I've read a few books by Dawkins, and I enjoy his witty writing style. Matter of fact, I recently ordered his newest release, Greatest Show on Earth is the title (I think . . . ) Anyway, it hasn't arrived yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
However, I found Karen Armstrong's short essay equally compelling. I completely agree with this:
what we call "God" is merely a symbol that points beyond itself to an indescribable transcendence, whose existence cannot be proved but is only intuited by means of spiritual exercises and a compassionate lifestyle that enable us to cultivate new capacities of mind and heart.
That very much agrees with my own spiritual journey, and by Webster's standards, I am an atheist.
I think what happens is that there are many grey areas within the spectrum of atheists and believers. Say there was some scale to chart faith or the lack of it. If atheist is 0, agnostic 10, and your most fanatical fundamentalist a 20then there's quite a bit of elbow room in between.
I'm interested to hear more of Armstrong's thoughts on this matter, so I ordered her book. Maybe I'll read her and Dawkins side by side, just to amuse myself.