Maybe it's just me, but winning sure looks a lot like not doing so well.
Yet, with less humor and more irony, he claims evolutionary psychology has no bearing on forming social norms between race and gender. Defending himself to one questioner, he declared "You can do whatever the hell you like... you're free!" However, when responding to (deep breath) a secondhand straw-man question delivered by an atheist on whether a world of atheists would degenerate morally, Dawkins proclaims that an atheist society would be a good society. Not only good, but that they "would do good for the sake of being good and not out of fear from some God, some cosmic spy camera, watching your every move and knowing your every thought." The linguistic assumptions he makes about the meaning of value-laden words are painfully evident. The very concept of "good" is relative to individual perception in an atheistic worldview, so a world full of atheists doing whatever is "good" in their own eyes could range anywhere from helping end genocide in Africa to being the ones perpetuating it.
Not to mention I once heard a man once say (about ten minutes earlier) that when you're free, "you can do whatever the hell you like."
Richard Dawkins reminds me a bit of Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Not because they believe any of the same things. It's actually hard to imagine two people who might disagree more. However, both share a unique commonality of being very good in one field only to find they may be overreaching into another field where they really don't belong. Dobson has some fine thoughts on child rearing. He has mind-blowingly dubious (my friend Amanda wouldn't let me use the word stupid) thoughts on politics. Likewise, Dawkins is superb at explaining complex science in common vernacular. He is woefully ill suited for engaging in real philosophy beyond preaching to an atheist pep rally.
Hopefully, his new book on evolutionary science is an indication that he intends to stay in the field that God made him for.
This article appeared at the blog Presbymergent and is reprinted with permission from the author.
Colin Kerr serves a growing and intergenerational 200-year-old Presbyterian congregation in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. He is author of A Heaven-Backed Rebellion: Uncovering the Political Vision of Christian Liberals.
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