Where to start with Prof Dawkins’ latest observations about religion and fundamentalism? In response to questions from an audience in Edinburgh where he was promoting his autobiography this week he observed that ‘nice’ religious people give credence to suicide bombers. It’s remarkable, really, that after a good eight years of debate and dialogue with people like Rowan Williams and Jonathan Sacks — viz, perfectly rational believers — he can still say the following:
‘…there is a sense in which the moderate, nice religious people – nice Christians, nice Muslims – make the world safe for extremists.
‘Because the moderates are so nice we all are brought up with the idea that there’s something good about religious faith. That there’s something good about bringing children up to have a faith.
‘Which means to believe something without evidence and without the need for justifying it.
‘They’re entitled simply to say “oh that’s my faith, I believe it, you’re not allowed to question it and you’re not allowed to ask me why I hold it”.
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