THE ARGOMENTO AD GREAT MENO

There are various ways of answering atheistic biologist Richard Dawkins when he claims, citing the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, that there is no God.

One approach is to look at what other great ones have said who differ from Mr Dawkins on the matter.

By great ones, I mean those of a certain grand historical reputation which has elevated them somewhat in human regard and consciousness.

I call this argument for the existence of God, the argomento ad great meno.

Here's a few of my favourites.

Socrates: "It is perfectly certain that the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will actually exist in another world."

Sir Isaac Newton: "Whence is it that Nature does nothing in vain and whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? ...does it not appear from phenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite space, as it were in his Sensory, sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them... I don't know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Edmund Burke: "Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy, as religion and not atheism is the true remedy for superstition... Man is by his constitution a religious animal; atheism is against not only our reason but our instincts... There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, the law of nature and of nations."

Blake: "The atoms of Democritus, Newton's particles of light, are but sands upon the Red Sea shore, where Israel's tents shine so bright."

Charles Darwin: "I deserve to be called a Theist."

Einstein: "I do not deserve to be numbered among those who call themselves atheists."

Arno Penzias (Nobel Laureate); "The best data we have concerning the big bang are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole."

David Berlinski (Mathematician): "General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics resemble two ageing matadors facing the bull of nature, the both of them retiring flustered after a number of half hearted veronicas and ineffective passes. The bull is still there snorting through velvet nostrils. He does not seem the least bit fatigued."

James Healy: "God is."