Well, despite the sensationalistic title of this post, I think the answer is probably "no, I wouldn't go that far as to say that." But I have been amazed at some of the things he keeps on saying, held in tension with some things I know people talk to him about. For example, he continues to deride all believers as people who do not think, yet he is acquainted with one of the greatest proponents for Christian thinking: fellow Oxford professor (and prolific author) John Lennox.
This all came together for me in an "aha!" moment when I read the first four sentences of this article about William Lane Craig (which by the way is a great article in and of itself and I recommend reading it; the first four sentences are almost irrelevant to the rest of the article) where the author depicts Dawkins as decrying the notion of giving a Christian apologist publicity.
This made me wonder: it is really about the search for truth and advancing science and reason for Dawkins? Or is it about empty rhetoric, sound bytes, and attempting to control what people hear? The irony of it all is that Dawkins (and now many others) blames the spread of religion on "memes". Originally, memes didn't have to be funny images with catchy phrases; they can also be just what your parents taught you, or what your friends like, or what's cool at school. Any cultural element that gets passed from one person to another could be a meme. Yet, through the use of sound bytes, etc. (which appeal so much to this generation), it is actually atheism that is now propagating* by meme. Very interesting.
* - By the way, the word "propaganda" has the same root as the word "propagate". We now come full circle.
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