As Dawkins thundered on it became clear that the Oxford Professor of the Public Understanding of Science cares little about the nature of religious belief and understands less. ‘Don’t waste your life,’ he cried, ‘it’s the only one you are going to get.’ Then he was carried away by helicopter, like a second Colonel Fawcett with a head full of unproven certainties.
Perhaps the professor is right. But — as other atheist biologists have pointed out — Dawkins’ opinions on the non-existence of God are not science, and they are not supported by any evidence. They are merely opinions, despite his attempts to bolster them with pseudo-scientific devices such as the ‘Meme’. And in the absence of evidence, rational people are not always obliged to agree with Dawkins.
In any event, the Dawkins’ message would have seemed a poor exchange for the magical world of belief to the fishermen who live on the island beneath his departing flight path. For the fishermen of Paraty, life is dangerous and often frightening. They say that every time they come home it is ‘like playing the numbers and winning’. Their year revolves around the festival of São Pedro and São Paolo when they sing their hearts out in honour of those saints because their one life has not yet been terminated and the shrimp are still coming. The fishermen have no doctor and no shops. Just a church, a primary school and a small library that is housed in an upturned canoe. Within the canoe, among the small collection of books that have been donated by the FLIP, there is a hand-written notice — silencio.
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