Текст книги "The god delusion"

Автор книги: Richard Dawkins

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Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis

16 Mitford and Waugh (2001).

Polytheism

17 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06608b.htm.

18 http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexsnt.htm?NF=l.

Secularism, the Founding Fathers and the religion of America

19 Congressional Record, 16 Sept. 1981.

20 http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/buckner_tripoli.html.

21 Giles Fraser, 'Resurgent religion has done away with the country vicar', Guardian, 13 April 2006.

22 Robert I. Sherman, in Free Inquiry 8: 4, Fall 1988, 16.

23 N. Angier, 'Confessions of a lonely atheist', New York Times Magazine, 14 Jan. 2001: http://www.geocities.com/mindstuff/Angier.html.

24 http://www.fsgp.org/adsn.html.

25 An especially bizarre case of a man being murdered simply because he was an atheist is recounted in the newsletter of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia for March/April 2006. Go to http://www.fsgp.org/newsletters/newsletter_2006_0304.pdf and scroll down to 'The murder of Larry Hooper'.

26 http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2001/ll/18/stories/2001111800070400.htm.

The poverty of agnosticism

27 Quentin de la Bedoyere, Catholic Herald, 3 Feb. 2006.

28 Carl Sagan, 'The burden of skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer 12, Fall 1987.

29 I discussed this case in Dawkins (1998).

30 T. H. Huxley, 'Agnosticism' (1889), repr. in Huxley (1931). The complete text of 'Agnosticism' is also available at http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_huxley/huxley_wace/part_02.html.

31 Russell, 'Is there a God?' (1952), repr. in Russell (1997b).

32 Andrew Mueller, 'An argument with Sir Iqbal', Independent on Sunday, 2 April 2006, Sunday Review section, 12–16.

33 New York Times, 29 Aug. 2005. See also Henderson (2006).

34 Henderson (2006).

35 http://www.lulu.com/content/267888.

The Great Prayer Experiment

36 H. Benson et al., 'Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients', American Heart Journal 151: 4, 2006, 934-42.

37 Richard Swinburne, in Science and Theology News, 7 April 2006, http://www.stnews.org/Commentary-2772.htm.

38 New York Times, 11 April 2006.

The Neville Chamberlain school of evolutionists

39 In court cases, and books such as Ruse (1982). His article in Playboy appeared in the April 2006 issue.

40 Jerry Coyne's reply to Ruse appeared in the August 2006 issue of Playboy.

41 Madeleine Bunting, Guardian, 27 March 2006.

42 Dan Dennett's reply appeared in the Guardian, 4 April 2006.

43 http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/03/the_dawkinsdennett_boogeyman.php; http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/02/our_double_standard.php; http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/02/the_rusedennett_feud.php.

Little green men

44 http://vo.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/encyclo/encycl.html.

45 Dennett (1995).

Chapter 3: Arguments for God's existence

The ontological argument and other a priori arguments

46 http://www.iep.utm.edU/o/ont-arg.htm. Gasking's 'proof is at http://www.uq.edu.au/~pdwgrey/pubs/gasking.html.

The argument from personal 'experience'

47 The whole subject of illusions is discussed by Richard Gregory in a series of books including Gregory (1997).

48 My own attempt at spelling out the explanation is on pp. 268-9 of Dawkins (1998).

49 http://www.sofc.org/Spirituality/s-of-fatima.htm.

The argument from scripture

50 Tom Flynn, 'Matthew vs. Luke', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2004, 34–45; Robert Gillooly, 'Shedding light on the light of the world', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2004, 27–30.

51 Erhman (2006). See also Ehrman (2003a, b).

The argument from admired religious scientists

52 Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle (1997).

53 E. J. Larson and L. Witham, 'Leading scientists still reject God', Nature 394, 1998, 313.

54 http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9610/reeves.html gives a particularly interesting analysis of historical trends in American religious opinion by Thomas C. Reeves, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, based on Reeves (1996).

55 http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/3506.asp.

