Thinking Through the Evidence with Richard Dawkins

By Adam Hincks, S.J.

Hamlet: Do you see nothing there?
Queen: Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

Back in December, Al Jazeera aired an interview of Richard Dawkins by Mehdi Hasan. Despite the content being nothing really new under the sun―Dawkins was defending his popular arguments against religion and faith in God―it was an engaging programme because Hasan is a forthright interviewer and Dawkins is as cool as a cucumber―surely one of the reasons for his popularity. It’s hard not to like a gentleman.

During the question period in the last third of the programme, there was one question (starting at about 32:15) that really got to the heart of the matter, in my view. An older gentleman asked Dawkins, “If the Almighty God appears suddenly on the cloud or in the airs or [in] part of the universe, what is your reaction? Are you going to believe, or are you going to go against him?” In other words: “What evidence would you need for God’s existence?” Here is the response:

A Tale of Two Rallies

By John O’Brien, S.J.

  

There were two large gatherings of people in the Western Hemisphere this past weekend. The first was Saturday’s self-billed “Reason Rally” at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where 20,000 atheists gathered as a show of political force. Comedians, activists, bloggers, and the evolutionist writer Richard Dawkins headlined the event, which was reported to be lively despite the drizzling rain.

Speakers called for “zero tolerance” for anyone who disagrees with atheism and urged the nonreligious to run for public office at all levels of society. The most caustic advice, however, came from Dawkins, who told the crowd they should heap scorn on people of faith, above all, on Catholic beliefs such as the Eucharist.

“Mock them, ridicule them in public,” Dawkins said. “Don't fall for the convention that we're all too polite to talk about religion.” A preponderance of four-letter words throughout the day was reported, colouring blue the overall tone of the event.