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We've done it again! This time we biked from Petra in Jordan up to Nazareth in Israel, to raise money for the Nazareth Hospital CT Scanner appeal. Nazareth is the largest Arab town in Israel, but they still don't have a dedicated Stroke Unit to cope with this devastating condition and major cause of death. Click here to find out more, and please help this fantastic cause. Thanks!

27 September 2010

Terry Eagleton on Richard Dawkins [FAIL]

Terry Eagleton is some dude who fancies himself as a philosopher. This is what he actually wrote in a 2006 review of Dawkins' "The God Delusion":
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.

Allow me to make a little tweak.
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Unicorns, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.

There. Fixed it for ya, Terry!
Posted by Shane at 21:16
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5 comments:

  1. Hmmm. I'm not even sure that really works, but I'll leave it up anyway.

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  2. Ehhhh, yep! Glad you said that! I felt the start of a brain twist coming on... although 'unicorn seeker' that I am, I should be used to it! :-)

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  3. How about "British Book of Circular Arguments" for Dawkins AND Eagleton!

    There. That's fixed it.

    Graham

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  4. "Big Book of Universal Moral Rules"* by someone writing a book against objective morality - is the analogy that Eagleton should have used.

    But that's boring.

    Graham


    *Otherwise known as "Mere Christianity"

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  5. Yeah, I dunno. Eagleton thought he was being smart, but he was - in the arse sense. The problem for Eagleton is that the god Dawkins demolishes in TGD (and demolish it he does) is indeed the god believed in by the majority of theists, and sometimes goes by the name of Yahweh, Allah or just "God".

    But if you are after some apophatuous billowy unspecifiable entity like the First Cause or Universal Law Giver (pointless concepts, but hey), then no argument is required. There is no *point* in believing in such an entity; it can do you no good.

    So what is Eagleton *for*?

    ReplyDelete

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