56 R. Elisabeth Cornwell and Michael Stirrat, manuscript in preparation, 2006.

57 P. Bell, 'Would you believe it?', Mensa Magazine, Feb. 2002, 12–13.

Chapter 4: Why there almost certainly is no God

The Ultimate Boeing 747

58 An exhaustive review of the provenance, usages and quotations of this analogy is given, from a creationist point of view, by Gert Korthof, at http://home.wxs.nl/~gkorthof/kortho46a.htm.

Natural selection as a consciousness-raiser

59 Adams (2002), p. 99. My 'Lament for Douglas', written the day after his death, is reprinted as the Epilogue to The Salmon of Doubt, and also in A Devil's Chaplain, which also has my eulogy at his memorial meeting in the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

60 Interview in Der Spiegel, 26 Dec. 2005.

61 Susskind (2006: 17).

The worship of gaps

62 Behe (1996).

63 http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/design2/article.html.

64 This account of the Dover trial, including the quotations, is from A. Bottaro, M. A. Inlay and N. J. Matzke, 'Immunology in the spotlight at the Dover "Intelligent Design" trial', Nature Immunology 7, 2006, 433-5.

65 J. Coyne, 'God in the details: the biochemical challenge to evolution', Nature 383, 1996, 227-8. The article by Coyne and me, 'One side can be wrong', was published in the Guardian, 1 Sept. 2005: http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1559743,00.html. The quotation from the 'eloquent blogger' is at http://www.religionisbullshit.net/blog/2005_09_01_archive.php.

66 Dawkins (1995).

The anthropic principle: planetary version

61 Carter admitted later that a better name for the overall principle would be 'cognizability principle' rather than the already entrenched term 'anthropic principle': B. Carter, 'The anthropic principle and its implications for biological evolution', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 310, 1983, 347-63. For a book-length discussion of the anthropic principle, see Barrow and Tipler (1988).

68 Comins (1993).

69 I spelled this argument out more fully in The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins 1986).

The anthropic principle: cosmological version

70 Murray Gell-Mann, quoted by John Brockman on the 'Edge' website, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/smolin.html.

71 Ward (1996: 99); Polkinghorne (1994: 55).

An interlude at Cambridge

72 J. Horgan, 'The Templeton Foundation: a skeptic's take', Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 April 2006. See also http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/horgan06/horgan06_index.html.

73 P. B. Medawar, review of The Phenomenon of Man, repr. in Medawar (1982: 242).

74 Dennett (1995: 155).

Chapter 5: The roots of religion

The Darwinian imperative

75 Quoted in Dawkins (1982: 30).

76 K. Sterelny, 'The perverse primate', in Grafen and Ridley (2006: 213-23).

Group selection

77 N. A. Chagnon, 'Terminological kinship, genealogical relatedness and village fissioning among the Yanomamo Indians', in Alexander and Tinkle (1981: ch. 28).

78 C. Darwin, The Descent of Man (New York: Appleton, 1871), vol. 1, 156.

Religion as a by-product of something else

79 Quoted in Blaker (2003: 7).

Psychologically primed for religion

80 See e.g. Buss (2005).

81 Deborah Keleman, 'Are children "intuitive theists"?', Psychological Science 15: 5, 2004, 295–301.

82 Dennett (1987).

83 Guardian, 31 Jan. 2006.

84 Smythies (2006).

85 http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/14223.htm.

Chapter 6: The roots of morality: why are we good?

86 The movie itself, which is very good, can be obtained at http://www.thegodmovie.com/index.php.

A case study in the roots of morality

87 M. Hauser and P. Singer, 'Morality without religion', Free Inquiry 26: 1, 2006, 18–19.

If there is no God, why be good?

88 Dostoevsky (1994: bk 2, ch. 6, p. 87).

89 Hinde (2002). See also Singer (1994), Grayling (2003), Glover (2006).

Chapter 7: The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist

90 Lane Fox (1992); Berlinerblau (2005).

91 Holloway (1999, 2005). Richard Holloway's 'recovering Christian' line is in a book review in the Guardian, 15 Feb. 2003: http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/scienceandnature/0,6121,894941,00.html. The Scottish journalist Muriel Gray wrote a beautiful account of my Edinburgh dialogue with Bishop Holloway in the (Glasgow) Herald: http://www.sundayherald.com/44517.

