Comments on: On being dim-witted

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:14:53 +0000

I don’t see much of the latter in the blog, in fact. But it’s a tricky one to negotiate, because alongside the desire to “show something better” (which is clearly a good & constructive thing to do in a theological context) & the desire to “beat the other guy” (which is less so), one has to set the academic’s commitment – which Dawkins would presumably splutter if I told him was also a basic Christian commitment – to defend the truth as far as one can, from the big meaning-of-everything picture down to the irritating little facts that somebody didn’t bother to check…

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:47:28 +0000

Quite. And I am aware that the God Delusion part of this blog teeters between an unanxious willingness to think in response to Dawkins (to, as it were, delight in showing what I take to be something better than Dawkins), and an anxious desire to 'put his arguments down' (to fixate on demonstrating that Dawkins is worse). When the latter becomes the dominant note (as it has from time to time), this starts feeling like a deeply unhealthy project to have started.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:19:04 +0000

Bravo. Fine post. Incidentally, for myself, I sometimes wonder whether one of the marks of my non-sophistication (in the sense of lack of genuine Christian sophia) is the extent to which I let Dawkins & people who share his approach get to me/ put me on the defensive. If I fully inhabited that which I profess, would I be so worried about people who didn’t like it? I would presumably be happier to listen to them (might even have read the book by now), but might not have so much invested in being able to put their arguments down.