147 of 176 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Abject Disappointment!, April 9, 2009
This review is from: God is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins (Paperback)
Raised a 'Young-Earth-Christian' but having accepted that the physical world tells a quite different story, I am actually looking for a synthesis of faith and reason that I can respect. Crean's book is not a contribution to such a search.
On page 123, Crean makes the scathing claim of Dawkins, that "So little does our author care to enter into the mind of the believer, that he doesn't bother to argue his case."
One might ask, since Dawkins presents his ideas over some 400 pages, and Crean dismisses them in about a third as many, who might have 'argued a case' in more detail.... but quantity is distinct from quality.
Exactly the same criticism might be leveled at Crean. He parodies Dawkins' arguments, creating cartoons of them that he then pretends to dismiss with references to such works as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, (from 1566). All well and good, for the Catholic believer. But such a response simply fails to address the question, "What hard evidence exists for the validity of your religion?"
Curiously, for any who might, like myself, have been ignorant of it, the cited Catechism, taken by many to be the most definitive statement of Catholic beliefs, includes the following jem:
"Faith Excludes Curiosity
From what has been said it follows that he who is gifted with this heavenly knowledge of faith is free from an inquisitive curiosity. For when God commands us to believe He does not propose to us to search into His divine judgments, or inquire into their reason and cause, but demands an unchangeable faith, by which the mind rests content in the knowledge of eternal truth. And indeed, since we have the testimony of the Apostle that God is true; and every man a liar, and since it would argue arrogance and presumption to disbelieve the word of a grave and sensible man affirming anything as true, and to demand that he prove his statements by arguments or witnesses, how rash and foolish are those, who, hearing the words of God Himself, demand reasons for His heavenly and saving doctrines? Faith, therefore, must exclude not only all doubt, but all desire for demonstration."
Now, let's see. Isn't there an old riddle about someone named Epimenides who, being a Cretan, claimed, 'Cretans always lie'? Here the Catechism says, all men lie, so it would be arrogant to doubt the words of a man. Yeah, that trumps science, any day!
Had I understood the Catholic church had so profoundly slammed the door shut on Crean's mind, I well might have saved the cost of this book.
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255 of 338 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo, August 26, 2008
This review is from: God is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins (Paperback)
The author tries--and I emphasize the word try--to refute Richard Dawkins' attack on religious faith. While the God Delusion is far from flawless, God is no Delusion fails to counter any of its arguments. The author makes absurd claims, e.g. children are less likely than adults to believe in false things--Father Crean doesn't account for the relative adult lack of belief in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. Crean claims that atheists will never accept any evidence for a divine being. Being an atheist, I will offer him this challenge: show me one instance in history when an amputee has his arm or leg restored through prayer to Jesus. If you can do this, I will become a devout Christian. (Or, slightly more frivously, if God strikes down Christopher Hitchens with a bolt of lightning in his next debate, I will also be convinced). Until then, I remain unconvinced of God, resurrections, holy books, and miracles, and other far-fetched claims of religious people.
There are other weaknesses in Crean's argument that I could bring up, but let's not beat a dead horse. (God is good, because,well, he must be, is one). Don't buy this book and don't take it seriously.
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219 of 304 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Only Convincing if you're already convinced, March 26, 2008
This review is from: God is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins (Paperback)
If you're already one of the "faithful" and are convinced of the existence of God, reading this book will make you feel good and put to rest any doubts reading Dawkins' book may have given you. However, if you're at all a reasonable person there is nothing in this book to convince you that God exists. People who call Dawkins "militant" are simply not used to someone making a clear and convincing argument against "faith" and God, and so they feel very threatened and respond with stereotypes and labels (i.e. calling Dawkins "fundamentalist" when atheism has no dogma at all).
If you're one of the choir and you like being preached to, feel free to buy this book. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my money.
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