Saturday Reviews and Opinion

Belief in God Foolish: Oxford Professor
In his new book The God Delusion, reviewed for tomorrow's Times, Oxford Professor of Science Richard Dawkins argues that belief in God is a foolhardy delusion, and that to be an atheist is a "brave and splendid" aspiration.

Belief in God is not only a delusion, he argues, but a "pernicious" one. On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is certitude that God exists and 7 is certitude that God does not exist, Dawkins rates himself a 6: "I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."

Oh dear. I think I may be a 1 or 1.5 on the God scale. What about you?

Read the full review here.


America is finally revolting against the Republicans
Sex, money and Iraq are a triple-whammy of reasons for voters to turn against President George Bush and his party, Andrew Rawnsley writes for The Observer. Perhaps one or two people might shed a tear at such a development; but even then, it might be the whiskey talking.


The Prestige Debuts
In 1995, British author Christopher Priest wrote an excellent novel called The Prestige, about two dueling Victorian magicians. It won the 1996 World Fantasy Award. It has premiered as a movie starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johannson, and Michael Caine. The two magicians start out as friends but become enemies for life as they utilize the fantastical new powers of electricity and the secrets of radical inventor Nikola Tesla.