Sweet Reason

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who spends much of his time negotiating with his more literal-minded brethren over whether a homosexual man in a big white hat is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, has proclaimed that the debate over religion has been "approached in the wrong way" by those who, instead of engaging fully with such eternal verities, merely try to establish whether religious belief is true. "Don't distract us from the real arguments" with such fripperies, he pleaded. Religious belief is "naturally self-critical", as can be seen by glancing at the record of any theocracy in history; and there are "specific areas of mismatch between what Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing"; well, that settles that. Being the non-eccentric, eminently rational and naturally self-critical paragons they are, I suppose the religious people must be right. "Our culture is one that deeply praises science," Dr Williams continued; "so we assume because someone is a good scientist, they must be a good philosopher. My inner jury is out on that"; doubtless Dr Williams' inner jury has long since settled any questions about the philosophical competence of a good theologian. The Archbishop also noted that "God is real for believers", as though anyone doubted it or even as though it proved anything. He then proceeded to correct some over-simplified assumptions about the Deity and the Big Bang (if God was there first, he "must be complex", contrary to the claims of scientists and other mythographers), and warned against the assumption that religion is "an eccentric survival strategy", whatever that may mean, or "an irrational form of explanation".