The GOD Delusion

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The GOD Delusion
By Richard Dawkins
Danielle Ryder Courtney Cribb Chris Duggan
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DESERVED RESPECT

• Definition of God
• Personal God a supernatural creator that is
  appropriate for us to worship
• Awesome structure of the universe/nature
• Einstein sometimes used the name of God
• Einstein defined religion differently
• Imperfect comprehension/admiration of the laws of
  nature

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Definitions

• Theist
• Believes in a supernatural intelligence (creation
  supervision)
• Deist
• Supernatural intelligence (creation only)
• Pantheist
• No supernatural intelligence
• Synonym/metaphor laws of nature/universe
• Atheist
• A commitment to naturalism

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UNDESERVED RESPECT

• Widespread assumptions that religion is off
  limits for debate
• Overweening respect
• US supreme court ruling, Feb 2006.
• 2004 Ohio, anti-discrimination rules
• Feb 2006 Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten

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The God Hypothesis

• The God Hypothesis
• there exists a superhuman, supernatural
  intelligence who deliberately designed and
  created the universe and everything in it,
  including us.
• This book advocates an alternative view
• any creative intelligence, of sufficient
  complexity to design anything, comes into
  existence only as the end product of an extended
  process of gradual evolution.
• God is a delusion

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POLYTHEISM

• Many Gods
• Monotheism vs. Polytheism
• Polytheism -gt Monotheism
• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy
  Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods
  but one God.

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POLYTHEISM

• The Catholic Forum lists 5, 120 saints!
• Pope John Paul II created more saints than all
  his predecessors over the past several centuries.
• This book refers to all deities, whether poly- or
  monotheistic, as simply God.
• Mostly refers to Christianity

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MONOTHEISM

• Three anti-human religions Judaism 1st,
  Christianity 2nd, and Islam 3rd
• Buddhism/Confucianis are not treated as religions
  but as a philosophy of life

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SECULARISM, THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND THE
RELIGION OF AMERICA

• Many of the founding fathers of the American
  Republic were deists.
• But also evidence to suggest that many were
  atheists
• Collectively, they were secularists
• Atheists have strong numbers today

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David Mills, Atheist Universe

• Prejudice against atheists in America
• Story of a Christian faith-healers Miracle
  Crusade

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THE POVERTY OF AGNOSTICISM

• Agnosticism
• notion that the existence/non-existence of God is
  an untouchable question
• 2 kinds
• TAP- Temporary Agnosticism in Practice
• PAP- Permanent Agnosticism in Principle

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• 1 Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God.
  In the words of C. G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I
  know.
• 2 Very high probability but short of 100 per
  cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for
  certain, but I strongly believe in God and live
  my life on the assumption that he is there.
• 3 Higher than 50 per cent but not very high.
  Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism.
  'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to
  believe in God.
• 4 Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial
  agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are
  exactly equiprobable.
• 5 Lower than 50 per cent but not very low.
  Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism.
  'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined
  to be skeptical.
• 6 Very low probability, but short of zero. De
  facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I
  think God is very improbable, and I live my life
  on the assumption that he is not there.
• 7 Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with
  the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.

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NOMA

• Non-overlapping magisteria
• Huxley declared that the God question cannot be
  settled on the basis of scientific method.
• If science cannot answer the question, then by
  implication, religion can.

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NOMA

• The difference between two hypothetical universes
• Presence of absence of a creative
  super-intelligence is a scientific question
• NOMA is popular because there is no evidence to
  favour the God Hypothesis

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THE GREAT PRAYER EXPERIMENT

• Francis Galton
• Russell Stannard
• Does praying for sick patients improves their
  health?
• 1,802 patients at 6 hospitals
• Results in American Heart Journal, 2006
• No difference between those who were prayed for
  and those were not
• Those who knew they had been prayed for suffered
  significantly MORE complications

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THE NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN SCHOOL OF EVOLUTIONISTS

• Evolutionary science is under political attack
  from populist creationism
• NOMA- agree that science is completely
  non-threatening, because it is disconnected from
  religions claims
• Aids in understanding publishes statements of
  scientists on religious matters

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LITTLE GREEN MEN

• Life in outer space, Jocelyn Bell Burnell
• Rational stance is agnosticism, but can talk
  about probability based on incomplete evidence.
• SETI-
• search for
• extraterrestrial
• intelligence

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THOMAS AQUINAS PROOFS

• 1 The Unmoved Mover. Nothing moves without a
  prior mover. This leads us to a regress, from
  which the only escape is God. Something had to
  make the first move, and that something we call
  God.
• 2 The Uncaused Cause. Nothing is caused by
  itself. Every effect has a prior cause, and again
  we are pushed back into regress. This has to be
  terminated by a first cause, which we call God.
• 3 The Cosmological Argument. There must have been
  a time when no physical things existed. But,
  since physical things exist now, there must have
  been something non-physical to bring them into
  existence, and that something we call God.

