THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
Richard Dawkins
Bantam Press, $45, pbk
It seems ineluctable that theism preceded atheism and for eminent scientist Richard Dawkins, it is also a little-known fact of his own life that seems to cause him considerable angst.
Dawkins, who in 2006 famously told a conference at the Salk Institute: "I am utterly fed up with the respect we have been brainwashed into bestowing upon religion", was two years earlier the joint author of an article which proclaimed evolution is one of the greatest of God's works.
Was he a brainwashed theist before evolving into an outraged atheist? In his latest book, Dawkins says the deistic reference was not his but the fact it appeared over his name seems to rankle and that comes through in a number of derogatory references to followers of Christianity.
"Educated clergy" - the same sort of slur is repeated when Dawkins refers to "reputable biologists" - are credited with accepting the fact of evolution but their (presumably uneducated) congregations are pilloried for entertaining doubts.
Hence this book, marking the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, who wrote On the Origin of the Species.
In the course of nearly 500 pages, Dawkins furiously rejects any suggestion that evolution is a theory, because any hint of theory would allow room for religious doubters.
He then sets out to demonstrate that evolution is an inescapable fact, and does it in entertaining fashion, bringing together many discoveries which, since Darwin's day, have added flesh to the bones of evolution.
The fatal flaw in this work is its anthropocentrism.
It transmutes evolution into a hierarchical pyramid with man - the choice of the gender-specific noun is intentional - at the top and everything subservient to him.
This lack of understanding of the essential One-ness of Creation is precisely what has got us into the ecological mess we face today.
As a member of the "educated clergy" who has no trouble accepting that God is central to the creation of the universe (albeit several billion years ago, rather than just the other day), I find it sad that Dawkins is not satisfied with sticking to what he does well - drawing together the fruits of many branches of science - but has to ladle scorn over the beliefs of others.
For "reputable Christians", to mirror Dawkins' euphemistic slights, his fault is merely proof of another biblical tenet: all humankind is flawed.
- Geoffrey Vine is a Dunedin journalist and Presbyterian minister.
