to be cultivated and fostered, but hardly worshipped or idolised. A devastating critique.”
David N. Livingstone, Professor of Geography and Intellectual History, Queen’s University, Belfast

“Alister McGrath critically examines the places where Richard Dawkins’ well-established biological science changes into the speculations which undergird Dawkins’ own anti-religious faith. In his appreciative examination and ruthless analysis of Dawkins writings and the polemics associated with them, McGrath has done a marvellous apologetic job, as well as providing a particular service for those daunted by scientific authoritarianism. We are all in his debt for rigorously identifying and exposing the weaknesses of some of the commonly used arguments against the Christian faith.”
R. J. Berry, formerly Professor of Genetics, University College, London and President of the Linnean Society

“Alister McGrath subjects the atheistic world-view of Richard Dawkins to critical analysis and finds it severely lacking in intellectual rigour. As a former atheist himself, and a biochemist turned theologian and philosopher, the author is well placed to appreciate Dawkins’ well-deserved reputation as a populariser of evolutionary theory, but equally well qualified to assess his stratagem of using a biological theory for ideological purposes. This book is essential reading for those interested in the traffic of ideas between science, philosophy and religion.”
Dr Denis Alexander, Chairman, Molecular Immunology Programme, The Babraham Institute and Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge

Review
"In Dawkins' God, McGrath has written a brilliant book, and it is difficult to think that the exposition of Dawkins' writings and their religious implications, will ever be better stated, explored and criticised... at once dispassionate, robust and readable."
–Richard Harries, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Alister McGrath's book Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life does a fair and sophisticated job of summarising my position." –Richard Dawkins, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Wielding evolutionary arguments and carefully chosen metaphors like sharp swords, Richard Dawkins has emerged over three decades as this generation's most aggressive promoter of atheism. In his view, science, and science alone, provides the only rock worth standing on. In this remarkable book, Alister McGrath challenges Dawkins on the very ground he holds most sacred - rational argument - and McGrath disarms the master. It becomes readily apparent that Dawkins has aimed his attack at a naive version of faith that most serious believers would not recognize. After reading this carefully constructed and eloquently written book, Dawkins' choice of atheism emerges as the most irrational of the available choices about God's existence."
–Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project

“In this tour-de-force Alister McGrath approaches the edifice of self-confident, breezy atheism so effectively promoted by Richard Dawkins, and by deft dissection and argument reveals the shallowness, special-pleading and inconsistencies of his world-picture. Here is a book which helps to rejoin the magnificence of science to the magnificence of God’s good Creation.”
–Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Cambridge University

“This is a wonderful book. One of the world’s leading Christian contributors to the science/religion dialogue takes on Richard Dawkins, Darwinism’s arch-atheist, and wrestles him to the ground! This is scholarship as it should be – informed, feisty, and terrific fun. I cannot wait to see Dawkins’s review of Alister McGrath’s critique.”
–Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

“A timely and accessible contribution to the debate over Richard Dawkins’s cosmology which exposes philosophical naivety, the abuse of metaphor, and sheer bluster, left, right and centre. Here Alister McGrath announces what every Darwinian Fundamentalist needs to hear: that science is and always has been a cultural practice that is provisional, fallible, and socially shaped – an enterprise to be cultivated and fostered, but hardly worshipped or idolised. A devastating critique.”
–David N. Livingstone, Professor of Geography and Intellectual History, Queen’s University, Belfast

“Alister McGrath critically examines the places where Richard Dawkins’ well-established biological science changes into the speculations which undergird Dawkins’ own anti-religious faith. In his appreciative examination and ruthless analysis of Dawkins writings and the polemics associated with them, McGrath has done a marvellous apologetic job, as well as providing a particular service for those daunted by scientific authoritarianism. We are all in his debt for rigorously identifying and exposing the weaknesses of some of the commonly used arguments against the Christian faith.”
–R. J. Berry, formerly Professor of Genetics, University College, London and President of the Linnean Society

“Alister McGrath subjects the atheistic world-view of Richard Dawkins to critical analysis and finds it severely lacking in intellectual rigour. As a former atheist himself, and a biochemist turned theologian and philosopher, the author is well placed to appreciate Dawkins’ well-deserved reputation as a populariser of evolutionary theory, but equally well qualified to assess his stratagem of using a biological theory for ideological purposes. This book is essential reading for those interested in the traffic of ideas between science, philosophy and religion.”
–Dr Denis Alexander, Chairman, Molecular Immunology Programme, The Babraham Institute and Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge

From the Back Cover
This is the first book-length response to Richard Dawkins, author of some of the most popular scientific works, such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. Dawkins has become perhaps the world’s best-known atheist, noted for his hostile and controversial views on religion. This wonderfully argued book explains and examines Dawkins’ scientific ideas and their religious implications. Head-to-head, it takes on some of Dawkins’ central assumptions, like the conflict between science and religion, the “selfish gene” theory of evolution, the role of science in explaining the world, and brilliantly exposes their unsustainability. Moreover, this controversial debate is carried on in a style which can be enjoyed by anyone without a scientific or religious background.

