Gud - logisk, verklig eller onödig? : en retorisk analys av Richard Dawkins och John Lennox argumentation om Guds existens

Sammanfattning: This study has its background in the debate about religion and the existence of God, which has been an ongoing issue throughout the Western cultural tradition. Today´s information society has been an impact on the increasing interest for this subject. The essay’s main task is to accomplish a rhetorical analysis of two books, Illusionen om Gud (2008) by atheist Richard Dawkins and Guds dödgrävare (2010) by Christian John Lennox, in order to investigate the authors’ use of rhetorical strategies to influence their audience. The texts are studied using a qualitative approach with the theoretical basis of some well-defined rhetorical variables: ethical, logical and pathetic means of persuasion, propaganda, and the important factor that a message always is presented in a certain context in which the recipients both have their own values and subjects to general truths and common frames of reference. The analysis is intended to convey the rhetorical essence of each author, and uses this image to discuss aims and methods in the communication. Both authors demonstrate varying propagandistic strategies and base their arguments from common context and widely recognized frames of reference. Lennox almost exclusively uses methodological logo arguments, while Dawkins often uses the pathetic persuasion founds.