From: Iain Strachan (iain.strachan.asa@ntlworld.com)
Date: Mon Jul 14 2003 - 13:12:47 EDT
Richard Dawkins writes:
Sender: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
Precedence: bulk
. Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us whose view of the
universe is natural rather than supernatural; those of us who rejoice in the
real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a
word like "gay". You can say "I am an atheist" but at best it sounds stuffy
(like "I am a homosexual") and at worst it inflames prejudice (like "I am a
homosexual").
I'm just wondering if it's possible to be more naive than this. Does
Dawkins not realise that to say "I am gay" in today's Britain inflames
prejudice just as much as "I am a homosexual". We all know what the word
means now - the meaning has altered. It just means "homosexual", and people
ignorant enough to have prejudice against homosexuals and do "queer-bashing"
are no less likely to be prejudiced if the word "Gay" is used.
Besides which, Dawkins et al can't do anything about the evolution of
language & force it the way they want it. If my particular area of
Oxfordshire is anything to go by, the meaning of "gay" has evolved again.
My kids come back from that hotbed of lingusitic evolution, i.e. the local
school, now using the word "gay" to mean "sad". It no longer necessarily
means "homosexual", but rather someone the speaker thinks is pathetic, or
definitely un-cool. "Don't be so gay!" or "That is soooooooo gay!" are
expressions of strong disapproval that don't imply the person is a
homsexual; just that they are boring, uncool, or Sad with a capital "S".
I'd be interested to know if this particular meme is just local to
Oxfordshire (Dawkins' home territory indeed), or if it's spread to other
places, or where it came from. I would suspect that it's the public at
large's deeply entrenched homophobia that has led to this new usage. When
it was coined by the homosexual community, it was a word with positive
connotations, but nowadays it carries negative connotations to the
prejudiced & hence its adoption as a negative or insulting word in the
general sense.
Also, the word "Bright" in post-modern cynical ironic Britain doesn't
necessarily have positive vibes. When you say "Oh yeah, he's very bright,
he is", you don't mean it as a compliment. No-one likes a smartypants, and
a suspect no-one with appreciate someone calling themselves "a bright",
without mentally following it with another "B" word casting aspersions on
the persons parentage.
But perhaps the most down to earth response to the Dawkins article was from
my wife. When I told her that atheists wished to use the term "A bright" to
describe themselves, she just gave me that stony stare that I know so well
when she thinks I'm talking a load of rubbish (um.. this happens quite often
:-) Then when I read the relevant section from the Dawkins article, she was
rocking with laughter. She had quite some difficulty believing it wasn't a
spoof & that I'd been fooled.
Meanwhile I propose an alternative slogan to "Glad to be Gay".
How about "Delighted to be Dim"? (Check 1 Cor 1:20ff for the scriptural
justification).
Iain.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Blake Nelson" <bnelson301@yahoo.com>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 2:18 AM
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?
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
> http://sbc.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Jul 20 2003 - 20:55:24 EDT