We've been reading The God Delusion, a little behind everyone else. If we were paranoid we might now be suspecting an atheist conspiracy. Everywhere we look religion is taking a hammering and not just the fanatic wing. Richard Dawkins even thinks mainstream religion has a lot to answer for, and a poll this week showed that an unnervingly high number of people consider religion harmful. Polly Toynbee became the new president of the British Humanist Association with some fighting talk about the here and now being all there is, and John Humphrys published a book called In God We Doubt. Really, what is a life-affirming Quaker to make of it?
But Friends, Eye is not a fearful column. We find the sparring and shaping up tactics of biologists and intelligent design theorists not just greatly entertaining, but stimulating and illuminating. Some tremendous ideas are emerging, simply because more people are talking about God.

Labels: dawkins