The Old Testament

92 For a frightening collection of sermons by American clergymen, blaming hurricane Katrina on human 'sin', see http://universist.org/neworleans.htm.

93 Pat Robertson, reported by the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.Uk/2/hi/americas/4427144.stm.

Is the New Testament any better?

94 R. Dawkins, 'Atheists for Jesus', Free Inquiry 25: 1, 2005, 9-10.

95 Julia Sweeney is also right on target when she briefly mentions Buddhism. Just as Christianity is sometimes thought to be a nicer, gentler religion than Islam, Buddhism is often cracked up to be the nicest of all. But the doctrine of demotion on the reincarnation ladder because of sins in a past life is pretty unpleasant. Julia Sweeney: 'I went to Thailand and happened to visit a woman who was taking care of a terribly deformed boy. I said to his caretaker, "It's so good of you to be taking care of this poor boy." She said, "Don't say 'poor boy,' he must have done something terrible in a past life to be born this way." '

96 For a thoughtful analysis of techniques used by cults, see Barker (1984). More journalistic accounts of modern cults are given by Lane (1996) and Kilduf and Javers (1978).

97 Paul Vallely and Andrew Buncombe, 'History of Christianity: Gospel according to Judas', Independent, 7 April 2006.

98 Vermes (2000).

Love thy neighbour

99 Hartung's paper was originally published in Skeptic 3: 4, 1995, but is now most readily available at http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/ltnOl.html.

100 Smith (1995).

101 Guardian, 12 March 2002: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,664342,00.html.

102 N. D. Glenn, 'Interreligious marriage in the United States: patterns and recent trends', Journal of Marriage and the Family 44: 3, 1982, 555-66.

The moral Zeitgeist

103 http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/newlOc.html.

104 Huxley (1871).

105 http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraharn-lincoln-04/.

What about Hitler and Stalin? Weren't they atheists?

106 Bullock (1991).

107 Bullock (2005).

108 http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/1997/march97/holocaust.html. This article by Richard E. Smith, originally published in Freethought Today, March 1997, has a large number of relevant quotations from Hitler and other Nazis, giving their sources. Unless otherwise stated, my quotations are from Smith's article.

109 http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mischedj/ca_hitler.htrnl.

110 Bullock (2005: 96).

111 Adolf Hitler, speech of 12 April 1922. In Baynes (1942: 19–20).

112 Bullock (2005: 43).

113 This quotation, and the following one, are from Anne Nicol Gaylor's article on Hitler's religion, http://www.ffforg/fttoday/back/hitler.html.

114 http://www.contra-mundum.org/schirrmacher/NS_Religion.pdf.

Chapter 8: What's wrong with religion? Why be so hostile?

Fundamentalism and the subversion of science

115 From 'What is true?', ch. 1.2 of Dawkins (2003).

116 Both my quotations from Wise come from his contribution to the 1999 book In Six Days, an anthology of essays by young-Earth creationists (Ashton 1999).

The dark side of absolutism

117 Warraq (1995: 175).

118 John William Gott's imprisonment for calling Jesus a clown is mentioned in The Indypedia, published by the Independent, 29 April 2006. The attempted prosecution of the BBC for blasphemy is in BBC news, 10 Jan. 2005: http://news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4161109.stm.

119 http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/Culture_War/The_American_Taliban.html.

Faith and homosexuality

120 Hodges (1983).

121 This and the remaining quotations in this section are from the American Taliban site already listed; http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/Culture_War/The_American_Taliban.html.

122 http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/Culture_War/The_American_Taliban.html.

123 From Pastor Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church official website, godhatesfags.com: http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/jan2006/20060131_coretta-scott-king-funeral.pdf.

Faith and the sanctity of human life

124 See Mooney (2005). Also Silver (2006), which arrived when this book was in final proof, too late to be discussed as fully as I would have liked.

125 For an interesting analysis of what makes Texas different in this respect, see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/texas.html.

126 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Faye_Tucker.

127 These Randall Terry quotes are from the same American Taliban site as before:

http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/Culture_War/The_American_Taliban.html.

