Fair play to the Church of England, that most backward thinking of organisations, to have a twitter account. Pathetic of the CofE to offer pPrayers for Prof (Richard) Dawkins and his family” following his recent stroke.
If anyone commends the CofE for their magnanimity in offering to pray for Dawkins, who is an evolutionary biologist and atheist, then I think they are missing the point. And that point is that the fact of evolution confirms religion to be what it is: man made superstitious nonsense.
I do not pretend to understand much of the science behind the formation of the universe, the Big Bang and more recently the discovery of gravitational waves, but I am happy enough to believe what the scientists are telling me. I love the fact that science carries on forever, always seeking evidence and solutions. I loathe the fact that religion carries on the same as it always did, handed down from illiterate nomads at a time when no one knew what was going on, never seeking explanations nor evidence. We are supposed to believe as fact rubbish like Noah’s Ark and how God created the earth in about a week, doing stupid things like making flowers the day before he created the light that would drive the photosynthetic processes which would enable them to grow. God obviously wasn’t a scientist, that much is obvious, but he is supposed to be all seeing, all knowing.
I still find it hard to understand why so many people believe things that are palpably not true. On Friday the mosques were packed, tomorrow the churches won’t be, but a few hundred thousand people will pop along to sing a few songs and listen to God’s local vicars telling a few nice stories from the good book. And it will be the nice stories that people will want to hear. For example, people will not be lining up to hear about the number of people God killed in the bible.
A recent study revealed that God killed 2,476,633, which, of course, greatly underestimates God’s total death toll,since it only includes those killings for which specific numbers are given. This will not include victims of Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the many plagues, famines, fiery serpents and so on. Satan killed a grand total of 10 people and even that was because of a bet he had with God.
The un-numbered killings in the bible make even more depressing reading for God killed some 25 million people whereas Satan only managed around 60. Who’s the bad guy, here?
For pointing all this stuff out, Dawkins has been condemned as being “shrill” and a “militant atheist”. His critics accuse those who support Dawkins and his views as being “disciples” which is not only a dimwitted insult, it’s total tosh. Whilst I do not pretend to understand all the detailed science, I certainly do understand the complete lack of evidence to suggest we are under the control of a celestial dictator. He’s not shrill or a militant atheist: he just tells things as they are and that upsets people. Actually, I don’t ‘support’ Dawkins at all. I just agree with so much that he says.
So praying for him is just daft. It won’t make any difference because praying doesn’t work. And the reason it doesn’t work is because there is no supernatural being called God.
I had always argued that there was probably no God, but now I am not so sure of that statement. I am as convinced as I can be, given the complete absence of evidence to the contrary, that there is no God and that the small amount of agnosticism I once had has now passed.
Whatever you do, don’t pray for Richard Dawkins. Science alone with restore him to good health, not some benevolent Sky God, who appears to only be benevolent when it suits him.