Customer Reviews

Dawkins-Approved
Many of the other reviews cover the material in the book well, so I thought I would just add one tidbit of info.

It is interesting to me that McGrath and Dawkins are colleagues at Oxford. In a recent lecture in an apologetics course, Prof. McGrath stated that before this work was published, he sent the manuscript over to Prof. Dawkins for approval, to ensure that he had represented Dawkins' views correctly.

While Prof. Dawkins obviously did not agree with the conclusions, he gave approval to the portrayal of his own views in this book. Would that more people on boths sides of this debate would take such care to make sure they are not arguing staw-men!

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God?
First thing's first; Alister McGraith is an enlightened, educated, informed Christian apologetic; I might be demonstrating nothing but my own prejudice here, but I rarely encounter such credible theistic advocates; While I often disagree with McGraith, and I think that he sometimes entirely misses the atheist's serve, his legs are planted firmly in the playing field.

McGraith offers the first book length critique of biologist Richard Dawkins' atheistic philosophy. Remarkably, he hardly addresses the main arguments Dawkins raises against theism. Instead, McGraith launches all out attack on Dawkins's weakest arguments, while ignoring the best of them. McGraith similarly ignores atheists like Daniel Dennett, who offer substantial criticism of theism similar to Dawkins's, but more sophisticated. Since Dennett's brilliant "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" can be characterized as one long diatribe against God, ignoring Dawkins's chief academic supporter is surprising (Dennett is mentioned 3 times, on points unrelated to his atheistic views). McGraith also spends much of the book on irrelevant asides, like an examination of Darwin's religious views, a detailed critique of Dawkins' concept of memes, and the history of Science and Religion.

McGraith's strongest attack regards the argument from Design. Darwinian evolution offers a crashing counter argument for the famous theistic argument from design -that God is the only possible explanation for the complexity we see around us (also known as "the Watchmaker argument"). McGraith correctly points out that the failure of the Watchmaker argument does not disprove the existence of God - merely the weakness of one argument. Indeed, for some theistic interpretations, a naturalistic explanation in the Darwinian vain is not complementary, but a necessity.

Furthermore, McGraith points out that the argument from Design is not a traditional Christian argument, but an 18th century development. By the early 19th century, the watchmaker argument was "an outmoded way of thinking" (p. 65). Due to various weaknesses of the design argument, particularly the problems with the idea that God had designed the crueler aspects of the world, prominent Christians such as John Henry Newman opposed it even before Darwin (p.67).

But McGraith's reasonable defence is over extended. First, McGraith makes much of the fact that "Science leads neither to atheism nor Christianity - the scientific method is incapable of delivering a decisive adjudication of the God question" (p. 53). This is true, but highly misleading. Science cannot answer the God question, but there is nothing sacrosanct about science. For a variety of historical and methodological reasons, science is defined in such a way as to not answer the ultimate questions; But that's neither here nor there; The same kind of reasoning indicates that God played no larger a role in the creation of the Earth as she did in the creation of the peacock's tail; We call the second conclusion science and the first metaphysics or philosophy, but that's little more than a play on words. Right or wrong, the argument against God as cannot meaningfully be dismissed as "unscientific".

McGraith ignores the major implication of Darwinism on the explanatory power of atheism. After Darwin, atheists only need to assume a very simple universe: we know how complicated life forms can evolve from simplicity. But a theist has to assume the pre existence of an all powerful creator. Occham's razor is clearly on the atheist's side.

McGraith's other successful attack is on Dawkins's linkage between religion and violence. Dawkins argues that religion causes great harm; McGraith counter argues that religion also brings great good, and that atheism's record is every bit as mixed as that of Christianity or Islam. McGraith rightly points out that goodness and badness has very little to do with one's metaphysical persuasion: "there seems to be something about human nature which makes our belief systems capable of inspiring both great acts of goodness and great acts of depravity" (p.114).

What if we conclude that religiosity has little to do with morality (Contra the so-called Reagan doctrine and ideas of theist philosophers like C. Stephan Layman)? That sits perfectly with an atheist model of the universe, but doesn't correspond to a Christian one. After all, atheism only implies that there is no God; it says nothing about morality. But Christianity assumes that its followers are doing God's will, and are striving to the best of their ability to adhere to his ways: shouldn't that effort show some results?