128 Reported on Fox news: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96286,00.html.

129 M. Stamp Dawkins (1980).

The Great Beethoven Fallacy

130 http://www.warroom.com/ethical.htm.

131 Medawar and Medawar (1977).

How 'moderation' in faith fosters fanaticism

132 Johann Hari's article, originally published in the Independent, 15 July 2005, can be found at http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=640.

133 Village Voice, 18 May 2004: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0420,perlstein,53582,l.html.

134 Harris (2004: 29).

135 Nasra Hassan, 'An arsenal of believers', New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2001. See also http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/011119_hassan.html.

Chapter 9: Childhood, abuse and the escape from religion

Physical and mental abuse

136 Reported by BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.Uk/l/hi/wales/901723.stm.

137 Loftus and Ketcham (1994).

138 See John Waters in the Irish Times: http://oneinfour.org/news/news2003/roots/.

139 Associated Press, 10 June 2005: http://www.rickross.com/reference/clergy/clergy426.html.

140 http://www.avl611.org/hell.html.

In defence of children

141 N. Humphrey, 'What shall we tell the children?', in Williams (1998); repr. in Humphrey (2002).

142 http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/yoder.html.

An educational scandal

143 Guardian, 15 Jan. 2005: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,1389500,00.html.

144 Times Educational Supplement, 15 July 2005.

145 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/03/18/dol801.xml

146 Guardian, 15 Jan. 2005: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,1389500,00.html.

147 The text of our letter, drafted by the Bishop of Oxford, was as follows:

Dear Prime Minister,

We write as a group of scientists and Bishops to express our concern about the teaching of science in the Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead. Evolution is a scientific theory of great explanatory power, able to account for a wide range of phenomena in a number of disciplines. It can be refined, confirmed and even radically altered by attention to evidence. It is not, as spokesmen for the college maintain, a 'faith position' in the same category as the biblical account of creation which has a different function and purpose.

The issue goes wider than what is currently being taught in one college. There is a growing anxiety about what will be taught and how it will be taught in the new generation of proposed faith schools. We believe that the curricula in such schools, as well as that of Emmanuel City Technical College, need to be strictly monitored in order that the respective disciplines of science and religious studies are properly respected. Yours sincerely

148 British Humanist Association News, March-April 2006.

149 Observer, 22 July 2004: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1258506,00.html.

Consciousness-raising again

150 The Oxford Dictionary takes 'gay' back to American prison slang in 1935. In 1955 Peter Wildeblood, in his famous book Against the Law, found it necessary to define 'gay' as 'an American euphemism for homosexual'.

151 http://uepengland.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184&mode=linear.

Religious education as a part of literary culture

152 Shaheen has written three books, anthologizing biblical references in the comedies, tragedies and histories separately. The summary count of 1,300 is mentioned in http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/virtualclassroom/StritmatterShaheenRev.htm.

153 http://www.bibleliteracy.org/Secure/Documents/BibleLiteracyReport2005.pdf.

Chapter 10: A much needed gap?

Consolation

154 From memory, I attribute this argument to the Oxford philosopher Derek Parfitt. I have not researched its origins thoroughly because I am using it only as a passing example of philosophical consolation.

155 Reported by BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/special_report/1999/06/99/cardinal_hume_funeral/376263.stm.

