the god delusion

Atheism and rationalism


Dawkins lecturing on his book The God Delusion, June 24, 2006.
Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and a prominent critic of religion. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society,[54] a vice-president of the British Humanist Association (since 1996),[13] a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland,[55] a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism,[56] and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.[57] In 2003, he signed Humanism and Its Aspirations, published by the American Humanist Association.[58]
Dawkins believes that atheism is the logical extension of understanding evolution[59] and that religion is incompatible with science.[60] In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins wrote:
An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.[61]
In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term faith-sufferer originated), he suggested that memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. According to Dawkins, faith − belief that is not based on evidence − is one of the world's great evils. He claims it to be analogous to the smallpox virus, though more difficult to eradicate.[62] Dawkins is well-known for his contempt for religious extremism, from Islamist terrorism[63] to Christian fundamentalism; but he has also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists, from biologists Kenneth Miller[64] and Francis Collins[65] to theologians Alister McGrath and Richard Harries.[66] Dawkins has stated that his opposition to religion is twofold, claiming it to be both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence.[67] However, he describes himself as a "cultural Christian",[68] and proposed the slogan "Atheists for Jesus".[6