The Creation Story of Atheism

A revealing quote by Richard Dawkins on the intellectual firepower of Darwinism...

"An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: 'I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.' -- Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, page 6

I think Dawkins is essentially correct...The power of Darwinism rests in its ability to provide a "rational" explanation for a God-less universe...in that sense, Darwinism becomes the intellectual foundation of atheism...indeed, one would be tempted to say that Darwinism is the "creation story" of atheism...and in that case, if other people were to point out the flaws in that "creation story," then it's easy to understand why the atheists react so poorly to them.

While a true scientist would "go wherever the facts take them," a man who starts off as an atheist (for whatever reason) and has an emotional investment in the "truth" of atheism doesn't have any interest in facts, per se...his interest relies on protecting and advocating atheism...and indeed, that's the situation where we find ourselves today...we have prominent atheists (like Dawkins) who use the cloak of science to push Darwinist propaganda...not because Darwinism is "true," but because it enables one to be an "intellectually fulfilled atheist."

-Todd