Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Spell Breaking

Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins's Neo-Darwinist co-conspirator in the US appears a lot less worried that he might be perceived as a bit of a killjoy. Out to plug his new book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, last Sunday he came up against Deborah Solomon and her "the church gave us Bach" argument.

"Belief can be explained in much the way that cancer can...nerve cells are very complicated systems. You take enough of those, and you put them together, and you get a soul."

When the Tufts phiosopher suggested that love too could be subjected to his reductionist methodology, Solomon reacted indignantly: "But what's the point of that? Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to spend your time and research money looking for a cure for AIDS?"

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