From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Sat Jul 12 2003 - 22:35:34 EDT
Regarding the Dawkins piece, apparently there is a concerted effort going on
here, as his partner in the US, Daniel Dennett, has an op-ed piece in the
Saturday NYT calling on "brights" to come out of the closet and declare
themselves in the US. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/opinion/12DENN.html?th
In fact, Dennett refers to Dawkins piece.
His opening paragraph is a classic:
"The time has come for us brights to come out of the closet. What is a
bright? A bright is a person with a naturalist as opposed to a
supernaturalist world view. We brights don't believe in ghosts or elves or
the Easter Bunny - or God. We disagree about many things, and hold a variety
of views about morality, politics and the meaning of life, but we share a
disbelief in black magic - and life after death."
God trivialized by being associated with the Easter Bunny; belief in life
after death demeaned by association with black magic.
Bob Schneider
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Blake Nelson" <bnelson301@yahoo.com>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 9:18 PM
Subject: Dawkins dissembles?
>
> FWIW, did anyone see this Dawkins' piece from last
> month's Guardian?
>
> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,981412,00.html
>
> He cites the figure the Skeptic published as 93% of
> NAS members not being theistic. IIRC, this is a
> statistically invalid number, because the survey of
> American scientists was not designed to specifically
> sample the subset who were NAS members and the Skeptic
> basically pulled out only the respondents who were NAS
> members to come up with the percentage. (IIRC an
> article based on the 93% was rejected through peer
> review, although not by the Skeptic.)
>
> Now, given that Dawkins is supposed to be all for
> banishing superstition, why does he choose to rely on
> bad statistics in his anti-religious polemics? I
> think I know the answer, but to paraphrase Dawkins,
> isn't anyone who claims that 93% of NAS members are
> not theistic based on a statistically invalid sample
> either lying, insane or stupid? Which one of those
> categories does Dawkins fit into?
>
> Anyone know if someone wrote to the Guardian about the
> misrepresentation of survey data (presuming my
> recollection is not faulty) by Dawkins?
>
>
>
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