The mother of all burkas

156 Wolpert (1992).

Index

A for Andromeda (Hoyle), 72

Aaron, 244-5

Abbott, Edwin, 372

Abimelech, King of Gerar, 242

abortion, 60, 291-8

Abraham, 36, 241-3, 251, 265

absolutism, 232, 286-8, 293-4

abuse: mental, 317-25, 325, 337; physical, 315-18, 321

Achilles and the tortoise, 81-2

Adam and Eve, 251-3

Adams, Douglas, 20, 104, 116-17, 364

Adams, John, 40, 43, 45, 97

Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography (Toland), 274

advertising, 163-4

Affirmations (Kurtz), 361

Afghanistan, 287

Agnew, L. R., 299

agnosticism, 2, 46–54, 109

AIDS, 288, 289, 290, 291

Alberts, Bruce, 101

Alexander, Cecil Frances, 31

Allah, 31, 186, 213

Allen, Woody, 118-19

altruism, 216-21

American Heart Journal, 63

American Theocracy (Phillips), 286

Amish, 329-31

Amnesty International, 326

Ampleforth, Abbot of, 356

Angier, Natalie, 43-4

Animal Liberation (Singer), 271

Annunciation (Raphael), 86

Anselm of Canterbury, 80-4

Anstey, R, 180

'Answers in Genesis', 101

anthropic principle: cosmological version, 141-51; planetary version, 134-41

Antonelli, Cardinal, 313

Antrim, Earls of, 261

apostasy, 287-8

Aquinas, Thomas, 77–80, 107, 150, 320-1

argument, author's central, 157-8

arguments for the existence of God: Aquinas' 'proofs', 77–80, 107; Bayesian, 105-9; comical, 85; cosmological, 77; from admired religious scientists, 97-103; from beauty, 86-7; from degree, 78-9; from design, 79, 107; from personal 'experience', 87–92; from personal incredulity, 128, 129; from scripture, 92-7; ontological, 80-5, 107; Pascal's wager, 103-5

Arian heresy, 33

Army of God, 295

art, 200n

astronomers, 55-7

atheism: attitudes to death, 357n; George Bush Sr's view of, 43; consciousness-raising messages, 1–4; conversion to, 5–6; Founding Fathers, 39, 43; fundamentalist, 282; Hitler and Stalin, 272-8; hostility to religion, 281-2; numbers of atheists, 4–5; pride in, 3–4; view of God's existence, 50-1, 109

