I have been reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, pp. 87-92, on his rebuff to arguments of knowing God from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
On information about the Manx Shearwater, Wikipedia closes with , ‘In his atheist manifesto, the God Delusion, Richard Dawkins cites the Manx Shearwater in discussing the Argument from Personal ‘Experience‘ (p87):’
“One of the cleverer and more mature of my undergraduate contemporaries, who was deeply religious, went camping in the Scottish isles. In the middle of the night he and his girlfriend were woken in their tent by the voice of the devil, Satan himself; there could be no possible doubt: the voice was in every sense diabolical. My friend would never forget this horrifying experience, and it was one of the factors that later drove him to be ordained. My youthful self was impressed by this story, and recounted it to a gathering of zoologists relaxing in the Rose and Crown Inn, Oxford. Two of them happened to be experienced ornithologists, and they roared with laughter. ‘Manx Shearwater!’ they shouted in delighted chorus. One of them added that the diabolical shrieks and cackles of this species have earned it, in various parts of the world and various languages, the local nickname ‘Devil Bird’.”’
Mockingly, Dawkins goes on to say, “Many people believe in God because they believe they have seen a vision of him - or of an angel or a virgin in blue – with their own eyes. Or he speaks to them inside their own heads. This argument from personal experience is the one that is most convincing to those who claim to have had one.But it is the least convincing to anyone else, and anyone knowledgeable about psychology.”
He then goes on to say that some people have experienced a pink elephant, but that probably doesn’t impress you. (I would have to say no it doesn’t impress me because I don’t know of anyone who has experienced pink elephants – not Christians anyway). Then he refers to Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, who distinctly heard the voice of Jesus telling him to kill women, and he was locked up for life. Dawkins has George W Bush allegedly God telling him to invade Iraq. I am not aware of that one and would see that as deserving of the criticism Dawkins gives. If it is true then it is a pity that God didn’t also tell Bush there were no weapons of mass destruction!
Dawkins then goes on to talk about individuals in asylums who think they are Napoleon or Charlie Chaplin and other such nonsense. And so they are humoured but their beliefs are not taken seriously, mostly because not many people share them. He then goes on to quote ridicule from the American atheist Sam Harris finishing with the sentence, “And so, while religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs absolutely are.” I am not sure what Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins mean by not ‘generally’ mad? For an intelligent person to make such a judgment on millions of active and committed Christians does need some kind of reply. The best reply are the stories of what Christianity has done for others in this world. See some of the stories in the posts under the Category: ‘The God Delusion’ - or in ‘Stories about Change of Heart’ in the right hand bar.
