The following is a quote (slightly edited) by Richard Dawkins:
“You happen to have been brought up, I presume, in a democracy. You know what its like not to believe in a particular type of government because you’re not a socialist, you’re not a communist. Why aren’t you a communist? Because you happen to have been brought up in America, not in China. If you had been brought up in China, you’d be a communist. If you were brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you’d believe in your king/chief. You believe in democracy by the sheerest accident of where you happen to have been brought up. And you ask me the question, “What if I’m wrong?” What if you’re wrong about all of these other forms of government?”
Dawkins and many other atheists often commit the genetic fallacy. Many say things like:
“Why don’t you believe in the thousands of gods that have been conceived?”
“I just believe in one less god that you!”
What do you think? Do you think that some atheists, like Dawkins, make fallacious arguments like the one presented here? Do you think that, just because there are many religious belief systems that might be partially or totally wrong, that one can argue against a particular belief system on this basis?