timeimmortal

was noted for having published a number of papers, starting (if memory serves) in about the 1950s, advancing an atheistic philosophy based on his studies in biology. Then, in the early years of this century, he changed his mind, and ‘converted’ to deism. In November of 2007, he released a book entitled There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, detailing the process of his conversion and the reasoning behind it.

And now, Professor Flew has taken Richard Dawkins to task with a scathing review of The God Delusion.

The God Delusion by the atheist writer Richard Dawkins, is remarkable in the first place for having achieved some sort of record by selling over a million copies. But what is much more remarkable than that economic achievement is that the contents – or rather lack of contents – of this book show Dawkins himself to have become what he and his fellow secularists typically believe to be an impossibility: namely, a secularist bigot. (Helpfully, my copy of The Oxford Dictionary defines a bigot as ‘an obstinate or intolerant adherent of a point of view’).

The fault of Dawkins as an academic (which he still was during the period in which he composed this book although he has since announced his intention to retire) was his scandalous and apparently deliberate refusal to present the doctrine which he appears to think he has refuted in its strongest form.

…an academic attacking some ideological position which s/he believes to be mistaken must of course attack that position in its strongest form. This Dawkins does not do in the case of Einstein and his failure is the crucial index of his insincerity of academic purpose and therefore warrants me in charging him with having become, what he has probably believed to be an impossibility, a secularist bigot.

…

On page 82 of The God Delusion is a remarkable note. It reads ‘We might be seeing something similar today in the over-publicised tergiversation of the philosopher Antony Flew, who announced in his old age that he had been converted to belief in some sort of deity (triggering a frenzy of eager repetition all around the internet).’

What is important about this passage is not what Dawkins is saying about Flew but what he is showing here about Dawkins. For if he had had any interest in the truth of the matter of which he was making so much he would surely have brought himself to write me a letter of enquiry. (When I received a torrent of enquiries after an account of my conversion to Deism had been published in the quarterly of the Royal Institute of Philosophy I managed — I believe — eventually to reply to every letter.)

This whole business makes all too clear that Dawkins is not interested in the truth as such but is primarily concerned to discredit an ideological opponent by any available means.

Not that it should come as any surprise that someone like Dawkins would end up being little more than a dyed-in-the-wool bigot; after a man goes his disciples, of course, and the average Dawkins disciple is not what one might term a paragon of compassion and understanding.

And Flew has it exactly right. Vox Day, in his book The Irrational Atheist, noted as much, pointing out that much of Dawkins’ bestseller is devoted to denigrating opponents more than to actually presenting a coherent philosophy supported by evidence (indeed, Day noted that the evidence itself was rather sorely lacking, in addition to the incoherency of the philosophy being presented). The God Delusion is not a work of science (or philosophy, for that matter) as much as it is a series of one-sided (and two-sided) vendettas finding their expression in print.

Guy links to, and distills, a list of notable Muslim inventions throughout history. What is telling, I think, is that most of the entries on the list all date back several hundred years:

Astrolabes: 9 inventions. The last one in the 12th century. Not 21, but 12!!!

Analog computers: 8 inventions, last one in the 15 century.

Globes: 3 inventions, last one in the 16 century.

Mural Instruments: 7 inventions, the last one is in the 11 or 12 century.

Other instruments: 6 inventions, the last one in the 11 century.

Aviation: 4 inventions, the last one in the 17 century. Two research projects were in the 20th century. Think about that one: of the tens of thousands of aviation research projects during the 20th century, they participated in only two and neither one is particularly notable.

Camera technology: 2 inventions, both many centuries ago.

Chemistry: 10 inventions, all during the 8 and 9 centuries.

Laboratory apparatus: 9 inventions, the last one in the 12th century.

Chemical industries: 21 inventions, the last one in the 9th century.

Industry: 27 inventions, the last one in the 12th century, except for shampoo in the 18th century.

Civil Engineering: 7 inventions, including one in the 16th century and, holy cow, one actually in the 20th century. We got one! Yes! There really IS an Islamic invention in the 20th century. Where’s the champaign?!

Clock technology: 16 inventions, including one in the 16th century and all the rest before the 12 century ended.

Industrial Milling: 14 inventions, all before the end of the 10th century.

Mechanical Technology: 18 inventions, and only one after the 12 century (it was in the 16 century).

Other Mechanical Devices: about 40, all invented centuries ago.

Medicine: 26 inventions, all centuries ago.

Military: 13 inventions, the last in the 16 century.

Navigation: 10 inventions (including such greats like “Mecca-centered map), the last one in the 17th century.

There are about a dozen other inventions listed, all of which are centuries ago.

Islam may be, as Shaukat Khawja (the blogger at RehmatPedia) assures us, “nothing but nature,”, but evidently that nothingness also applies to genuine intellectual and academic achievement. What technological sophistication seems to exist in predominantly Muslim nations is not the product of years or decades of intense, successful research as much as it is a demonstration of people rather parasitically living off of the academic capital of Western nations.
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