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THOMAS AQUINAS PROOFS

• 4. The Argument from Degree. We notice that
  things in the world differ. There are degrees of,
  say, goodness or perfection. But we judge these
  degrees only by comparison with a maximum. Humans
  can be both good and bad, so the maximum goodness
  cannot rest in us. Therefore there must be some
  other maximum to set the standard for perfection,
  and we call that maximum God.
• 5 The Teleological Argument, or Argument from
  Design. Things in the world, especially living
  things, look as though they have been designed.
  Nothing that we know looks designed unless it is
  designed. Therefore there must have been a
  designer, and we call him God. Aquinas himself
  used the analogy of an arrow moving towards a
  target, but a modern heat-seeking anti-aircraft
  missile would have suited his purpose better.

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THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT AND OTHER A PRIORI
ARGUMENTS

• Ontological argument proposed by St. Anselm, 1078
• A being that doesnt exist in the real world, is
  by the very fact, less than perfect.
• A word game
• Mathematical proofs
• (a bn)/n x, therefore God exists.

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OTHER A PRIORI ARGUMENTS

• Proof Number
• 36 Argument from Incomplete Devastation A plane
  crashed killing 143 passengers and crew. But one
  child survived with only third-degree burns.
  Therefore God exists.
• 37 Argument from Possible Worlds If things had
  been different, then things would be different.
  That would be bad. Therefore God exists.
• 39 Argument from Non-belief The majority of the
  world's population are non-believers in
  Christianity. This is just what Satan intended.
  Therefore God exists.
• 40 Argument from Post-Death Experience Person X
  died an atheist. He now realizes his mistake.
  Therefore God exists.

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THE ARGUMENT FROM BEAUTY

• Shakespeare, Michelangelo, music etc
• Link between existence of great art to existence
  of God
• Assumed to be Self-evident

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THE ARGUMENT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

• Convincing to those who have had one,
  unconvincing to an audience
• George W. Bush says that God told him to invade
  Iraq
• Sam Harris, The End of Faith

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THE ARGUMENT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

• Our brain plays tricks on us Optical illusions
• Creation of images or visions based on
  imagination and misinterpretation of stimuli
• Sept, 11, 2001 Twin Towers face of Satin in the
  smoke

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THE ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE

• Bible is not reliable historical evidence
• Discrepancies
• Where Jesus was born
• Christmas story
• Book of Luke is historically impossible and
  internally incoherent -Lane Fox
• New Testament
• Four gospels made it into the official canon,
  others did not

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THE ARGUMENT FROM ADMIRED RELIGIOUS SCIENTISTS

• Darwin
• False rumours about his deathbed conversion
  confession
• Newton
• Claimed to be religious because of social and
  judicial pressure
• Mendel
• Augustinian monk in order to pursue his science
  (research grant)

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PASCALS WAGER

• Insurance of God
• Penalty for guessing wrong
• Argument for feigning belief in God

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BAYESIAN ARGUMENTS

• Bayes Theorem, (six facts)
• Mathematical engine for combing many estimated
  likelihoods and coming up with a final estimate
  of whether God exists
• Start with 50 starting point
• Ends up with a 67 likelihood of existing but
  boosts this to 95 because of faith

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THE ULTIMATE BOEING 747

• Fed Hoyle
• Probability of life originating on Earth is no
  greater than the chance that a hurricane,
  sweeping through a scrap yard, would have the
  luck to assemble a Boeing 747.

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NATURAL SELECTION AS A CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISER

• Similar to feminism
• Power of science to explain how organized
  complexity can emerge from simple beginnings
  without guidance
• Counters the idea that it takes a big fancy thing
  to create a lesser thing trickle-down theory of
  creation

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IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY

• A functioning unit is said to be irreducibly
  complex if the removal of one of its parts causes
  the whole to cease functioning
• Eyes, wings.
• Natural selection is a cumulative process, which
  breaks the problem of improbability into small
  pieces accumulation

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THE WORSHIP OF GAPS

• If gap is found, it is assumed that God, by
  default, must fill it.
• Fossil records
• If none to document evolutionary transitions,
  assumption is that there is none, God intervened.

