Thanks to Billy Sands for the link.

Reposted from:
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=52341&in_page_id=11

Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and author of books including The Selfish Gene. He's also professor for the public understanding of science at Oxford University. His latest book, The God Delusion (out now), has ruffled feathers with its suggestion that the Old Testament God is 'arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction'.

What is it about God you don't like?

The God of the Old Testament is a sheer monster. Anyone who denies that simply hasn't read the Old Testament. In chapter two of the book, I describe him as 'a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, genocidal, capriciously malevolent bully.' I defy anybody to disagree with any of those epithets.

Should faith schools and schools teaching intelligent design (that the universe was created by an intelligent entity) be banned?

Any teaching of falsehoods in science classes should certainly be identified and stopped by school inspectors. School inspectors should be looking at science teachings to make sure they are evidence-based science. The teaching of intelligent design in science classes should not be allowed. Still less should it be positively encouraged by government hand-outs of the sort the Tony Blair Government has been doing to such infamous places as the Peter Vardy schools in the North-East.

What's your view of the Bible?

It's a collection of miscellaneous writings which were gathered together sometime in the first few centuries AD. It was pretty arbitrary which books got in and which didn't. The Bible was written by fallible human beings.

Are there some who still maintain it's the word of God?

The same self-respecting bishops… I'm sure they accept it's the word of man. I think they're embarrassed by the fundamentalists who still claim it's the word of God.

Is there anything in the Bible that you like?

I love the poetry of several books in the King James version. My favourite is Ecclesiastes, which is ravishing poetry in the 17th-century language. One can enjoy poetry just as one can enjoy fiction without necessarily believing it's true.

People assume the Bible is peace-loving. Are they wrong?

A lot of people vaguely recall a few nice bits that were read out at church or school but they haven't read most of it – and most of it is pretty horrible. For example, in the book of Joshua, the story of the children of Israel taking over the Promised Land has one genocide after another. Tribe after tribe are wiped out with great gore, blood and glee with direct orders from God. 'Thou shalt not kill' really means 'Thou shalt not kill another Jew'.

The idea of heaven brings comfort to many. Is it mean-spirited to attack it?

I wouldn't go out of my way to visit somebody on their deathbed who is putting their trust in going to heaven and try to disillusion them but it's odd to use the 'mean-spirited' argument to argue the 'truth' of religion. Finding it consoling doesn't make it true.

Are science and religion incompatible?
There are those who say science and religion are about quite different things: science is about the way the universe works and religion is about moral questions and 'deep mystery'. I hope we don't get our morals from religion. As for deep questions such as 'Where does the universe come from?', it might be that science finds answers. If science doesn't answer those questions, nothing will.

The biggest clash between science and religion seems to be over when Earth was created.

Some people still take the book of Genesis literally and believe Earth is less than 10,000 years old – which is after the domestication of the dog. This is naive creationism. It's like believing the distance from New York to San Francisco is a mere 7.8 metres. Respectable bishops and vicars don't believe that for a moment. The true age of Earth is 4.6billion years.

By using the word 'delusion', are you suggesting that believing in religion is like madness?

I don't wish to come across as saying everybody wearing a clerical collar is mad. Many of them are sane, intelligent, nice people but it is a delusion, in the same way any false belief is a delusion. It's a mass delusion that is held by many people, which is why it doesn't appear to be insane. If you confronted a religious person with the beliefs of a rival religion, they would think the other ideas were mad because the beliefs have no connection with the real world. They're self-evidently dotty but, because each is brought up in their own religion, they don't see their own beliefs as mad.

George Bush and Tony Blair have claimed to 'hear' God's commands. Should they be committed?

They would be committed if it wasn't the God of the prevailing culture they were 'hearing'. If they claimed to be hearing the voice of Napoleon, then they'd be committed.

Does existence without religious faith still have purpose and meaning?

It most certainly does. It has the purpose and meaning that you wish to give it. We're purpose-driven animals. This is highly rewarding and atheists have it as much as anybody else. The idea that you can't have purpose in this life because there isn't going to be a next life is obvious nonsense.

Religious believers suggest morality is only possible through religion. Is that patronising to perfectly moral atheists?

It certainly is. It's also incoherent. People do not get their morals from scripture. You wouldn't like someone who did because they'd be awful. Only people like the Ayatollah Khomeini do that. Some people may think they get morals from religion but really they are acting out of fear – doing good things only because they are afraid God would punish them if they did bad things. That's a pretty contemptible reason for doing good. Atheists who do good for genuinely moral reasons are far more moral than those Christians who do good only because they're afraid of God.

Your book has had a lot of angry responses from Christians. Were you prepared for that?

Publishers like a good buzz and negative responses sell books just as well as positive ones. Naturally, I'd prefer the positive ones.

Why do you single out Christianity for attack? Do you see it as a 'softer' target than Islam?
Nowadays that's probably true. Go back a couple of hundred years and it was the reverse. Christianity has been more or less forced to be tamed – Islam is still living in the Middle Ages but I know less about other religions. I was brought up a Christian and I have some affection for the Christian culture, stained glass windows and church music, so I naturally concentrate on Christianity.