Richard Dawkins Opens New Website
Check out Richard Dawkins’ Foundation for Reason & Science - A Clear-Thinking Oasis.
On the front page he describes the experience of publishing his new book, The God Delusion:
I wanted to write The God Delusion six years ago. American friends counselled against, and my New York literary agent was horrified. Perhaps in Britain you could sell a book that criticized religion, he said. But in the US, don’t even think about it. He hated to admit it, for he was an atheist like most American intellectuals, but religion was off limits to ridicule. You had to respect religion even if you didn’t subscribe to it. Wendy Kaminer was exaggerating only slightly when she remarked that making fun of religion is as risky as burning a flag in an American Legion Hall. Concentrate on science, my American friends advised. Hands off religion. Let the grandeur of science speak for itself, and religion will die a natural death by ignominious comparison. I gave way and wrote The Ancestor’s Tale instead.
I don’t regret that decision, for The Ancestor’s Tale is the nearest approach to a proud magnum opus that I am likely to achieve, and I could not wish it undone. But how different the cultural landscape looks today. After four years of Bush, my literary agent changed his tune. He started begging me to write The God Delusion. And publishers around America are now falling over themselves to bring out atheistic books from which they would have run a mile only a few years ago. [links added]
I wrote my book, Reality and the Taboo Against Truth four years ago. Maybe it’s time to publish a print version as opposed to the current online free version.
| Go to Home - Most Recent Posts