Richard Dawkins question: Does he promote atheism?

Question

I don't mean; does he refute religion, I know he does, me too.
I mean; does he actively promote atheism as the only way?

I checked out his web site. It looks like he's the atheist prophet.
He wants your donations for his non-for-profit-status- pending.

I have never read any of his books. I was going to, but not if he thinks he's got all the answers.

Keep the company of those who seek the truth and Run Away from those who have found it. - I don't know who wrote that quote, or said it first, but I agree with it.
Is Richard Dawkins just another person who claims to know absolute truth about unknowns?
Or did I get the wrong impression of him from his website?

http://richarddawkins.net/home

I will read his book(s) if I understand he isn't trying to impose his religion/lack of, on me. I have two toddlers at home, I don't have a lot of time to read right now, whatever book I make time to read, I want it to be special.

Alex.... I don’t have any faith; it would be moot for something to challenge what I don’t have.

Answer 1

I think your cursory exposure to Richard Dawkins, and your possible encounter with his many detractors, might have colored your perception of him in an unfavorable light.

Richard Dawkins is an avowed atheist, but he doesn’t claim that he has any monopoly on absolute truth. Many portray him as being arrogant and dismissive of theistic claims, but he does enumerate very good reasons not to have a belief in God. His latest work, “The God Delusion”, is an excellent exposition on the subject of God, and why from an evolutionary standpoint, the concept of a creative deity who “designed” the universe is absolutely unnecessary.

Dawkins claims against the belief in a God, though they might sound haughty to a believer in God, are grounded in more than his hubris. He makes a pretty cogent case demonstrating that the universe doesn’t need a causal explanation outside of itself in order to account for its own complexity and elegance, and that to posit a God as solution to perennial questions of existence and universal order merely compound the conundrum of our world because it merely begs the question of how God came into existence.

Outside of this simple thesis of the absolute superfluous nature of God as an explanation of the universe, he doesn’t claim that he has all the answers as to what we should believe about morality, or how to fill the existential void brought about by discarding with our cherished beliefs in religion. What he does claim, is that by abandoning these arcane concepts, we can start a real dialogue, not encumbered by superstition, concerning such substantive matters as scientific progress and ethics.

If you want a good synoptic depiction of Dawkins’ worldview read “The God Delusion”. Far from claiming that he has all the answers, he admits in this outstanding piece of prose, that our preoccupation with religious oriented “truths” has left us with a poor grasp of what truth is, and he includes himself in this picture. Dawkins doesn’t profess omniscience, but states that he, like all of us, has a long way to go to acquire much knowledge about the world. He is merely beseeching his audience to start this quest for greater understanding on the right footing – and that footing being that of the rational.

Answer 2

I don't always agree with Dawkins on strategy, but he assumes that the issues of truth, science, etc., are not merely issues of opinion or taste. In other words, these issues have larger, sometimes critical, effect on our lives. As such, they can't be reduced to coffee-house banter in which the participants are assumed to be somehow "equally right." - they can't be.

Dawkins never pretends to know "The Truth." It's a question of ever-better approximations of our understanding of reality. These understandings matter.

But yes, he certainly thinks he's right about what he has concluded - or certainly "more right" then the theists. And he thinks it's time the views he represents got heard - if for no other reason than that he sees science and secularism under coordinated attack by these forces of obscurantism.

Answer 3

Well if you're not even going to read his books......sigh...

I would point out that nobody has all the answers...Dawkins and Stephen J Gould disagreed on many issues on the mechanics of evolution.

Say what you want about the God Delusion, the rest of his books, notably the Selfish Gene, Climbing Mount Improbable and the Ancestor's Tale are mandatory reading to understand evolution.

Answer 4

Pretty much yes. He promotes science as the only way and that has become about the same thing. Where it differers a little from what you said is that science is always willing to change it's mind if new evidence shows up.

Answer 5

I have listened to him and read some of his stuff too. This guy has an anti-religion paranoia. When C.S. Lewis said that pride was the worst sin because it is the one of the heart and not just the flesh I think Dawkins and ones like him fit!

Antony Flew the former atheist that had debated men such as C.S. Lewis has said that Dawkins has not presented an even vaguely workable theory for the creation of life and recently said that the latest biological research "has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved."

"The principle of [divine] purpose ... stares the biologist in the face wherever he looks ... . The probability for such an event as the origin of DNA molecules to have occurred by sheer chance is just too small to be seriously considered ... ."Ernst Boris Chain - Nobel Prize in medicine

Answer 6

"RDF is now in the process of applying for charitable status. More information is coming soon."

hmmm.


a) he's a very bright man
b) he has written a lot of interesting books
c) he's looking to make a buck out of it and by his book sales I think he does well
d) so I suspect that whatever RDF is, it's probably for some other cause
e) but what the hell do I know

Answer 7

There's something mildly amusing about the fact that you appear to be afraid to have your beliefs challenged and won't read something until you're sure of the outcome. Mildly amusing, and kind of sad.

Answer 8

You could try reading the book yourself in order to best make up your mind about him.

All the non-Atheists I've lent mine to have liked it a lot.

Answer 9

Yes, I've read the God Delusion, and he's a militant atheist.

However, he does "allow" agnostics, of the temporary sort (those who say that they would agree to the nonexistence of God if science is able to prove it eventually).

Answer 10

Dawkins couldn't promote a child out of kindergarten.











what?