FOR A BRIEF BIO OF EAGLETON
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton
It seems that Eagleton--born in 1943, which means he is now 66--was raised a Catholic.

The following comments are about
RELIGION
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In October 2006, Eagleton produced an impassioned, widely quoted critique of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in the London Review of Books. Eagleton begins by questioning Dawkins' methodology and understanding: "Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology."

He concludes by suggesting Dawkins has not been attacking organised faith so much as a sort of rhetorical straw-man: "Apart from the occasional perfunctory gesture to ‘sophisticated’ religious believers, Dawkins tends to see religion and fundamentalist religion as one and the same. This is not only grotesquely false; it is also a device to outflank any more reflective kind of faith by implying that it belongs to the coterie and not to the mass. The huge numbers of believers who hold something like the theology I outlined above can thus be conveniently lumped with rednecks who murder abortionists and malign homosexuals."

Although many of his texts include aspects of philosophical debate, Eagleton himself does not claim to be a philosopher, stating, "Perhaps I should add that I am not myself a philosopher, a fact which I am sure some of my reviewers will point out in any case."

DITCHKINS
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During four days of talks at Yale University's Terry Lectures in April 2008, Eagleton spoke of a fictious person, Ditchkins, which is derived from the merger of the two last names Hitchens and

Dawkins (Etymology: Dawkins + Hitchens). In these lectures Eagleton often caricaturizes the two famed writers and outspoken atheists, routinely drawing Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins as one single, comedic debate opponent.

* "...someone like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, a couplet I will henceforth reduce to the solitary signifier Ditchkins..." (April 1, 2008 Christianity Fair and Foul)



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