Gould and God Appearing) Is Deflated in Two Deft Sentences: Ra, They Are Actually Atheists
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spring books and arts we may find a cheap-to-implement accord, (such as homoeopathy, acceptable to the United States, the European crystal worship and Union and poorer nations, that actually postmodernism). Clearly, tackles radiative warming now, within a Dawkins sees his brief few decades. as not only popularizing Noah’s rainbow was a covenant for all science, but demolishing living species, not just humanity. Humanity’s its competitors. emissions now wilfully block the infrared Dawkins’ other major part of that promise. If our nations corrupt bugbear — and the main the rainbow, is it time to search out supplies non-divine theme of A of gopher wood and start collecting eukary- Devil’s Chaplain — is the otes two-by-two, trying to keep our genetic late Stephen Jay Gould. company afloat while the greedy world goes Dawkins offers here a into liquidation? In the meantime, Snowball gracious tribute to Gould, Earth makes good spring reading. And when but also turns his incisive you are done, pass it on to any handy analytical mind and lucid teenager, who will be enthralled, if not by prose against Gould’s ideas the science, then by the storytelling. I with devastating effect. Euan Nisbet is in the Atmospheric Group, For example, Gould’s Department of Geology, Royal Holloway, notion that the evolution- University of London, Egham, ary processes that shaped Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. the early history of life (with new phyla being produced) differ qualita- tively from the processes that direct more Baal and the Golden Calf, Thor and Wotan, recent evolution (with only lower-level taxa Poseidon and Apollo, Mithras and Ammon Gould and God appearing) is deflated in two deft sentences: Ra, they are actually atheists. We are all athe- A Devil’s Chaplain “It is though a gardener looked at an ists about most of the gods that humanity by Richard Dawkins, old oak tree and remarked wonderingly: has ever believed in. Some of us just go one edited by Latha Menon ‘Isn’t it strange that no major boughs have god further.” But Dawkins goes beyond a Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 2003. 320 pp. appeared on this tree recently. These days, mere defence of atheism. He also subscribes £16.99 all the new growth appears to be at the to the American writer H. L. Mencken’s Jerry A. Coyne twig level!’.” dictum that: “We must respect the other In fact, the critiques of Gould and God fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to The original ‘Devil’s chaplain’ was Robert are not as unrelated as they appear. As this the extent that we respect his theory that his Taylor, an apostate priest and self-styled collection makes clear, Dawkins is a fierce wife is beautiful and his children smart.” ‘infidel missionary’ whose rabble-rousing advocate of scientism, the philosophy that Why, asks Dawkins, should the public give entourage stormed into Cambridge in 1829 genuine truths — as opposed to spiritual or religious arguments any more credibility — halfway through Charles Darwin’s under- personal ‘truths’ that are not universally held than arguments for other brands of non- graduate career. Taylor’s brew of atheism — can be found only through the scientific scientific ‘truth’? Curiously, Dawkins does and republicanism held no allure for young method. Gould was not as strict: he was an not explore why religious ideas get undue Darwin, then a conventional Christian accommodationist,insisting in works such as respect. Surely one reason is that arguing thoroughly steeped in the hierarchical values Rocks of Ages that both religion and science about religion (especially when one partici- of nineteenth-century Britain. But Darwin are independent and valid domains of pant is an atheist) is unproductive, likely to never forgot Taylor’s nickname. In 1856, enquiry. Dawkins, then, is both scientifically produce only mutual dislike. No rapproche- pondering the brutal inefficiency of natural and philosophically opposed to Gould. ment is possible between those whose beliefs selection, Darwin wrote to his friend Joseph Several books have been written about the derive from evidence and those whose beliefs Hooker: “What a book a devil’s chaplain scientific arguments between Gould and either do not depend on evidence or are might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blun- Dawkins, but Dawkins aficionados outside unshaken by contrary evidence. This is why dering, low and horribly cruel works of Britain have had little exposure to his wither- science and religion are incompatible ways of nature!” Although creationists constantly ing assaults on religion, pseudoscience and viewing the world. remind us that On the Origin of Species is a accommodationism. It’s a rare treat to see Dawkins’ critique of religion rests on satanic work, Darwin never aspired to suc- him sail into battle, prose and logic perfectly three points. First, because different faiths ceed Taylor: he was too shy of controversy, attuned