Quodlibeta

Richard Dawkins is getting grouchy in his old age. His latest interview, with Salon.com, plugging his new book, plumbs the depths of his hyperbole against religion. The best line: "Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion." Yawn.

But there were a couple of interesting tidbits. Firstly, Dawkins' latest book is tentatively entitled The God Delusion. Presumably he will finally do what he has always avoided in the past - try to produce a coherent argument for his atheism rather than relying on one-liners hidden among his science writing. Arguing against the Dawkins view has always been a bit like wrestling with an octopus because he so rarely talks about religion beyond soundbites. Now perhaps, he will have a thesis which he will defend and can thus be refuted. The second tidbit is that he's signed up to do a TV series on religion in modern history possibly to be called The Root of All Evil. I'm not expecting a finely nuanced piece of television.

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