Atheism: A Very Short Introduction (Baggini), 13

Atheist Universe (Mills), 44, 84

Atkins, Peter, 64, 118

atonement, 252, 253

Atran, Scott, 36, 177, 184

Attenborough, David, 119, 202-5, 335

Attila the Hun, 269

Augustine, 132, 251-2

Augustus Caesar, 93, 94

Aunger, Robert, 196

Australian aboriginal tribes, 165

Australopithecus afarensis, 301

Baal, 31, 53, 104, 244, 245-6

babblers, 219

bacteria: flagellar motor, 130-2; TTSS, 131-2

Badawi, Zaki, 25

Baggini, Julian, 13

baptism, 311-15

barchan, 370-1

Baring, Maurice, 298, 299

Barker, Dan, 324-5

Barrett, James, 295

Barrett, Justin, 184

Barrow, John, 135

Barth, Bob, 66

bats, 217, 372, 373

Baudouin I, King of the Belgians, 59-60

Bayes' Theorem, 105-8

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 86, 108, 298-9

Behe, Michael, 129-31, 133

Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin, 100, 102

beliefs, false, 355-6

Bell, Paul, 103

Belloc, Hilaire, 298

Benson, Herbert, 62-3, 65

Bentham, Jeremy, 232, 297

Berlinerblau, Jacques, 95

Bethea, Charles, 63

Bethlehem, 93, 94

Betjeman, John, 11n, 41, 261

Bhagavad Gita, 344

Bible, 57, 237, 327, 340-3; see also New Testament, Old Testament

Bible Literacy Report, 344

Bierce, Ambrose, 60

'big crunch', 145

bin Laden, Osama, 303-4, 306

Binker, 347-9

Biophilia (Wilson), 361

Black Gang, The ('Sapper'), 266

black holes, 146

Blackmore, Susan, 193, 196

Blair, Tony, 303, 331, 334, 335, 336

Blaker, Kimberly, 288

Blank Slate, The (Pinker), 228

blasphemy, 286-8

Bletchley Park, 289

Blind Watchmaker, The (Dawkins), 372

Bloom, Paul, 179, 180, 183, 184

Boeing 747, 113, 122, 139, 141, 151,157

Bohr, Niels, 365n

Bondi, Hermann, 281

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 125

Bouquet, A. C, 269

Bowen, Charles, 343

Boyd, Robert, 196

Boyer, Pascal, 36, 177-8, 184

Boykin, William G., 288

Brahma, 33, 213

brain: evolution of, 179, 366-7, 371; 'god centre' in, 168-9

Bray, Michael, 238, 294-5, 297

Breaking the Spell (Dennett), 230,352

Brer Rabbit, 68-9

Brief History of Time, A (Hawking), 13

Brights campaign, 338

Britton, John, 295, 296

Brockman, John, 152

Brodie, Richard, 196

Brown, Andrew, 332-3

Brown, Dan, 97

Bruce, Lenny, 251

Bryan, William Jennings, 284

Bryan College, 284

Buckman, Robert, 205, 214

Buckner, Ed, 40

Buddhism, 37, 200, 394

Bullock, Alan, 273

Bunting, Madeleine, 68

Bunuel, Luis, 233

Burger, Warren, 330

Burnell, Jocelyn Bell, 71

Bush, George (Senior), 43

Bush, George W., 88, 291-2, 303

Bush, Jeb, 296

Cairns-Smith, A. G., 129

Caligula, 268, 269, 272

Cambrian Explosion, 127

Camp Quest, 53

Campaign for Real Education, 340

Can We Be Good Without God? (Buckman), 205, 214

caprylic acid, 372

cargo cults, 202-7

Carlin, George, 279

Carlson, Tucker, 292

Carr, Peter, 42

Carter, Brandon, 135

Catherine the Great, 84

Catholic Community Forum, 34

Catholic Encyclopedia, 32, 33-4, 359

Catholics for Christian Political Action, 290

Cattolico, Il, 313

cause: first, 155; uncaused, 77

Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, 22

Chagnon, Napoleon, 170

Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life (Silver), 392

Changing Faces ofJesus, The (Vermes), 251

Chesterton, G. K., 298

children: abuse of 315-25, 321; adoption of, 220, 221; creationist beliefs of, 180-1; defence of, 326-31; dualist beliefs of, 179, 180; education of 261, 307-8, 329-31, 331-7; gullibility of 174-7, 179, 188; imaginary friends, 347-52; intentional stance of, 183; labelling by religion, 260-1, 337-40

Chinese junk: drawing, 194-5; origami, 193-4

Chinese Whispers (Telephone), 194, 195-6

Christian Brothers, 316-17

Christian Coalition, 290

Christian Institute, 332

Christian Life City Church, 332

Christianity: adaptation for Gentiles, 94; 'American Taliban', 288, 289, 292-3; beliefs, 178-9; conversion to, 287; foundation, 37, 213; fundamentalist, 95; in US, 40-3, 263, 319-20; religious education, 3, 306, 307-8; under Hitler, 276-7

Christians: attacked in Nigeria, 25; correspondence with author, 214; evangelical, 4, 32-3, 238-9; fundamentalist, 263, 336; lawsuits in US, 23; 'rapture', 302; violent, 301

Christmas story, 94

Church of England, 11n, 41

Churchill, Randolph, 31

Churchill, Winston, 67, 289

circumcision, female, 329

Civilta Cattolica, 311

Clarke, Arthur C, 72, 202

cleaner fish, and reputation, 218n

Climbing Mount Improbable (Dawkins), 121-2, 124

Collins, Francis, 99

colours, 372

Comte, Auguste, 48, 71

Confucianism, 37

Conniff Richard, 215n

conquistadores, 312

consequentialism, 232, 233, 293-4

consolation, 352-60; by discovery of a previously unappreciated fact, 353-4; direct physical, 353; theory, 168

Constantine, Emperor, 33, 37

Contact (Sagan), 72

Copenhagen interpretation, 365, 366

Corn well, R. Elisabeth, 101, 102

cosmological argument, 77

Coulter, Ann, 288, 321

Counterfeit World (Galouye), 73

Coyne, Jerry, 67, 133

'cranes', 2, 73, 155, 157, 158

Cranmer, Thomas, 414

Creation (Haydn), 87

Creation: Life and How to Make It (Grand), 370

Creation Revisited (Atkins), 118

creationism: argument from improbability, 113, 122; debates with creationists declined, 281; defences against, 66-7; idea of 'irreducible complexity', 129-33; innate predisposition to, 180; worship of gaps, 125-8