to the destructive business at hand. make very different claims about the world, too worried about the happiness of his I should add that A Devil’s Chaplain is not they cannot all be true; and none of the devout wife. wholly focused on religion and Gould: claims (such as the bodily assumption of Richard Dawkins, however, is more than it also includes obituaries of friends, and Mary into heaven) can be scientifically happy to step into Taylor’s shoes. Religion, essays on ethics, genetic determinism, Africa verified. Second, the choice among faiths is writes Dawkins, is a “malignant infection” of (Dawkins spent much of his childhood in not based on rational consideration: the the human mind. Six of the 32 essays in this Kenya) and meme theory (the collection’s vast majority of people simply practice the eclectic collection (culled largely from the only low point, given my view that ‘mimetics’ religion of their parents. This is especially British press) address religion either directly is an extended tautology that has yielded galling to Dawkins, who sees the easy or indirectly, a surprising statistic for a sci- no real understanding of human culture). indoctrination of children as a product of ence writer whose chair at Oxford University But it’s in religious territory that A Devil’s natural selection favouring the rapid spread is dedicated to the public understanding of Chaplain is most compelling. of information between generations. Finally, science. However, another six essays attack “Modern theists,” writes Dawkins, Dawkins considers religions to be vehicles further impassable routes to knowledge “might acknowledge that, when it comes to of evil because they facilitate the labelling NATURE | VOL 422 | 24 APRIL 2003 | www.nature.com/nature © 2003 Nature Publishing Group 813 spring books and arts of people as either ‘us’ or ‘them’, fostering boy and boy, and man and man, are steady scratch below the surface, you find a socio- xenophobia and its attendant horrors — application and moral effort. It is in the biologist who marginalizes the importance Northern Ireland and the Middle East come most unqualified manner that I object to of culture, or a social constructivist who to mind. pretensions of natural equality.” hates the very idea of sociobiology, and they These views are summarized in a wonder- The other extreme has also attracted its end up painting caricatures of each other. fully passionate essay, “Time To Stand Up”, own inflexible adherents, most notably True integrative thinking is in the very written shortly after 11 September, 2001. One members of the ‘behaviourist’ school found- early stages.” excerpt: “To label people as death-deserving ed by J. B. Watson, whom Ridley quotes: Nature via Nurture is a book-length enemies because of disagreements about “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well- exercise in ‘integrative thinking’: science real-world politics is bad enough. To do the formed, and my own specified world to writer Matt Ridley has produced a paean same for disagreements about a delusional bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take to interaction that will do much to erode world inhabited by archangels, demons, and any one at random and train him to become the mutually exclusive view of nature and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.” any type of specialist I might select: doctor, nurture. Would that there were an afterlife, so lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and yes, even Interaction is best exemplified in a simple that Robert Taylor could smile upon his beggar-man and thief, regardless of his idea that typically makes an appearance far more effective heir! As Taylor and his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, somewhere near the beginning of a genetics fellow freethinkers knew, atheism in early vocations, and race of his ancestors.” textbook and is then ignored throughout nineteenth-century Britain was blasphemy This polarization remains with us to this the rest of the book: the outcome produced and thus illegal: Taylor was twice jailed for day: the debate is typically couched in terms by a gene may depend upon the context in his activities. Thankfully, such strictures of nature versus nurture, implying that which the gene is expressed. Citing new work are now much rarer, but a subtler form of these factors are mutually exclusive. The by Darlene Francis at Emory University in repression prevails in places such as the issue is clouded by the difficulty of bringing Atlanta, Ridley provides an extraordinary United States. Scientist–atheists, bowing to conclusive evidence to bear. Experiments and elegant example. C57 and BALB strains prevalent notions of politically correct social on humans are impracticable or unethical, of mice differ discretely in some aspects of inclusiveness, are unwilling to express their although the Moghul emperor Akbar, unfet- adult behaviour. But C57 embryos trans- opinions for fear of offending religious tered by regulations on the use of human planted to BALB uteri and raised by BALB sensibilities.