Vince Hart wrote:

Mark Houlsby wrote:
Vince Hart wrote:


I don't think Dawkins' militancy holds a candle to that of religious
zealots who believe that the God who has communicated to them through a
magic book wants them to make war on those whose God communicated to
them through a different magic book.

Nor do I think that Dawkins would consider anyone an idiot for thinking
that their might be an intelligent designer.

Oh, I rather think that although he may not consider these people to be
idiots, he may consider them to be, at best, deluded. He has argued
vociferously to that effect.

I do think he considers
to be idiots those people who want creationism taught along with (if
not instead of) evolution in public school science classes.


Same response. Not idiotic. Deluded.


My response would not be the same in both cases.

I do not think that the idea of a first cause is delusional although I
do not think that it rises to the level of "proof" of God's existence.


On the other hand, I have a huge problem with the idea that everything
in a magic book should be accepted as fact to the same degree as
knowledge derived by application of the scientific method. For many
such believers, I think delusion is the proper description. For
others, I think profound intellectual dishonesty is the culprit.

That's an interesting distinction, which had not occurred to me.