Creationism's Trojan Horse (Forrest and Gross), 211

Cretaceous extinction, 47, 50

Crick, Francis, 99-100

Crumboblious Cutlets, 78

Crusades, 1, 312

cuckoos, 220

Culture and the Evolutionary Process (Boyd and Richerson), 196

Curie, Marie and Pierre, 99

Da Vinci Code, The (Brown), 97

Dahl, Roald, 299

Daily Telegraph, 332

Darrow, Clarence, 52

Darwin, Charles: achievement, 119, 122, 367; attacks on, 213; career, 13; Darwinian explanations, 168-9; Darwinian imperative, 163-6; destruction of argument from design, 79, 114; influence on religious belief, 98; natural selection, 114, 116-18, 140, 155-8, 171-2, 182, 191; on theory of descent with modification, 122-3, 125; Origin of Species, 11, 122-3

Darwin, George, 99

Darwin's Cathedral (Wilson), 170

David, King, 93, 95

Davies, Paul, 19, 70

Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Origin of Life (McGrath), 54

de la Bedoyere, Quentin, 46

death: attitudes to, 354-8; life after, 356

death penalty, 291-2

deism, 18, 19, 38, 39, 42-3, 46

Demon-Haunted World, The (Sagan), 366

Denmark, Muhammad cartoon issue, 24-7

Dennett, Daniel: by-product explanation of religion, 184; classification of 'stances', 181-3; on argument from improbability, 157; on belief, 14, 352; on cranes and skyhooks, 73; on intelligent design, 68; on morality, 230; on religious rituals, 164; on Templeton Prize, 153; on trickle-down theory of creation, 117

deontology, 232

Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio), 86

design, appearance of, 2, 79, 113, 116, 121, 157-8

design stance, 181-2, 183

Deuteronomy, book of, 246, 247

Deutsch, David, 365

Devil's Chaplain, A (Dawkins), 281,355

Dickinson, Emily, 361

Did Jesus Exist? (Wells), 97

Diderot, Denis, 18, 84

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Adams), 104

Distin, Kate, 196

DNA, 137, 191, 192, 361

Dobson, James, 177

doctors, 167

dodos, 267

dogs, 372-3

Doing Away with God? (Stannard), 281

Dolittle, Doctor, 13

Dominion Theology, 319

Donne, John, 221

Dornan, Bob, 288

Dostoevsky, Feodor, 227

Douglas, Stephen A., 267

Douglas, William O., 330

Downey, Margaret, 45

Drake Equation, 70-1

Dreams of a Final Theory (Weinberg), 12

Drummond, Bulldog, 266

dualism, 179-81, 183

Dutchman's Pipe, 120

Dyson, Freeman, 144, 152

Earth, orbit of, 135-6

Edge website, 152

education: Amish, 329-31; creationist, 331-7; religious, 341-4; segregated, 261; teaching that faith is a virtue, 307-8

Ehrman, Bart, 95

Einstein, Albert: mask of, 89; on morality, 226; on personal God, 9, 15; on purpose of life, 209; religious views, 13, 14, 15–19, 20

Eisenhower, Dwight, 289

Electric Meme, The (Aunger), 196

electrons, 147-8, 363-4

Elizabeth II, Queen, 205-6

embryos, human, 291-8, 300

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 29

Emmanuel College, Gateshead, 331-7

End of Faith, The (Harris), 88, 278

Engel, Gerhard, 274

Enigma code, 289

eucaryotic cell, 140

Euler, Leonhard, 84

euthanasia, 293, 356-7

evidence, 282-3

evil, existence of, 108

evolution: belief in, 282-3; continuity, 300-1; design and, 61, 79, 158; evolved organs, 129, 134; process of, 122, 134-5

