Dawkins gets examined - and found wanting

At last! Someone with the brass in their sporen if you'll excuse the crassness, to challenge Dawkins on his own territory - intellectual thinking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1681002,00.html

Before anyone cries foul, no this is not a religious or Christian article. You may notice it's from the Guardian, which is anything but a religious rag itself.

I was so pleased with this article's honesty, firm nature and free-thinking, that I wrote this to the author of the piece:

Dear Madeleine,

Can I just thank you for not being afraid to stand up and write something critical (science = knowledge and knowledge comes through critical awareness and thinking, right?) of Richard Dawkins' work of late. I appreciate your thoughtful, firm and ethical piece in which you wrote fairly and with a mind of critical thought – not dogma for any particular mindset. After all, one of the great faiths of the world and the most followed, Christianity, has it said in the Bible it holds to, to ‘Test all things’. Something Dawkins repeatedly denies Christians believe in or practice, and something which may I be so bold as to assert that quite clearly, he does not practice himself in certain areas, despite being an obviously highly intelligent man.

In exposing his dogmatic hatred for religion and especially Christianity in the UK and USA (where it is seeing the most problems, unlike in Asia, Africa and South America where it is exploding), you have placed the ball firmly in his court for once. So few ever do this because he is seen as an ‘intellectual giant’. I would like to see him step up and prove some of his own assertions through science, thinking and evidence rather than statements such as calling Christians who believe in evolution ‘Useful idiots’ (I believe that is one of his).

Again, thank you for your good article. Let’s have more challenges to the status quo whether it be religious, atheistic or anything in the middle! The Bible apparently isn’t afraid of cross-examination; let’s see Dawkins join that level of commitment to intellectual honesty!

If you liked (or didn't like) the article for whatever reason, feel free to write to the author at m.bunting@guardian.co.uk