The use of gender specific language in "The God Delusion"

In his book "The God Delusion", Richard Dawkins goes to much effort to argue that the English language all too often seems to exclude women. In support of his case he cites such examples as mankind, all men are created equal, one man one vote, etc. This argument is particularly amplified on page 140 of the paperback version.

Obviously, to an extent, he has a point. Nevertheless, he neglects to mention the standard English phrases which ,whilst excluding women, can hardly be said to favour men. Such phrases would include "man's inhumanity to his fellow man" and "the evil that men do".

Equally, there are many English phrases where the feminine is assumed for no reason that seems obvious like "mother earth" and "mother nature". Both these expressions would be construed to be positive rather than negative.

Dawkins is right when he says that some other languages are less gender specific in their general descriptions of the human race. For example the Russian word Человечество would be literally translated as human kind not mankind.

Christianity & Atheism: Different perspectives

In my reading of "The God delusion" by Richard Dawkins, I have noticed that he has very little to say about the person of Jesus Christ but mainly concentrates on the evolution versus creation argument to make his case. In the past, I have read books by Christian authors who mainly focus on Christ and seek to prove Christianity via his death and resurrection.

It is hardly surprising that both parties seek to play to their strong points. We have good evidence of on-going evolution and the world is plainly more than a few thousand years old. Equally, Christians can say that the unrisen body of Christ has never been found despite the probablity that the contemporary Roman and Jewish authorities and others would have sought the body in order to disprove and discredit the new faith.

To be fair to Dawkins, he seeks to disprove all religion and not the Christian religion in particular. Equally, Christian authors seek converts to Christianity rather than merely setting out to prove that there is a deity.

Whilst for the purposes of winning a debate, playing to your strong suits and avoiding the issues where you are on weaker ground makes sense, it does little to help seekers of truth resolve their issues.