Chapter 2 of the God Delusion by Professor Richard Dawkins - The God Hypothesis.
In this chapter Professor Dawkins poses that the "God Hypothesis" is a scientific hypothesis about the universe which should be analysed as sceptically as any other. Again, the chapter is more centred on Christianity and science and essentially how the two don't mix and uses the acronym NOMA to convey this. NOMA meaning "non-overlapping magisteria" whereby science deals with empirical matters such as what the universe is made of and how it works whereas religion deals with the why and addresses questions such as meaning and morals.
My immediate observation is that from a Muslim perspective, we do not have (or certainly not to the same degree) the division between religion and science that there is with Christianity. It is often noted that following the advent of Islam there followed a period of scientific enlightenment. Certainly I propose to look into Islam and science in much further detail but as a general comment I see no conflict between science and Islam. Where I do see a conflict is where we depart from science (in the sense of a conclusion following the scientific method) and make assumptions. I don't agree with Professor Dawkins that the Abrahamic faiths are indistinguishable as he puts it and plan to dedicate some time in the near future looking into this.
Professor Dawkins states the God Hypothesis as a superhuman, super intelligence who designed and created the universe and advocates an alternative view that any such intelligence should be the end product of a process of evolution. This is where I am intrigued to see Professor Dawkins' case/evidence. Chapter 2 doesn't really address this point but I expect to read more of this in later chapters. What I do feel I detect from Professor Dawkins is that as much as he describes himself as an atheist, again, he seems to accept the possibility of a supreme entity that created the universe (in the sense of the physicist "God" in chapter 1) as he places himself as a 6 leaning towards 7 on his own scale of belief (7 being knowing there is no God). Professor Dawkins (I think) tries to use humour to suggest his belief in a God is like his belief in fairies but I think this isn't probably true. Certainly, Professor Dawkins seems to appreciate that there is a possibility that a God of sorts could exist (although he thinks unlikely) but I would imagine he has slightly less belief in fairies than a Einsteinian God. Professor Dawkins goes on to describe the deist God as a physicist to end all of physics, the alpha and omega of mathematicians. In contrast, the Muslim God (Allah) is believed by Muslims to be more than this - to be without beginning or end. I mention this as what I notice in Islam is that God (Allah) is truly all powerful without limits whereas the deist God has limits. My sense is that this comes from a Western/Christian perspective of God - who in human form did not give the appearance or sense of a creator of the universe and all that is in it. Again, this is another area for further research and review.
The chapter discusses secularism, the founding fathers and the religion of America and agnosticism - to me this didn't advance Professor Dawkins' advocacy of his alternative view to a super intelligent designer.
I found the comment about examining the probability of God's existence very interesting and look forward to seeing what Professor Dawkins has to say about this in later chapters.
After reading the preface and first two chapters I am still to see how holding a belief in God is delusional. Looking forward to reading more.
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