Well, that about wraps it up for God

The title is that of a philosophical work by Oolon Colluphid which completed his series, “Where God Went Wrong”, “Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes” and “Who is This God Person Anyway?” Oolon Colluphid is a fictitious minor character in “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.

Richard Dawkins might well have chosen the title for his own recent work, The God Delusion It would have been appropriate – Dawkins and Adams were great friends and the book is dedicated to Adams’ memory – but it would have been too flippant and Dawkins here is deadly serious.

I get the sense that Dawkins has been itching to get this off his chest for years. He is famous for his books on evolutionary biology but an undercurrent of passionate atheism has been there from the start. The Selfish Geneand The Blind Watchmaker both take sideswipes at religious faith and not just at the aspects which contradict the scientific account of the origins of biological diversity. The God Delusion is no sideswipe though – this is the full frontal assault that we have been waiting for.

It’s great stuff and surprisingly popular, going straight to the top of the Sunday Times and Amazon charts. Perhaps Dawkins has engaged a new publicity firm because he suddenly seems to be everywhere, telling atheists to organize, stand up and be counted. I feel obliged then to offer the following: