An agnostic review of TIA

MNOnline finds it irritating, but interesting:

First, I’m a liberal agnostic, and am not a fan of V. Day’s politics (libertarian). And there are times in this book where he gets a bit tedious. He’s no creationist, thank goodness, and he’s no biblical literalist, but he comes close on occasion, which I find irritating. However, I thought that his research was done well, his arguments for the most part well-made, and his assertions supported. While there were times when I scribbled something in the margins like “Huh?”, or “Unfair”, or “Poorly argued”, generally I think he made his case – that many of the arguments made by Richard Dawkins, et al, against religion, are not as supportable as some like to believe.

As someone noted in the comments, it’s interesting how virtually no atheists who have read TIA even attempt to defend any of the arguments of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, while those who haven’t read it continue to insist that there is no way I could possibly have managed to refute any argument made by those staggeringly powerful atheist minds.

Anyone who still finds the central argument of The God Delusion to be compelling or unrebuttable, please raise your hand. And then, don’t hesitate to amuse us all by explaining why. (Hint – if you’re a Dawkins fan who hasn’t actually bothered to read your hero’s work for yourself, please at least glance at page 157 before even thinking about expressing your opinion on the matter.)

I should probably mention that I am a creationist, in the sense that I believe God created life, the universe and everything. But MNOnline is correct and I am not a Creationist in the sense of having any dogmatic attachment to how God created things, much less how long ago it was. Also, I do believe in taking the Bible literally to the greatest extent possible, I simply don’t believe it is humanly possible to fully grasp the literal truth of any translated statement. Since it is nearly impossible to perfectly translate even simple concepts from one man to another, how much more must it be true of translating Divine concepts into Man’s terms.