Apostrophe S

In “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins does not merely present arguments against the existence of god, he also provides evidence that humans have no need of one. In addition, he spends several chapters analyzing why humans are religious at all from a Darwinian standpoint. These chapters will probably have the most lasting impact on me.

In one of my favorite passages, Dawkins supposes that religion is the by-product of another function that is useful from a Darwinian standpoint. He compares us to moths who fly into open flames, street lamps and bug zappers. A moth’s built-in navigation system is based on the only real lights available up until the recent evolutionary past; the moon and the sun. The moth’s internal system tells it to fly in a straight line while keeping the moon (or sun) at a certain angle. Since the moon and sun are at optical infinity (meaning they pretty much stay put in the moth’s field of vision), this works very well. However, when the moth uses an artificial source of light, such as an open flame or bug zapper, which are not at optical infinity, they pretty much spiral into the light source while obeying a navigation system that has otherwise served them well.

The connection in humans is that we are born with almost no knowledge on how to survive in our world. We depend on our parents (and other elders) to teach us how to survive. As a result, we are born very gullible. We instinctively believe what our parents tell us, because 9 times out of ten, what they are giving us is good advice. However, our young brains are not usually capable of deciding that the “don’t touch the red-hot stove coil” messages are important, while the “sacrifice one goat every six months to guarantee a good harvest” messages are rubbish. In this way, religions pass down from generation to generation, sometimes mutating.

Dawkins stresses several times throughout the book his displeasure when he hears a child labeled a “Catholic child” or a “Jewish child.” He argues, convincingly, that indoctrinating gullible children with a religion — especially one that relies so heavily on personal guilt for so-called “sins” — is tantamount to child abuse. Let children decide if they want to be religious when they are mature enough to weigh the evidence and the understand the facts.

It’s hard to say exactly when I became an atheist. Probably some time in high school. But I continued pretending and playing the part even into college, when I stopped being religious.

There was a time in my life when I professed to be a strong Christian. I even attended a Baptist academy for two years. (Ironically, that probably marked the beginning of the end of my religiosity, but that’s for another entry.) Eventually, though, my lifelong appreciation for science and evidence led me to subscribe to the theory that it is highly improbable that there is a god. And while Dawkins did not convince me of anything I didn’t already know, it was refreshing to read a book written by someone is much better at mounting an argument than I am.

If you’re religious and you’ve ever had an ounce of doubt in your faith, I encourage you to read this book. If you’re an atheist like me, I also encourage you to read this book because it is life-assuring. If you’re religious and have never had an ounce of doubt, then this book will probably just piss you off.

In any case, just read books. They’re good for you.

This entry is part of the Open Books project I’m doing.