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Andy McIntosh - Atheism vs. God - Part 1 (Dawkins Quote)


This is part 1 of a series of commentaries on material presented by Andy McIntosh.  This material was presented at a church that I attend.  It has been presented other places as well.

For reference, related arguments were presented by McIntosh in the following video:

Note

Andy McIntosh has notified me that he disagrees with my analysis in this post.

Dawkins Quote

This quote appears in a discussion regarding feathers at around 39:30.  Complexity is being shown in the feather.

A quote from Dawkins is shown and discussed


McIntosh comments, 
That showed that this atheist did not understand what faith was.  Faith is not: believing in something which isn’t there.  That’s what [Dawkins’] definition was.  Faith is: actually trusting in something that strongly indicates that it is there and that there is evidence for it.

What is actually said by Dawkins in the interview?

This interview can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad_fTX8rEKs

Dawkins states (at around 2:29:32), 
There’s got to be a series of advantages all the way, in the feather.  If you can’t think of one, then that’s your problem, not natural selection’s problem; natural selection, well, I supposed that is a sort of matter of faith on my, on my part, since the theory is so coherent and so powerful.

The problem

McIntosh says that Dawkins’ Faith is believing in something that isn’t there, while Dawkins’ actual use aligns with how McIntosh defined faith.  Dawkins is trusting in natural selection that has a mountain of evidence.  When Dawkins states, "[...] since the theory is so coherent and so powerful." he is demonstrating the basis for his faith, and it is not blind in his opinion.

The quote is taken out of context, and then misused.

Even if Dawkins had misused the word Faith here according to McIntosh's definition, it is unclear how McIntosh is tying this back into his argument.  How does this undermine atheism?

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