Evolution vs Creationism (Scott), 66

Exclusive Brethren, the, 321-2

Existence of God, The (Swinburne), 64n

Extended Phenotype, The (Dawkins), 165

eyes, 123-4, 139, 179

Fabric of Reality, The (Deutsch), 365

faith, 308

Falwell, Jerry, 289

Faraday, Michael, 98

Fatima vision (1917), 91-2

Faulhaber, Michael, 277

Female of the Species, The ('Sapper'), 266

feminism, 115-16

Feynman, Richard, 365

Finding Darwin's God (Miller), 131

Fisher, Helen, 184-5

Flatland (Abbott), 372

Flemming, Brian, 211-12

Flew, Antony, 82n

'Flood geology', 334

Flying Spaghetti Monster, 53, 55

Flynn, Tom, 44n, 94

Forrest, Barbara, 211

fossil record, 127-8

Founding Fathers, 38-46

Franklin, Benjamin, 43

Fraser, Giles, 41

Fraunhofer, Joseph von, 48

Frayn, Michael, 183

Frazer, James, 36, 188

Free Inquiry, 6–1, 44n, 94, 96n

Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), 212

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (Jacoby), 38

Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, 45

Freethought Today, 212

French, Peter, 336

Frisch, Karl von, 182

Frum, John, 203-6

fundamentalism, 282-6

Fundamentals of Extremism, The (Blaker), 288

Galileo, 369

Galouye, Daniel E, 73

Galton, Francis, 61

Gandhi, Mohandas, 45, 250, 271

gaps, worship of, 125-34

Gasking, Douglas, 83-4

Gaunilo, 83

Gaylor, Anne, 395

Gell-Mann, Murray, 146

gene, selfish, 215-16

gene cartels, 197-8

generosity, 218-19, 220, 221

genes, 191, 192, 197-8

Genes, Memes and Human History (Shennan), 196

Genesis, book of, 237-8, 240, 242, 334

genetic drift, 189

Genghis Khan, 268-9

Gershwin, George, 94

ghosts, 90-1

Gillooly, Robert, 94

Glenn, Norval D., 261

Glover, J., 393

God, Chance and Necessity (Ward), 149-50

'god centre' in brain, 168-9

God Hypothesis: argument from improbability, 114; definition, 31, 38, 58, 71; goodness issue, 108; invulnerability to science, 66; probability of, 46, 114; simplicity, 149; untenable, 158; versions, 32

God Who Wasn't There, The (Flemming), 211

Goebbels, Josef, 277

Goering, Hermann, 274

Golden Bough, The (Frazer), 36, 188

golden calf, 244-5

Goldilocks zone, 135-7, 143, 147

Goldwater, Barry, 39

Golgi Apparatus, 283-4, 285

Good Samaritan, 215, 220

Goodenough, Ursula, 13

Goodwin, Jan, 302

gospels, 92-7, 152

Gott, John William, 288

Gould, Stephen Jay, 55, 57-8, 60, 71, 284

Graham, Billy, 95

Grand, Steve, 370, 371

Graves, Robert, 252

Gray, Muriel, 304, 394

Grayling, A. C., 231, 393

Great Beethoven Fallacy, 298-300

Great Vowel Shift, 189, 198-9

Greer, Germaine, 25

Gregory, Richard, 389

Gregory the Miracle Worker, 34

Gross, Paul, 211

group selection, 169-72

Guardian, 41, 133, 294, 332

HADD (hyperactive agent detection device), 184

Haggard, Ted ('Pastor Ted'), 319, 320

Haitian Voodoo, 326

Haldane, J. B. S., 128, 364, 372, 374

Halley's Comet, 136

hallucinations, 88, 154, 349-51

Hamilton, W. D., 216

Hari, Johann, 302

Harries, Richard, 335

Harris, Sam: on bin Laden, 303-4; on end-of-world beliefs, 302; on nakedness, 252; on religion and crime, 229-30; on religion and sanity, 88; on religion and war, 278; on suicide bomber, 304-5

Hartung, John, 253, 254-5, 257-8

Has Science Found God? (Stenger), 118

Hassan, Nasra, 305

Haught, James, 98

Hauser, Marc, 214, 222-6

Hawking, Stephen, 13, 14, 18

Haydn, Josef, 87

HealthFreedomUSA, 369

hell, 319-22

Hell Houses, 319-20

Helms, Jesse, 290

Herod, King, 93, 94 Hess, Rudolf, 273-4

Hill, Paul, 294-5, 296-7

Hinde, Robert, 177, 184, 214, 232, 341

Hinduism, 32, 33, 260

Hiroshima, 64n

His Dark Materials (Pullman), 130n