I forgot to post it before, but Alvin Plantinga, one of the foremost philosophers alive today, wrote a review of Dawkins' The God Delusion for Christianity Today magazine recently. Read it here:

» The Dawkins Confusion: Naturalism ad absurdum

The title of the article is groan-worthy, but the article itself is not. Plantinga begins his review by making an important note:

[Dawkins] and [Daniel] Dennett both appear to think it requires considerable courage to attack religion these days … Here it's not easy to take them seriously; religion-bashing in the current Western academy is about as dangerous as endorsing the party's candidate at a Republican rally.

This is one of the initial objections I had to Sam Harris' book, Letter to a Christian Nation: This is not a "Christian nation", it's a secular nation, especially in academia. Dawkins' dismissal of biochemist Michael Behe's work out of hand because "Behe believes in God" is an example of the prevailing academic attitude.^* Also, note that in Dawkins' own nation, One third of all Christians say: We've suffered discrimination (Dailymail.co.uk news story).

Also worthy of note, one of my professors at Tyndale University College & Seminary is working on the first North American book in reply to The God Delusion. Alister McGrath's book is already out in the UK (McGrath also teaches at Oxford University; I wonder Dawkins and McGrath have ever bumped into each other on campus?) but I haven't read it yet either, so I don't know how good it is.

For the record, I still haven't read Dawkins' book. I should have time to read non-school related books after I finish my degree this summer.

^* This incident is related in more detail, in context, in James W. Sire's excellent book Why Good Arguments Often Fail, p63-64.