Recently I mentioned my exasperation at some of the nonsense being written about atheism and atheists by believers. Well, blow me down with a feather, now some atheists are doing the same when writing about their fellow atheists. Here’s a prime example by Magnus Linklater.
I find it really annoying that he too stoops to ad hominem attacks on Dawkins, and misrepresenting Dakwins’ positions. A typical example in his article is where he states:
I cannot, like* Professor Dawkins, think the less of anyone who takes pleasure from a familiar liturgy, nor deride those who fall back on a Church whose central tenets they reject.
Even though he appears to have read The God Delusion, he still, unconsciously or disingenuously, misrepresents Dawkins. I have never found an instance where Dawkins derides "those who fall back". And as for liturgy, Linklater appears to have missed this closing passage in The God Delusion in the section on religious education as a part of literary culture:
I have probably said enough to convince at least my older readers that an atheistic world-view provides no justification for cutting the Bible, and other sacred books, out of our education. And of course we can retain a sentimental loyalty to the cultural and literary traditions of, say, Judaism, Anglicanism or Islam, and even participate in religious rituals such as marriages and funerals, without buying into the supernatural beliefs that historically went along with those traditions. We can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage.
* Although Linklater uses "like" here, from the context, I take it to mean that he actually means "unlike". His whole thrust in the article is that he (Linklater) is actually a much more caring and reasonable person than those meanies Dawkins and Toynbee…
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