Richard Dawkins is an Oxford Professor of Science, famous for popularising of Darwin's theory of evolution and his criticisms of religion. Dawkins is an atheist, and is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his most popular book, The God Delusion (2006), Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion. He is an opponent of creationism being taught in schools and has described raising children to be religious as similar to "child abuse".
Dawkins' criticisms of religion are relevant throughout the Philosophy of Religion course, especially in considering the Design Argument. However, he is a key scholar for his challenges to the argument for God's existence based on religious experience.
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a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence - Richard Dawkins
In his book, Dawkins describes the experience of a young couple who went camping in the Scottish isles and heard the voice of the Devil calling to them at night. The experience was so terrifying that one of them was deeply affected by it and became a priest. However, Scottish locals know what this hideous nighttime sound is: it is the call of the Manx Shearwater, a seabird that breeds in the isles. Its nickname is the "Devil Bird".
Dawkins draws a conclusion from confusions like this: This argument from personal experience is ... most convincing to those who claim to have had one. But it is the least convincing to anyone ... knowledgeable about psychology - Richard DAwkins |
A short recording of the shearwater's horrible cries. Imagine hearing this outside your tent at midnight!
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Dawkins states that any walk through an insane asylum would show the visitor all the people who believe they are Napoleon, think everyone is plotting against them as well as people with hallucinations from illnesses like schizophrenia. Dawkins compares religious experiences with psychosis and compares religious experience with mental illness.
Dawkins believes all religious experiences have a naturalistic interpretation
Dawkins rejects the VERIDICALITY of such experiences (the truth of what they present). He argues that the brain creates our perception of sights and sounds in the world outside our own heads but that sometimes it does its job too well and fools us:
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Dawkins confronts a believer
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constructing models is something the human brain is very good at - Richard DAwkins
had I been both impressionable and religiously brought up, I wonder what words the wind might have spoken - Richard Dawkins
Evolution is a process where mutations that appear by accident get passed on if they are SURVIVAL TRAITS that help animals survive and breed. Dawkins doesn't think religious experiences are survival traits, but he points out that survival traits can backfire. He gives the example of moths flying into candle flames and burning themselves. Moths evolved millions of years ago when there were no candles but there were stars and the moon at night. The moths evolved a directional sense based on these faraway lights. However, candles confuse moths and the same evolved ability that lets them be guided by the stars fools them into flying into a candle flame.
Moths evolved this way through NATURAL SELECTION and Dawkins thinks natural selection might explain religious experiences too. |
A Bug's Life (1989) has a different idea about moths and lights
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There was something built into the human brain by natural selection which was once useful and which now manifests itself under civilised conditions as religion - Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in The Selfish Gene (1976). A gene is a bundle of biological information that is passed on through reproduction and influences your development and behaviour. A meme is a bundle of mental information (beliefs, values. symbols, stories) that is passed on through communication. Dawkins argues that memes lodge in the mind and reshape your own thoughts and ideas - and then you pass them on to other people when you talk about them. In a way. memes behave like viruses and this is why Dawkins refers to the religion meme as a "virus of the mind".
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Memes apply the principle of evolution to ideas; Dawkins suggests ideas mutate, and replicate themselves and compete for survival. If this is correct, then our beliefs will be determined not just by evidence but by which ideas win and lose the fight for survival. Ideas that are best equipped for this fight will survive, whether or not they are true.
Dawkins applies this insight to religion, offering a memetic critique of Christianity. Dawkins thinks religious belief is widespread because it stresses faith over reason (making it resistant to disproof), threatens hell (giving it deep psychological impact) and commands its bearers to replicate it (through testimony). Dawkins thinks the religious meme survives because it travels with other rather more important memes, like moral values and community feelings. |
The Big Bang Theory explores memes
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Dawkins' mimetic critique of religion has also been criticised. When questioned, Dawkins is rather mysterious about whether he thinks that memes are real things or if they're just an imaginative figure of speech.
If memes are real and if they shape our thoughts completely, then everything is a meme, including scientific research and logical thinking. On the other hand, if it's possible to "see through" memes by thinking logically and looking at evidence, then it's possible to think logically about religion and look at religious evidence, which would include religious experiences. |
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YES
Dawkins presents some memorable and thought-provoking examples of how intelligent and curious people can be fooled by illusions and hallucinations. He suggests that there's always a naturalistic explanation for things that appear to be supernatural.
Dawkins offers explanation for religious experiences based on genes (evolution) and memes (mimetics). These show how human beings might be led to believe in unreal things. With this in mind, we should expect a very high standard of proof for religious experiences and religious experiences don't meet that standard. Only a focus on scientific evidence tells us about the real world, not religious revelation.
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NO
The fact that people can SOMETIMES be fooled by illusions and hallucinations doesn't mean these experiences are ALWAYS illusory. Simply assuming that everything has a naturalistic explanation is BEGGING THE QUESTION.
The idea that thoughts which seem rational might in fact be irrational leads to problems. Is scientific thinking also a product of evolution? Is science just another meme? If so, we are being tricked by our brains into believing scientific theories which aren't really true. Dawkins thinks that science is in a different category from religious experiences, but his ideas about genes and memes allow for no such distinction.
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