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THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE PLANETARY VERSION

• Named by mathematician Brandon Carter in 1974
• The origin of life had to happen only once.
• Extremely improbable event
• We exist here on Earth. Therefore, Earth must be
  the kind of planet that is capable of generating
  and supporting us.

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THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE PLANETARY VERSION

• Even if origin of life was so improbable as to
  occur on only one in a billion planets, life
  still will have arisen on a billion planets

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The Anthropic Principle cosmological version

• We live not only on a friendly planet but also
  in a friendly universe. - Dawkins
• If chemistry and physics had occurred in just
  slightly different ways then life would not have
  been possible
• The Goldilocks value 0.007
• Theist Explanation Anthropic Answer

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The Anthropic Principle cosmological version

• Multiverse Theory is extravagant but simple.
• God or any intelligent design would have to be
  highly complex like the entities it is supposed
  to explain.
• Natural Selection

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An Interlude at Cambridge

• You are so nineteenth century
• Science Religion
• 6 Main Arguments

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Chapter 5 The Roots of Religion
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The Darwinian Imperative

• Natural Selection of Religion
• Benefits of Religion?
• Not restricted to genes of individual organism
• 3 alternative targets of benefits
• Group Selection
• Manipulative Influence of Genes in another
  Individual (parasite)
• Central Theorem
• Benefit of the Meme!

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The Darwinian Imperative

• how can we be so smart and dumb
  simultaneously - Dawkins
• Aboriginals of Papua New Guinea
• Religion Heterosexuals

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Direct Advantages of Religion

• Faith-healing
• Placebo Effects
• Why would a mind evolve to find comfort in
  beliefs it can plainly see is false
• A freezing person finds no comfort in believing
  he is warm.

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Group Selection

• Proximate cause of religion hyperactivity in a
  particular node of brain
• Ultimate Explanation Group Selection Theories
• Tribe Wars

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Religion as a By-Product of Something Else

• Dawkins Belief
• Moths committing suicide ?!
• Children obeying parents/guardians without
  question
• Passing on Good Advice Bad

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Psychologically Primed for Religion

• Paul Bloom dualistic theory of mind
• Humans and especially children are natural born
  Dualists
• Freaky Friday Movie
• Children are also native Teleologists
• Dawkins is a Monist

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Psychologically Primed for Religion

• Darwinian Advantage?
• Physical Stance
• Design Stance
• Intentional Stance
• By-product of Falling in Love
• Only to supposed to love 1 person
• Polyamory
• The Bachelor

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Tread Softly, Because you Tread on my Memes

• Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the
  opinion that has survived
• oscar wilde
• Knitting, Carpentry, Pottery can all be reduced
  to discrete elements that can be potentially
  passed down an infinite number of generations
  without alteration
• Absolute Merit
• Memeplex
• Unconscious Evolution

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Cargo Cults

• Real life example
• The Cult of John Frum
• If you can wait two thousand
• years for Jesus Christ to come
• an e no come, then I can
• wait more than nineteen
• years for John. - Sam

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Chapter 6 The Roots of Morality Why are we Good?
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Does our Moral Sense have a Darwinian Origin?

• The unit of Natural Selection The Selfish Gene
• Genes influence organisms to behave
  altruistically
• Genetic Kinship
• Reciprocal Altruism
• Bees Flowers
• Reputation
• Buying Unfakeably Authentic Advertising

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Case Study in the Roots of Morality

• We do not need GOD in order to be good or evil
• Most people come to the same decisions when faced
  with dilemmas and their agreement over the
  decisions themselves is stronger than their
  ability to articulate their reasons

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Chapter 7 The Good Book The Changing Moral
Zeitgeist
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The Old Testament

• The Bible is Weird
• Noahs Ark
• Asian Holy Men Tsunami caused by Human Sins
• We do not derive our morals from scripture or we
  pick and choose among the scriptures for the nice
  bits and reject the nasty - Dawkins

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Is the New Testament Any Better?

• Adds a new injustice infliction of pain
• and suffering
• Wearing a Cross
• Underlying unpalatable aspect of its ethical
  teaching

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Love Thy Neighbor

• In-group loyalty and out-group hostility
• Religion amplifies and exacerbates tendencies
• Labelling of children
• More in chapter 9
• Segregated schools
• Northern Ireland
• Taboos against marrying out
• Perpetuates hereditary feuds

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Love Thy Neighbor

• Even if religion did no other harm in itself,
  its wanton and carefully nurtured divisiveness
  its delibrate and cultivated pandering to
  humanitys natural tendency to favor in-groups
  and shun out-groups - would be enough to make it
  a significant force for evil in the world

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The moral Zeitgeist

• Changing Moral Zeitgeist
• Abrahams sacrifice
• Slavery and racism
• the manifest phenomenon of Zeitgeist
  progression is more than enough to undermine the
  claim that we need God in order to be good, or to
  decide what is good

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

• What matters is not whether Hitler and Stalin
  were atheists, but whether atheism systematically
  influences people to do bad things.
• Individual atheists may do evil things but they
  dont do evil things in the name of atheism.

