Vassler
I don't know if you've heard of Carl Sagan.
If Western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato then Dawkins, Cox, De Grasse Tyson, Kaku and Greene are footnotes to Sagan.
He was an agnostic but never went the whole atheist hog.
Since in at least one statement he apparently equated atheism with
knowing that there are no gods (as opposed to simply not believing that there are any) I for one am not inclined to regard him as
le dernier cri here.
Also, since Dawkins (like many of us here and unlike you) understands the difference between atheism and agnosticism, he too has stated his agnosticism - correctly, in his case.
Dawkins missed his opportunity in producing a Sagan like masterpiece.
Sounds like bullshit on stilts to me. I love Sagan's books as much as anyone, but in terms of popularity/visibility as well as raw units Dawkins surely outstrips him by a country mile.
The Selfish Gene alone I should say ranks over
The Dragons of Eden umpteen times over. And that's even before we get on to
The Blind Watchmaker,
Climbing Mount Improbable and the rest. Of Sagan's books best known to the general reading public I should say
Cosmos and
The Demon-Haunted World are likely the front runners. Both very, very fine works indeed; but in terms of bare sales and cultural influence, nope - Dawkins has the laurel here and I suspect you know it. Sorry - genuflect before your wood-panelled triptych of Sagan all you like but you're divorced from reality here.
Instead we got Religion, the root of all evil
Who has actually stated this, Vlad? Be specific. Name names. Squeal like a piggy. Sing like a widdle boidy. Spill the Heinz. Dob them in. Call the Government's 0800 rootofallevil.gov.uk hotline and report them anonymously.
(Pretty sure we've been here before ... but such is Vlad).