Re: [asa] dawkins and collins on "Fresh Air" interview program

I think we can all agree that Dawkins' literary style can be somewhat
arrogant. And as Ted points out Dawkins 'hates' religion but that does
not mean that he hates those who adhere to religion.

As far as thinking that these people are stupid or wicked, I assume
this comes from the following, in context, quote?

<quote>
So to the book's provocation, the statement that nearly half the
people in the United States don't believe in evolution. Not just any
people but powerful people, people who should know better, people with
too much influence over educational policy. We are not talking about
Darwin's particular theory of natural selection. It is still (just)
possible for a biologist to doubt its importance, and a few claim to.
No, we are here talking about the fact of evolution itself, a fact
that is proved utterly beyond reasonable doubt. To claim equal time
for creation science in biology classes is about as sensible as to
claim equal time for the flat-earth theory in astronomy classes. Or,
as someone has pointed out, you might as well claim equal time in sex
education classes for the stork theory. It is absolutely safe to say
that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that
person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not
consider that).
</quote>

As I have found out myself, Dawkins is often accused of things he
really did not say.

As far as the 'religion of science' is concerned, again there appears
to be some ambiguity here as Dawkins explains in "Is Science a
Religion?" http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html

I am very well aware of the irony of the ID movement which was both in
response to atheists such as Dawkins as well as a major cause for its
recent revival. ID by claiming that 'design' can be detected
'reliably' has opened up religion to the possibility of being
disproven based on the same probability arguments that ID uses.

I am sure that Dawkins would love to 'teach the controversy'.

Whatever the answer may be, understanding what Dawkins is really
saying rather than what we fear he is saying.

On 4/2/07, Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu> wrote:
> For Pim and others,
>
> I can only echo David's comments about Dawkins, who came across in the
> interview as a much kinder, gentler person than he does in many of his books
> and articles. Dawkins simply hates religion, and does think that religious
> people are either stupid or wicked, if not both. And he has company in
> this.
>

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Received on Mon Apr 2 12:20:13 2007