New Scientist Reviews The Greatest Show on Earth

Randy Olson of The New Scientist has a review of Richard Dawkins' latest book The Greatest Show on Earth. Olson is not so taken:

It's really kind of comical. If "spot the condescensions" is a new drinking game, then bottoms up! There's one in just about every chapter. Though Dawkins says from the outset, "This is not an anti-religious book", he can't help but knock religion throughout, For instance, he writes: "God, to repeat this point, which ought to be obvious, but isn't, never made a tiny wing in his eternal life." Young Earth creationists are, he writes, "deluded to the point of perversity". You get the sense that Dawkins just can't control it. It's as if he suffers from an anti-religious form of Tourette's syndrome.

This does not serve Dawkins in good stead. As he is seen increasingly as irrational about religion, the very people he is trying to convert increasingly ignore what he is saying because they are tired of being insulted. I know I am.