Dawkins finds Jesus

In perhaps his most famous book Richard Dawkins reaches an important conclusion.  He says:

...if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals co-operate generously and unselfishly towards a common good you can expect little help from biological nature.  Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

And this is the reason why we need to teach Jesus Christ.  Of course Dawkins doesn't accept that but he has, through biology, recognised this deep human need to be led out of our natural state of selfishness and competition, to a position of co-operation and consideration of the benefit of others, even above ourselves.

This is precisely the power of Jesus, and it's not just a matter of the wise words that we have recorded, like “love your enemies”.  Its about action too.  Jesus is the master who chose to become a servant, he is the King who chose to humble himself to a robber's execution, he is the one who washed his disciples feet, he is the one of would give, give and keep giving to the point of exhaustion.

The apostle Paul also recognised this. He said 'I know that nothing good lives in me'. But he also saw that in Christ he had found the way out of this mess, the pathway to a bright future for society.

Scientific Thinking

The idea that the methods of physical science are quite simply the only intellectual methods and should therefore be extended to cover every subject matter, including our understanding of ourselves, was put forward early in the nineteenth century by Auguste Comte and others. It is still a powerful faith, devoutly preached by many people today. Only radical confusion about the meaning of the word 'scientific' makes it seem plausible.

Mary Midgley in Science and Poetry