Ian Lowe’s review of Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth (‘Unbelievers’, September) overlooks the strident, hectoring and dogmatic tone of Dawkins’ variety of atheistic fundamentalism, which thwarts his efforts to encourage religious people to consider what he has to say. It contrasts markedly with the writing of Darwin himself, which was always circumspect and respectful; Darwin seemed to have no need to convince people by banging their heads together. I also wish I could agree with Lowe’s claim that science has cured us of our belief that we are the measure of all things, but the ways we routinely treat our fellow animals have improved little since the Enlightenment.
Thomas Ryan
Goulds Country, TAS
