Just as a footnote to the discussion about the phrase "the god hypothesis," as I noted in another thread, my book came out before Dawkins' The God Delusion or Dennett's Breaking the Spell . And I had written it before I read anything by Harris. Actually I had the idea for a book called The...

Mad: Where the claim of motive is the only factor that differentiates one violent act from another, then I have to wonder if there's really any benefit in drawing a distinction. Here's a quote from the chapter in question: "All fanatics are dangerous. Religious fanatics are especially so becau...

Mad: I recognize what you're suggesting. What isn't so clear is why you're suggesting it. What is the pertinence of such speculation to the rest of the chapter? How does it fit with the paragraphs that come before and after? If I interpret it in part as an attempt to discredit certain religious ide...

Mad: Clearly there are some people who are willing to treat the concept "human" so fluidly as to suppose that we're human at the moment of conception. I don't doubt that. I would agree that the organism created at the moment of conception represents the beginning of a human life. I just t...

Mad: But the whole book is a personal statement. Wasn't that clear from the outset? Do I really have to end every damned sentence with "in my opinion" for you to understand that all I claim to be doing is presenting my view of things? Of course, I do express my opinions with some convicti...

Mad: I don't really see the need to comment on your comments on this chapter. You and I obviously come at this from vary different perspectives. I do think there is a difference in kind, as well as degree, between "religious faith" as it is commonly understood and faith as simply being &q...

Getting away, for a moment, from the line of inquiry DH is persuing, who did you envision as your audience for the book, George? Religious believers? Other atheists? People who were on the fence? I hoped the book would be useful to nonbelievers to help them clarify their own thinking about atheism,...

What I find a little disturbing about a lot of the New Atheist texts (I've decided to label George's book as an Old Atheist text) is that their tendency to talk about religionists or theists as a unified group. They create a sense of guilt by association whereby even peaceful theists who have liber...

I guess I need to catch up. I'm not going try to answer every point raised in this discussion, just a few of the more salient one. Niall: In answer to your question, the new book is titled mere atheism: no gods...no problem! and is a selection of material from my web site. The site gets a good bit o...

Mad and Niall: I hope you guys will forgive me, but I'm in the midst of submitting a new book to my publisher and the process has heated up a bit, nothing negative just more activity. So I'll probably be scarce around here for a few days. Rest assured I'll try to get back and address the points you...