Richard Dawkins new book The God Delusion is out and so there’s a bunch of PR (from RD himself and a good read to understand where he’s coming from). Daniel Dennett also ha a new book, but his line on Religion (belief in a God) is both less aggressive and more interesting[*]. Dennett examines Religion/Religions from a Darwinian perspective, treating them as memes, and asks questions like “what survival value does belief offer”, the premise being that belief should offer something (selectable) to the believer. This leads him to suggest that, unlike Dawkins, some Religions may be acceptable since they offer some positive survival advantage, just so long as they don’t carry negative aspects (of which the various fundamentalisms are good examples).
And while we’re talking about these things, here’s some interesting reading material from two of my favourite authors:
[*]
Disclaimer: this is my understanding based on what I’ve read about his book. I haven’t yet read the book myself :-)
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