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"A Theological Critique of ‘The God Delusion"
05.03.2010
In an age when science has furnished us both with remarkable new insights into life and with tools to enhance the quality of life, religious belief is an anachronism to many. Few have argued the case against religion more passionately or polemically than Richard Dawkins, whose work The God Delusion lays the blame for much of the evil that is in the world squarely at the feet of religious belief.

Yet while advocating a strongly atheistic worldview as he seeks to displace religion, Dawkins highlights the need to replace the Ten Commandments with an amended set that encourages people to ‘question everything’ and that teaches them ‘how to think for themselves, and how to disagree with you’.

The final lecture of the 2010 College of Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) Public Lecture Series at UCC takes up that precise challenge, questioning the work of Dawkins from a standpoint that is explicitly theistic, with a view to showing that Dawkins’s approach is far too simplistic to do justice to the mystery that underpins life and that finds its perfect expression in the Triune God of Christian faith.

The lecture will be delivered on Wednesday, March 10th at 8pm in Boole IV Lecture Theatre.

Joe Egan completed his undergraduate studies in science (mathematics, mathematical physics and physics) and theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in 1980, after which he was ordained priest in the Society of African Missions and went to work in pastoral ministry in Nigeria. From 1984 to 1989, he pursued postgraduate studies in theology at Rome, after which he returned to West Africa to teach theology in Liberia initially and then in Sierra Leone, during a turbulent era in the history of both those countries. Upon returning to Ireland in the mid-1990s, he lectured in theology first at the Kimmage Mission Institute in Dublin and then at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, where he continues to work. His research interest is on the relationship of faith and culture and his publications include Brave Heart of Jesus (Columba Press, 2004) and The Godless Delusion (Peter Lang, 2009).

The highly popular lecture series was organised by Professor William Reville, Public Awareness of Science Officer, UCC.

Admission to the lecture is free, and as always, members of the public are invited to attend. See http://understandingscience.ucc.ie

Picture:  Rev Joe Egan

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