No More Learning

BOOKS CITED OR RECOMMENDED 387
Ward, K. (1996). God, Chance and Necessity. Oxford: Oneworld. Warraq, I. (1995). Why I Am Not a Muslim. New York: Prometheus. Weinberg, S. (1993). Dreams of a Final Theory. London: Vintage. Wells, G. A. (1986). Did Jesus Exist? London: Pemberton.
Wheen, F. (2004). How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions. London: Fourth Estate.
Williams, W, ed. (1998). The Values of Science: Oxford Amnesty Lectures 1997. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Wilson, A. N. (1993). Jesus. London: Flamingo.
Wilson, A. N. (1999). God's Funeral. London: John Murray.
Wilson, D. S. (2002). Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the
Nature of Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilson, E. O. (1984). Biophilia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Winston, R. (2005). The Story of God. London: Transworld/BBC. Wolpert, L. (1992). The Unnatural Nature of Science. London: Faber
& Faber.
Wolpert, L. (2006). Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The
Evolutionary Origins of Belief. London: Faber & Faber.
Young, M. and Edis, T. , eds (2006). Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press.
Notes
Preface
1 Wendy Kaminer, 'The last taboo: why America needs atheism',
New Republic, 14 Oct. 1996;
http://www. positiveatheism. org/writ/kaminer. htm.
2 Dr Zoe Hawkins, Dr Beata Adams and Dr Paul St John Smith,
personal communication.
Chapter 1: A deeply religious non-believer
Deserved respect
3 The television documentary of which the interview was a part was accompanied by a book (Winston 2005).
4 Dennett (2006).
Undeserved respect
5
6
7 8 9
10 11 12
13
14 15
The full speech is transcribed in Adams (2003) as 'Is there an artificial God? '
Perica (2002). See also http://www. historycooperative. org/ journals/ahr/108. 5/br_151. html.
'Dolly and the cloth heads', in Dawkins (2003). http://scotus. ap. org/scotus/04-1084p. zo. pdf.
R. Dawkins, 'The irrationality of faith', New Statesman (London), 31 March 1989.
Columbus Dispatch, 19 Aug. 2005.
Los Angeles Times, 10 April 2006.
http://gatewaypundit. blogspot. com/2006/02/islamic-society-of- denmark-used-fake. html.
http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/south_asia/4686536. stm; http://www. neandernews. com/? cat=6.
Independent, 5 Feb. 2006.
Andrew Mueller, 'An argument with Sir Iqbal', Independent on Sunday, 2 April 2006, Sunday Review section, 12-16.
19 20 21
22 23
24 25
26
Congressional Record, 16 Sept. 1981. http://www. stephenjaygould. org/ctrl/buckner_tripoli. html.
Giles Fraser, 'Resurgent religion has done away with the country
vicar', Guardian, 13 April 2006.
Robert I. Sherman, in Free Inquiry 8: 4, Fall 1988, 16.
N. Angier, 'Confessions of a lonely atheist', New York Times Magazine, 14 Jan. 2001: http://www. geocities. com/mindstuff/Angier. html.
http://www. fsgp. org/adsn. html.
An especially bizarre case of a man being murdered simply because he was an atheist is recounted in the newsletter of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia for March/April 2006. Go to http://www. fsgp. org/newsletters/newsletter_ 2006_0304. pdf and scroll down to 'The murder of Larry Hooper'.
http://www. hinduonnet. com/thehindu/mag/2001/ll/18/ stories/2001111800070400. htm.
The poverty of agnosticism
27 28
29 30
31 32
33
Quentin de la Bedoyere, Catholic Herald, 3 Feb. 2006.
Carl Sagan, 'The burden of skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer 12, Fall
1987.
I discussed this case in Dawkins (1998).
T. H. Huxley, 'Agnosticism' (1889), repr. in Huxley (1931). The complete text of 'Agnosticism' is also available at http://
www. infidels. org/library/historical/thomas_huxley/ huxley_wace/part_02. html.
Russell, 'Is there a God? ' (1952), repr. in Russell (1997b). Andrew Mueller, 'An argument with Sir Iqbal', Independent on Sunday, 2 April 2006, Sunday Review section, 12-16.
New York Times, 29 Aug. 2005. See also Henderson (2006).
NOTES TO PP. 1-53 389
Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis
16 Mitford and Waugh (2001).
Polytheism
17 http://www. newadvent. org/cathen/06608b. htm.
18 http://www. catholic-forum. com/saints/indexsnt. htm? NF=l.
Secularism, the Founding Fathers and the religion of America
390
T HE GO D D E L U S I O N
34 35
Henderson (2006). http://www. lulu. com/content/267888.
The Great Prayer Experiment
36
H. Benson et al. , 'Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients', American Heart Journal 151: 4, 2006, 934-42.
Richard Swinburne, in Science and Theology News, 7 April 2006, http://www. stnews. org/Commentary-2772. htm.
37
38
The Neville Chamberlain school of evolutionists
39 40
41 42 43
In court cases, and books such as Ruse (1982). His article in Playboy appeared in the April 2006 issue.
Jerry Coyne's reply to Ruse appeared in the August 2006 issue of
Playboy.
Madeleine Bunting, Guardian, 27 March 2006.
Dan Dennett's reply appeared in the Guardian, 4 April 2006.
http://scienceblogs. com/pharyngula/2006/03/the_ dawkinsdennett_boogeyman. php; http://scienceblogs. com/ pharyngula/2006/02/our_double_standard. php; http://scienceblogs. com/pharyngula/2006/02/the_rusedennett_feud. php.
New York Times, 11 April 2006.
Little green men
44 http://vo. obspm. fr/exoplanetes/encyclo/encycl. html. 45 Dennett (1995).
Chapter 3: Arguments for God's existence
The ontological argument and other a priori arguments
46 http://www. iep. utm. edU/o/ont-arg. htm. Gasking's 'proof is at
http://www. uq. edu. au/~pdwgrey/pubs/gasking. html.
The argument from personal 'experience'
47 48 49
The whole subject of illusions is discussed by Richard Gregory in a series of books including Gregory (1997).
My own attempt at spelling out the explanation is on pp. 268-9 of Dawkins (1998).
http://www. sofc. org/Spirituality/s-of-fatima. htm.
NOTES TO PP. 53-131 391
The argument from scripture
50 Tom Flynn, 'Matthew vs. Luke', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2004, 34-45; Robert Gillooly, 'Shedding light on the light of the world', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2004, 27-30.
51 Erhman (2006). See also Ehrman (2003a, b).
The argument from admired religious scientists
52 53
54
55 56
57
Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle (1997).
E. J. Larson and L. Witham, 'Leading scientists still reject God', Nature 394, 1998, 313.
http://www. leaderu. com/ftissues/ft9610/reeves. html gives a particularly interesting analysis of historical trends in American religious opinion by Thomas C. Reeves, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, based on Reeves (1996).
http://www. answersingenesis. org/docs/3506. asp.
R. Elisabeth Cornwell and Michael Stirrat, manuscript in preparation, 2006.
P. Bell, 'Would you believe it? ', Mensa Magazine, Feb. 2002, 12-13.
Chapter 4: Why there almost certainly is no God
The Ultimate Boeing 747
58 An exhaustive review of the provenance, usages and quotations of this analogy is given, from a creationist point of view, by Gert Korthof, at http://home. wxs. nl/~gkorthof/kortho46a. htm.
Natural selection as a consciousness-raiser
59
60 61
Adams (2002), p. 99. My 'Lament for Douglas', written the day after his death, is reprinted as the Epilogue to The Salmon of Doubt, and also in A Devil's Chaplain, which also has my
eulogy at his memorial meeting in the Church of St Martin-in-the- Fields.
Interview in Der Spiegel, 26 Dec. 2005. Susskind (2006: 17).
The worship of gaps
62 Behe (1996).
63 http://www. millerandlevine. com/km/evol/design2/article. html.
392 THE GOD DELUSION
64 This account of the Dover trial, including the quotations, is from A. Bottaro, M. A. Inlay and N. J. Matzke, 'Immunology in the spotlight at the Dover "Intelligent Design" trial', Nature Immunology 7, 2006, 433-5.
65 J. Coyne, 'God in the details: the biochemical challenge to evolution', Nature 383, 1996, 227-8. The article by Coyne and me, 'One side can be wrong', was published in the Guardian,
1 Sept. 2005: http://www. guardian. co. uk/life/ feature/story/0,13026,1559743,00. html.
The quotation from the 'eloquent blogger' is at http:// www. religionisbullshit. net/blog/2005_09_01_archive. php.
66 Dawkins (1995).
The antbropic principle: planetary version
61
68 69
Carter admitted later that a better name for the overall principle would be 'cognizability principle' rather than the already entrenched term 'anthropic principle': B. Carter, 'The anthropic principle and its implications for biological evolution', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 310, 1983, 347-63. For a book-length discussion of the anthropic principle, see Barrow and Tipler (1988).
Comins (1993).
I spelled this argument out more fully in The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins 1986).
The anthropic principle: cosmological version
70 Murray Gell-Mann, quoted by John Brockman on the 'Edge' website, http://www. edge. org/3rd_culture/bios/smolin. html.
71 Ward (1996: 99); Polkinghorne (1994: 55).
An interlude at Cambridge
72 J. Horgan, 'The Templeton Foundation: a skeptic's take', Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 April 2006. See also http://www. edge. org/3rd_culture/horgan06/horgan06_index. html.
