Richard Dawkins, the man who ignores history

Professor Dawkins recently told Jonathan Sacks, the UK’s Chief Rabbi, that he wants a post-religious society. According to the professor this is where science is taking us and he wants to hurry things along.

It’s as if we have never had a supposedly scientific society without religion. Professor Dawkins is ignoring history.

Voltaire and the other European philosophers also wanted a post religious society. The poor French got one. It was ushered in by the French Revolution, and while the progressives busily invented a new religion of reason (science), so the guillotine got to work, followed by Napoleon’s dictatorship. Marx wanted a post religious scientific society. The poor Russians got one, ushered in by Lenin and brutally developed by Stalin. Estimates of the number killed under Stalin range from three to 60 million. Mao Zedong wanted a post religious scientific society and the poor Chinese got one, though it turned out more to be a let’s worship Mao society. Again millions died.

Is that the end of obvious examples Professor Dawkins is ignoring? No. There’s also: North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Congo, Somalia, Benin, Cuba, and of course all the former Soviet bloc countries.

Quite a lot of history showing that Professor Dawkins is plainly wrong to imply that the world has never seen a post religious society. Of  more importance history shows what happens when religion is thrown out in the name of science: there is an abundance of violence and misery.

Professor Dawkins  knows all this, and has expressed fear about what will happen if his anti God campaign wins. But he seems to have wrapped himself up so tightly in the 'let’s get rid of religion' flag that he cannot escape. So he keeps on repeating simplistic mantras that ignore the  facts of history.