More on Dennett

The blogosphere has been buzzing with discussions and comments on the nasty NYTBR review of Daniel Dennett's new book. I was hoping to find some responses in the letters section of the paper but I think none have been published yet. I also came across this very interesting(!) email exchange between Dennett and Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science who, by the way, holds the position that science and religion can co-exist amicably, which gives more details on the affair from an "insider's" perspective. Ruse had published an earlier review in Nature which was critical of the book too and Dennett and Pinker responded with their own articles to NYT. Those articles have not been published there yet, and Dennett amusingly says that it might be because "NYTBR is under the spell of the Darwin dreaders", as is now clear after Wieseltier's review!

It has been a good discussion to follow. You can find out what the blogs are saying by following this google blog search link.

Also, an old but still great article by Dawkins on the "convergence" between science and religion. He of course believes this is all a sham.

My own stand is closer to Dawkins's but unlike him I don't think a world free of religion will necessarily be a less evil place. People should be free to choose to believe whatever suits them, unless it doesn't harm other people's freedoms and after we make sure that the belief is not because of misinformation, ignorance or intellectual laziness.