Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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118 of 133 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Polarising: Atheist Or Believer, This Book Won't Change Your Stance, 17 Dec 2007
So, having really enjoyed the celebrated work to which this book is a counter, I thought I'd give Dawkins's nemesis's book a try. After all, it's easy to choose to listen to someone who's arguing from your side; the challenge is to hear the counter arguments respectfully.
I'll give the professor his due; he has a measured approach that makes him far more charming a narrator than is Dawkins. The latter tends to go for the jugular, and I can envision him red-faced, pounding his keyboard at times.
Professor McGrath wisely lets Dawkins hang himself at times; when Dawkins is silly enough to use absolutes ("all religion is evil"), attention is drawn to it.
Nonetheless, writing a rebuttal to this book should also prove easy. After all, whilst it's true that Dawkins deliberately extracted bad bits of the Bible, it's still the case that they are in it, irrespective of whether there heppen to be good bits too.
Likewise, one of the most striking pages of Dawkins's work describes the god that is mentioned in the Old Testament using very negative adjectives based on accounts contained therein. McGrath's answer to that is "I don't believe in a god like that." That may be the case, but it doesn't change the fact that the stories that Dawkins read to come up with such a description are there, and so the professor's rebuttal is not effective.
I don't know. It's hard not to automatically side with the person who espouses one's own opinion, of course, in which case I'd be with Dawkins. But when all is said and done, this is not a cut-and-dried debate, and there is much that is worthwhile in the riposte. I would say, though, that Dawkins didn't totally undermine the case for a god; he undermined the case for organised religion. In a similar vein, professor McGrath's book is more a defence for the religious that Dawkins attacked with such zeal, rather than a matter of making "God" much more a viable concept for me.
This is only a short book. I'm not sure that I'd recommend it, just because there's nothing to it. Anyone that reads Dawkins's work can see that he's aggressive. Reasonable people are well aware that there are fanatical atheists that are just as zealous as their believing equivalents; we don't need to buy a book to realise this.
I'm glad that I bought this book just because I like to practice what I preach, about listening to both sides of the argument. It didn't dissuade me from my own stance at all, but I'm sure for those who share the author's opinions and beliefs, it will come as a welcome defence to Dawkins's affront.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good Rough Draft of Ideas - where's the rest of the book?, 18 Nov 2007
To Alistar McGrath's credit he got me thinking a bit about some counter-arguments to Richard Dawkin's book 'The God Delusion'. He is a very good intellectual writer and puts forth a few good ideas such as - some beliefs may not be proven but justifiable (especially considering that half the world believe in some God), the relevance of a world view, and how evolution is not regarded as being incompatible with religious beliefs. He also tries to provide a balance to some of Dawkins very strong views about the role in which religion plays in our every day lives and how it impacts society. Unfortunately, he never follows through and hence leaves the reader wanting. He does make it clear up front that he did not want to write a detailed book that counters against every anti-religion point that Dawkins makes in TGD but that is precisely what I was hoping he would do (perhaps not with a 400 page book, but with something a bit more than a short high level essay). Like it or hate it, 'The God Delusion' puts forth some very powerful arguments against religion and the perceived irrational thinking that accompanies it. Dawkins does not don kid gloves and attacks religion very aggressively in his book - which was his intention. He was not looking to publish a politically correct book. Hence a strong rebuttal would have been appropriate and potentially very interesting - especially from somebody of McGrath's intellectual caliber. I am an atheist but continue on my quest for answers and I have a good appreciation for rational counter-argument. This was McGrath's opportunity to put forth some solid rebuttals but it doesn't happen. He stops well short of a full rebuttal to almost all of the issues raised by Dawkins so he lost his opportunity to persuade otherwise - which I assume was the reason for publishing the Dawkins Delusion in the first place. In short - had potential but fails to deliver.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An exercise in avoiding the key question, 15 Jun 2009
Appropriately, this book is good in parts. But not many parts. McGrath picks holes in some of Dawkins' arguments and factual statements, and criticises him for being selective with evidence. But by pursuing this ad hominem attack (and this is the second such offering from McGrath) he is himself indulging in selection. The atheist literature extends far beyond Dawkins, and includes several at least as effective polemicists such as Sam Harris.
Overall, what strikes me about the book is how the author misses the central point so comprehensively. The matter of evidence for the mystical claims of religion is largely ignored. The nearest he gets is with the 'five ways' of Thomas Aquinas, but claims that the saint wasn't really trying to prove that God exists.
This is a very thin book - only 78 pages including notes. This doesn't stack up well against Dawkins' weighty tome, and again looks like a collection of selected pot-shots at a barn door of a target. From such a comprehensive and detailed text as The God Delusion it can't be difficult to find passages that are not as well researched or referenced as others. No such criticisms invalidate Dawkins' central challenge, that faith without evidence can't be accepted.
Whether you are a believer or not, the book is just about worth reading. The faithful will enjoy the barbs against the mighty Dawkins (who largely ignores them), while sceptics will despair at the shallow thinking that gets published. You won't miss much if you skip it.
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