Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Alister McGrath imagines Richard Dawkins and C.S. Lewis in conversation

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

It couldn’t actually have happened because Christian apologist C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) died in 1963. But as an idea…

Regarding faith and reason, McGrath does an excellent job showing how many of Dawkins’ arguments for atheism can easily be turned on their head to prove the opposite and that this actually tells the reader something about the meaning of life. For instance, Dawkins claims that belief in God is often a wish-fulfillment – the idea that a person wants there to be a God and so they create one to feel better. But as McGrath points out, while this may be the case in some instances, an atheist could just as easily wish there to be no God and then says there is no God in order to feel better about their current situation.

As the reader quickly realizes, Dawkins often makes blunders in argument. For instance, he suggests that because something cannot be scientifically proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, it must be false. But one cannot prove Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in a purely scientific manner. There is no experiment that could prove such a thing. Subsequently, Dr. McGrath points out flaws in his thinking and worldview which leads to his views on the meaning of life. Conversely, Dr. McGrath also considers the development of Lewis’ views on God and how he argued that meaning ultimately came from that God.

Nathan Muse, “Book Review: Richard Dawkins, C. S. Lewis and the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath” at Apologetics 315

It would not be possible to prove you are reading this if you don’t believe in the reality of the universe, your experience, or your mind. One must always have ground level assumptions.

Comments

Leave a Reply