This is a fascinating interview with Michael Ruse, ranging over various topics not captured by the simple headline (about evolution explaining religious beliefs). I think I disagree with him on one or two things, most notably his demolition of Richard Dawkins. Like many defenders of Christian belief, Ruse thinks that Dawkins Ultimate 747 argument is both idiotically flawed and unrelated to what Christians believe. Its definitely flawed, but it is most certainly not off the mark re Christian belief on the ground. In fact, it is common to see Christians using God as some kind of obvious solution to the problem of the source/existence of complexity. Dawkins is right to trash that, and to harp on whether Dawkins was wrong to forget/ignore the simplicity of god (a concept of which I suspect less than 1% of the worlds Christians have any awareness) is to lamely miss the point. Moreover, continuously mocking Dawkins as some kind of philosophical simpleton is obnoxious, not because it is rude but because it ignores the level at which The God Delusion is aimed. I know that Dawkins makes errors, even some big ones, but every time I see a philosopher mumbling about gods simplicity in response to the Ultimate 747, I think of Inspector Clouseau. Still, Id kill to have a beer with Ruse and John Schneider and Kelly James Clark and many of my Facebook friends, because Ruse is an atheist who gets it.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:39:36 +0000
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