I think that’s the correct title of Dawkins latest offerring. By coincidence, given the previous blog, he was on Start the Week this morning with Andrew Marr on BBC Radio 4. Another member of the panel said he could not believe that there were enough “creationists” left in the world for Dawkins to feel the need to spell it all out again – we all believe you already. Surely the whole world understands the Blind Watchmaker. Apparently not says Dawkins – then proceeded to rattle off a litany of US statistics – followed by a debate that kept returning to fears about misguided US power, and mis-guided world-views – becoming very political very quickly and hitting on the main news item of the day – the split between Europe and US over Iraq, and several doomsday scenarios around the beginning of the end of NATO and UN no less. Terrifying.
(Notice also that next week Daniel Dennett is one of the guests, and that this week’s guest, Janet Radcliffe-Richards, is taking part in a British Academy debate entitled Does Philosophy Matter? on Tuesday 18 February.)
There is definitely something happening here. There is too much clamour for the need to re-think simple “rational” values we take for granted, and to question underlying philosophies and science – before it’s too late.