Incidentally, while we are banging on about this subject, one of the big reasons I don't like the Dorks on religion is because he doesn't present anything alternative in it's place that attempts to address some of it's concerns. What does it mean to be human and alive? How can I live a good life? This is why I've got more time for humanism than outright atheism as at least it's an attempt to assert some positive values.
Obviously one doesn't need religion to do this, but simply putting scientific enterprise and method in the place of religion as some do misses the point and blinds us to questioning science, it's goals and conclusions.
We gave my Dad a humanist funeral and felt we'd honoured his life in a way that respected his memory. There was a feeling there for life's emotional tone which I don't find in Dawkins work. Religion can and does address these concerns and until similar matters are addressed as part of the "work" of atheism, relgion will always have a hold on us.
Obviously one doesn't need religion to do this, but simply putting scientific enterprise and method in the place of religion as some do misses the point and blinds us to questioning science, it's goals and conclusions.
We gave my Dad a humanist funeral and felt we'd honoured his life in a way that respected his memory. There was a feeling there for life's emotional tone which I don't find in Dawkins work. Religion can and does address these concerns and until similar matters are addressed as part of the "work" of atheism, relgion will always have a hold on us.