Although McGrath does indeed elaborate on "Genes, memes, and the meaning of life", his book is very short of talking about God, Dawkins' or otherwise. Thus he ignores the Dawkins' strongest critique of theism - that it is false. Even barring all the other objections to God's existence, it is up to its proponents to defend the concept, just as was up to Darwin to promote the concept of Natural Selection, and for Dawkins to persuade us of the legitimacy of the "Gene's viewpoint of the world". No such defence is offered anywhere in the 159 pages of Dawkins' God.

McGrath may counter that his is not an evangelic book in the conventional sense, and that the task of validating theism is left for another day. But when a leading advocate of Christianity, despite all of his knowledge and sophistication, fails to make the case for it, one wonders.

Has Dawkins made his case?
If T.H. Huxley was "Darwin's bulldog" just over a century ago, surely Richard Dawkins would be Darwin's pit bull terrier today. A leading proponent of neo-Darwinism, Dawkins is just as famous for his aggressive, almost obsessive, promotion of atheism. His many well-written books and articles have made him a formidable proponent of both Darwinian theory and secular humanism.

Yet to date no book-length critique of Dawkins has appeared from a biblical point of view. Until now that is. The just-released Dawkins' God is an important assessment and critique of Dawkins and his crusade against religion. While McGrath respects and admires Dawkins when he sticks to the realm of science, it is when Dawkins wanders out of the domain of science, attacking religion in the name of science, that McGrath shows his very real shortcomings.

Thus this book is not so much a critique of Darwinism as a critique of philosophy and ideology masquerading as science. Dawkins should know as well as anyone that science has limits, and questions of God's existence do not fall within those limits. Yet the works of Dawkins are permeated with emotive and irrational attacks on faith and religion. This misuse and abuse of science by Dawkins in this regard is a major theme of this volume.

McGrath begins by analysing Dawkins' work on genes. For Dawkins, genes are everything, or at least they can account for everything. Thus Dawkins takes neo-Darwinism as an explanation of observable natural phenomena, and elevates it to a worldview, an all-embracing metanarrative. Again, he takes science where it was never meant to go.

McGrath analyses this further in the false disjunction Dawkins time and again sets up: one either lives by blind faith or the facts and evidence of science. Take you pick, it is one or the other. Of course he misrepresents both. No reputable Christian thinker has ever identified religious belief as mere blind faith. Faith is grounded on evidence, and Christianity offers a fair amount of evidence for its truth claims.

And science is far from the neutral, totally objective scenario that Dawkins paints. It deals with evidence and observations, yes, but also deals in probabilities as much as in certainties. The constant revision and overturning of scientific theories means that scientists should remain humble, not arrogant. So too of course should Christians, who need to continually refine and clarify their theological convictions. Both involve elements of faith and reason. Both should be approached with care and humility.

The replicators of ideas and beliefs - what Dawkins calls memes - the cultural equivalent of genes, are also critiqued by McGrath. The truth is, they are not the fruit of scientific discovery but philosophical postulation. Dawkins says people believe in God, not because he exists, but because of God memes. The idea of God, says Dawkins, like a virus, is passed along and replicated in culture, just as physical traits (in the form of DNA) are passed along by means of genes.

But as McGrath rightly points out, is this God meme concept just another meme, another virus, another false belief being passed along? And if there is a God meme, could there not be an atheist meme as well? The fact is, Dawkins has a philosophical precommitment to atheism, and he tries to smuggle this belief system in while piggy-backing of Darwinism. But as McGrath establishes, Darwinism does not necessarily entail atheism. Nor does it necessarily entail theism for that matter.

Science in general and evolutionary biology in particular can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. Such questions lie outside of the purview of science. But Dawkins' hatred of religion leads him to blur the boundaries of where science leaves off and other disciplines (theology, philosophy) begin.

What one makes of Darwinism is a matter of scientific debate. The evidence can be weighed and considered. But it is simply inappropriate for scientists to wade into debates about God's existence or non-existence by means of the scientific method. It is inadequate for such a debate. And it is disingenuous for those who have a beef against religion to seek to use the scientific method to do their dirty work.

Those wanting an attack on Darwinism will not find it here. The work of the Intelligent Design movement, for example, is not even mentioned in this volume. Yet ID has landed some telling blows on an already shaky evolutionary edifice.

But this volume does do a good job of demonstrating the proper limits of genuine science, and the very poor intellectual armaments Dawkins brings to bear against faith and religion. It will not be the end of the debate, but it is a much needed contribution to some crucial issues we all must grapple with.