*"Dawkins not only thinks religion is unalloyed nonsense but that it is an overwhelmingly pernicious, even "very evil," force..."*
Exactly. C.S. Lewis addressed this right off the bat in Chapter 1 of Mere Christianity. Once you introduce the concept of "right and wrong" or "good and evil" you have introduced a "something else" into the universe, like rules of game that both parties acknowledge are in existence. Sure, the parties may quarrel as to whether one side or the other adhered to "the rules," but they acknowledge the existence of the rules nonetheless.