werld.NET

A pretty meager rebuttal of Dawkins's the God Delusion weighing in at under 100 pages and most of that rhetorical filler and double-talk. McGrath's primary purpose seems to be to hold the mere possibility of God's existence open to debate. That there are things that science has yet to fully understand is certainly not contentious. The likelihood of that gap in human knowledge all of a sudden necessitating a Supreme Intelligent Creator, however, is improbable to say the least. McGrath, however, leads us to believe that the odds are about even.

Throughout the book McGrath chips away at random inconsistencies that he detects in Dawkins's work which in no way furthers his own agenda. For example, he makes, I think, a valid criticism of Dawkins's claim that suicide bombers are primarily moved to murder on the basis of their religious faith. McGrath notes that suicide bombings are the result of political and economic problems, not religious ones. This observation, however, certainly isn't evidence that the religious beliefs of suicide bombers are thereby true. There is absolutely no evidence advanced in this book that supports McGrath's Christian faith or any other religious position.

Truth claims like 'not as many scientists are atheists as Dawkins says' (I frankly doubt McGrath's claim that 40% of scientists believe in a God that answers prayers) or 'religious belief is not as inherently violent as Dawkins says' or 'religion is no more divisive than race or gender' are not evidence of God's existence. However, I doubt that most of the people that pick up these hundred pages are going to be too concerned about that.