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Chapter 8 Whats wrong with religion? Why be so
hostile?
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Fundamentalism and the subversion of science

• Truth in holy books
• Contradictory evidence must be thrown out
• I am no more fundamentalist when I say evolution
  is true than when I say it is true that New
  Zealand is in the southern hemisphere.

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The dark side of absolutism

• Muslim world and the American Theocracy
• Absolutism nearly always results from strong
  religious faith
• Reason to suggest that faith lends to evil
• Penalties for blasphemy
• For converting to Christianity (2006)

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Faith and homosexuality

• Under tailban the penalty for homosexuality was
  execution
• Private
• Harms no one else
• Alan Turing
• German enigma codes
• Offered a choice between 2 years in prison or
  chemical castration (1954)

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Faith and the sanctity of human life

• The death penalty
• George Bush
• Euthanasia
• Abortion
• Does the embryo suffer?
• Violence of religious opposition

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The Great Beethoven Fallacy

• If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8
  kids already, three of whom were deaf, two who
  were blind, one mentally retarded (all because
  she had syphilis), would you recommend that she
  have an aborton?
• The human potential argument
• Fail to seize the oportunity for sexual
  intercourse

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How 'moderation' in faith fosters fanaticism

• Only religious faith is a strong enough force to
  motivate such utter madness in otherwise sane and
  decent people.
• War against terror
• No different than killing doctors who perform
  abortions
• If religious faith must be respected then we must
  respect suicide-bombers

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Chapter 9 Childhood, abuse and the escape from
religion
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Childhood, abuse and the escape from religion

• The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
• Child was secretly baptized
• Abducted under papal law
• One true faith
• Faith vs good of the child

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Physical and mental abuse

• Being fondled by the priest simply left the
  impression (from the mind of a 7 year old) as
  yucky while the memory of my friend going to
  hell was on of cold, immeasurable fear.
• Hell Houses

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In defense of children

• Nicholas Humphrey
• Children, Ill argue, have a human right not to
  have their minds crippled by exposure to other
  peoples bad ideas no matter who these other
  people are.
• What to think, not how to think
• Worshiping the sun
• Female circumcision
• No adult woman who has somehow missed out on
  circumcision as a child volunteers for the
  operation later in life

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An educational scandal

• Funding for creationism
• Emmanuel College
• Stephen Layfield head of science
• the bible can provide us with a true acount of
  earth history
• An attempt to subvert evidence-based science
  education and replace it with biblical
  scripture.

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Consciousness-raising again

• Labeling of children
• Feminism
• Origin of cosmos, life and morals
• Holy Cross Girls

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Religious education as a part of literary culture

• Biblical literacy is essential for the
  appreciation of English literature
• Greek and roman gods
• Weddings and funerals

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Chapter 10 A much needed gap?
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Chapter 10 A much needed gap?

• A god-shaped gap in the brain?
• Or could we fill the gap with something else?
• Four main roles of religion in human life
• Explanation (science)
• Exhortation (moral instruction)
• Consolation
• Inspiration

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Binker

• A. A. Milne
• Imaginary friend phenomenon
• Binker for life
• Pedomorphosis
• Retention of childhood characteristics
• Gradual delay of binker termination

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Consolation

• Emotional need for God
• Direct physical consolation
• St. Bernard
• Consolation by discovery of a previously
  unappreciated fact or a previously undiscovered
  way of looking at existing facts
• Death of a war hero
• Happy for those who are terminally ill

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Inspiration

• Rhetoric rather than logic
• Lucky to be alive
• The atheist view is correspondingly
  life-affirming and life enhancing, while at the
  same time never being tainted with self-delusion,
  wishful thinking, or the whingeing self-pity of
  those who feel that life owes them something.

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The mother of all burkas

• Science widens the window
• Visible spectrum
• Middle world
• Environment of savannah programmed and debugged
  software
• where the very improbable could safely be
  treated as impossible.
• Queerer than we can suppose
• A model of the real world
• Assist survival

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The mother of all burkas