The New Atheism and Models of God: The Case of Richard Dawkins

Abstract

Richard Dawkins is the only New Atheist who provides an explicit model of God. According to his “God Hypothesis,” which he argues is “very nearly false,” “there exists a superhuman, supernatural intelligence who deliberately designed and created the universe and everything in it, including us.” But his argument is inadequate against traditional monotheism, since the monotheist model the God Hypothesis entails omits important elements of classical monotheist models of God. In particular, Dawkins’ assumption that God would have to be complex in such a way as to need to have been designed is questionable from the standpoint of perfect being theology. Moreover, his argument does not even exclude an imperfect monotheist god, since each of its premises is doubtful. Furthermore, even if his argument succeeded against these two varieties of monotheism, it would fail to rule out divine realities described by non-monotheist models of God such as pantheism and panentheism.