New Scientist - 21.09.2019

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 39

for example, virtually nothing in the Old

Testament has any evidential support at all.

It’s not just Adam and Eve and Noah. There’s

no evidence that there was a Jewish captivity

in Egypt, for example, which is shocking to

some people.

But we know that people believe in the Bible not

because of the factual content of the stories, but

because of a commitment to a group identity.

Probably yes, but a lot of people literally believe

what they read in the Bible. It’s important to

disabuse people of this, that the evidence for

anything in the Bible is extremely flimsy.

In terms of the harms and abuses done in the

name of religion, do you think that the world has

become a better or worse place since you wrote

The God Delusion?

It’s become a worse place, hasn’t it? I think and

hope it is temporary. I think there is clearly an

overall trend in the right direction, as you look

over decades and centuries. Any trend like that

is subject to reversals and I think we’re in a

reversal at the moment. But I think it’s a blip.

If you look at the number of people who

profess a religion in America and the rest of the

world, it’s going down. The number of people

who say they have no religion is now really

substantial. It’s about 25 per cent, which is

huge. It’s bigger than most other religious

denominations. So that’s a very good sign.

However, it’s not entirely clear whether

religion has given over to rationalism, or

to a more vague, nonsensical new ageism.

That would be a pessimistic view.

Unfortunately, I think pessimism is in order.

There’s evidence that as people discard

theologically correct views, they adopt other

superstitions to replace them.

Yes, that could be true. So in a way, that’s why

I think the second half of the book, the science

part, is so important. I think we need to >

“ I think we are

all susceptible

to a certain

level of

irrationality”