Danes feel Obama is greater than Jesus

[--Pete]

Hi,

But what if that person wasn't talking about religion in general?

Dawkins begins 'The God Delusion' by making it clear that the God he talks about is the Abrahamic concept of a personal god as the creator of everything. Not the God of Christianity alone, but the presumed deity that is central to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Not the God of Fruitbats, because it's followers never claimed it created the universe.

Well, this takes a two part answer. If he was only interested in rebutting the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions, then to some extent he hit the mark. However, if that were true, then I'd still have to say that he had selected a poor mark to aim for. Dawkins is a proponent of atheism. To support atheism, it is necessary, but not sufficient, to deny the existence of the God of Abraham. One must go further and deny the existence of all the supernatural.

The second part of the answer is that I don't think he was limiting himself to the God of Abraham. He was using that god as an example of what he was trying to address -- a personal god who created the universe. This includes any god or set of gods with those properties. If the worshipers of the God of Fruitbats believe their god created the universe (whatever they perceive the universe to be) and that he pays attention to their lives, then the God of Fruitbats is included in what Dawkins addresses. While I recommend a careful reading of The God Delusion to anyone seriously interested in this topic, the Wiki article is pretty well in line with my understanding of the book.

As a side note, isn't it sad that the 3 most related religions also show the most conflict between it's followers? All because their difference in acknowledging later prophets resulted in a different set of 'holy scriptures' to dictate man's thoughts.

It is very true that the religions springing from Abraham have had many conflicts amongst them. They've also had many conflicts, each, internally -- some bloodier than others. But "most conflicts" may be overstating the case Consider the case of the Hindus and Muslims in India. Consider the methods used to convert the Slavs, the natives of the Americas, etc. That whole history of religious warfare extends beyond the Judeo-Christian-Islamic world and extends back in time to long before Abraham.

--Pete