"There is never a duel with the truth."

Darrow and Bryan in court during the Scopes Trial 1925.

"The least that this generation can do...is to give the next generation all the facts, all the available data, all the theories, all the information that learning, that study, that observation has produced—give it to the children in the hope of heaven that they will make a better world of this than we have been able to make it. ......For God’s sake let the children have their minds kept open—close no doors to their knowledge; shut no door from them." (DF Malone, Scopes trial, 1925)
No duel today either but words aren't the problem in this debate according to Richard Dawkins whose book I'm about to finish.

The God Delusion was recommended to me last year by my best mate through high school and bio degrees at Waikato. Churches aren't my favourite place. In the last two years I went with him to his dad's funeral and was a pall bearer for my father in law. Both were great kiwi's and staunch Catholic's, Dutch and Irish versions.

Anyway despite the baggage some of us carry, and the risks Dawkins takes, this is a must read and ought to be talked through. I must have been asleep to have missed it when first released because it is great. Humerous, riddled with philosophy, history, facts, current references and analysis of God, religion and truth.

A couple of quotes to give you an idea of the tone - imagine reading these in a cosy room with the two gents refered to above (or their daughters), along with George, and Osama:

"...reminds us that the common cold is universal to all human peoples in much the same way as religion is, yet we would not want to suggest that colds benefit us."

"Hunter-gatherer peoples such as Australian aboriginal tribes .....are superb survivors under conditions that test their practical skills to the uttermost.....The very same peoples ...simulataneously clutter their minds with beliefs that are palpably false and for which the word 'useless' is a generous understatement."

"There are two ways in which scripture might be a source of morals or rules for living. One is by direct instruction...the other is by example...Both scriptural routes, if followed religiously ...encourage a system of morals which any civilised modern person, whether religious or not, would find - I can put it no more gently - obnoxious. To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird....."

"I know, yes, of course, times have changed, and no religious leader today (apart from the likes of the Taliban or the American Christian equivalent) thinks like Moses."

"And the Bible story of Joshua's destruction of Jericho, and the invasion of the Promised Land in general, is morally indistinguishable from Hitler's invasion of Poland, or Saddam Hussain's massacres of the Kurds or Marsh Arabs."

"So, in order to impress himself, Jesus had himself tortured and executed, in vicarious punishment for a symbolic sin committed by a non-existent individual? As I said, barking mad, as well as viciously unpleasant."

"Purgatory is not to be confused with Limbo, where babies who died unbaptised were supposed to go. And aborted foetuses? ...Now, with characteristically presumptuous aplomb, Pope Benedict XVI has just abolished Limbo. Does this mean that all babies who have been languishing there all these centuries will now suddenly float off to heaven? Or do they stay there and only the newly dead escape Limbo? Or have earlier popes been wrong all along, in spite of their infallibility? This is the kind of thing we are all supposed to 'respect'."

Not to mention Islam, the mutual exclusiveness or gender issues - which he does. You very rarely hear this stuff discussed by politicians or anyone!
I note RD goes out of his way to be as relatively inoffensive as he can manage in this radio discussion on whether athiests should sing Christmas Carols.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.