73 P. B. Medawar, review of The Phenomenon of Man, repr. in Medawar (1982: 242).
74 Dennett (1995: 155).
80 81
82 83 84 85
See e. g. Buss (2005).
Deborah Keleman, 'Are children "intuitive theists"? ', Psychological Science 15: 5, 2004, 295-301. Dennett (1987).
Guardian, 31 Jan. 2006. Smythies (2006).
http://jmm. aaa. net. au/articles/14223. htm.
NOTES TO PP. 13 3-232 393
Chapter 5: The roots of religion
The Darwinian imperative
75 Quoted in Dawkins (1982: 30).
76 K. Sterelny, 'The perverse primate', in Grafen and Ridley (2006:
213-23).
Group selection
77 N. A. Chagnon, 'Terminological kinship, genealogical relatedness and village fissioning among the Yanomamo Indians', in Alexander and Tinkle (1981: ch. 28).
78 C. Darwin, The Descent of Man (New York: Appleton, 1871), vol. 1, 156.
Religion as a by-product of something else
79 Quoted in Blaker (2003: 7).
Psychologically primed for religion
Chapter 6: The roots of morality: why are we good?
86 The movie itself, which is very good, can be obtained at http://www. thegodmovie. com/index. php.
A case study in the roots of morality
87 M. Hauser and P. Singer, 'Morality without religion', Free Inquiry 26: 1, 2006, 18-19.
If there is no God, why be good?
88 Dostoevsky (1994: bk 2, ch. 6, p. 87).
89 Hinde (2002). See also Singer (1994), Grayling (2003), Glover
(2006).
394 THE GOD DELUSION
Chapter 7: The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist
90 Lane Fox (1992); Berlinerblau (2005).
91 Holloway (1999, 2005). Richard Holloway's 'recovering
Christian' line is in a book review in the Guardian, 15 Feb. 2003: http://books. guardian. co. uk/reviews/scienceandnature/ 0,6121,894941,00. html. The Scottish journalist Muriel Gray wrote a beautiful account of my Edinburgh dialogue with Bishop Holloway in the (Glasgow) Herald: http://www. sundayherald. com/44517.
The Old Testament
92 For a frightening collection of sermons by American clergymen, blaming hurricane Katrina on human 'sin', see http://universist. org/neworleans. htm.
93 Pat Robertson, reported by the BBC at http://news. bbc. co. Uk/2/hi/americas/4427144. stm.
Is the New Testament any better?
94 95
R. Dawkins, 'Atheists for Jesus', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2005, 9-10. Julia Sweeney is also right on target when she briefly mentions Buddhism. Just as Christianity is sometimes thought to be a nicer, gentler religion than Islam, Buddhism is often cracked up to be the nicest of all. But the doctrine of demotion on the reincarnation ladder because of sins in a past life is pretty unpleasant. Julia Sweeney: 'I went to Thailand and happened to visit a woman who was taking care of a terribly deformed boy. I said to his caretaker, "It's so good of you to be taking care of this poor boy. " She said, "Don't say 'poor boy,' he must have done something terrible in a past life to be born this way. " '
For a thoughtful analysis of techniques used by cults, see Barker (1984). More journalistic accounts of modern cults are given by Lane (1996) and Kilduff and Javers (1978).
Paul Vallely and Andrew Buncombe, 'History of Christianity: Gospel according to Judas', Independent, 7 April 2006.
Vermes (2000).
96
97
98
Love thy neighbour
99 Hartung's paper was originally published in Skeptic 3: 4, 1995, but is now most readily available at http://www. lrainc. com/
NOTES TO PP. 237-285 395
swtaboo/taboos/ltnOl . html.
100 Smith (1995).
101 Guardian, 12 March 2002: http://books. guardian. co. uk/ departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,664342,00. html.
102 N. D. Glenn, 'Interreligious marriage in the United States: patterns
and recent trends', Journal of Marriage and the Family 44: 3, 1982, 555-66.
The moral Zeitgeist
103 104 105
http://www. ebonmusings. org/atheism/newlOc. html. Huxley (1871).
http://www. classic-literature. co. uk/american-authors/ 19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraharn- lincoln-04/.
What about Hitler and Stalin? Weren't they atheists?
106 107 108
109
110
111
112
113
114
Bullock (1991). Bullock (2005).
http://www. ffrf. org/fttoday/1997/march97/holocaust. html. This article by Richard E. Smith, originally published in Freethought Today, March 1997, has a large number of relevant quotations from Hitler and other Nazis, giving their sources. Unless otherwise stated, my quotations are from Smith's article.
http://homepages. paradise. net. nz/mischedj/ca_hitler. htrnl. Bullock (2005: 96).
Adolf Hitler, speech of 12 April 1922. In Baynes (1942: 19-20).