Missed this last week on BBC World Service – Stephen Sackur interview with Daniel Dennett – introduced predictably as one of the “4 Horsemen of New Atheism“.
Much confirmation of my own view that Dennett is the most considered and sophisticated thinker in this space. The four I have before ranked Dennett > Harris > Hitchens > Dawkins (the first two are philosophers notice). The questioning by Sackur is typically caricatured in terms of the standard arguments, but Dennett always manages subtle qualification in his responses, though he pulls no punches with his final statement:
[Whatever theistic religion evolves into …]
“Love, faith, beauty and joy – I hope it lasts forever.”
[Note – the HardTalk link is only for one week. I have an offline copy if anyone wants to hear it.]
Reacted to slowly for iplayer, can i have that link?
Cheers.
JR
I’ll send a file link to your mailbox (obviously it’s BBC copyright, so I don’t want to republish a link on-line).