Re: [asa] The Criticism Begins

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Jack Haas<haas.john@comcast.net> wrote:
> Is God-fearing, gene-hunter Francis Collins fit to run NIH?
> the Bill Maher Show in April 2008. Dawkins likened Collins belief in God to
> a belief in an “imaginary friend” and referred to him as “not a bright guy.

I just looked at the Dawkins/Maher interview, and this sentence is so
completely out of context that it's pretty much tantamount to a
concocted lie.

Yes, the interview talked about "imaginary friends", but not in the
context of Collins. Dawkins was complimenting Maher on coining the
phrase.

Secondly the context in which Dawkins said that Collins was "not a
bright guy" was just in response to a joke by Maher. Dawkins had said
that Collins certainly didn't believe in "the talking snake". To which
Maher responded jokingly "I've interviewed him and he totally does".
And Dawkins replied that in that case Collins had gone right down in
his estimation and that "he's not a
bright guy". It was perfectly clear from the context that neither of
them meant what they said literally - it was just a bit of joking.

If there's one person who has gone right down in MY estimation, it's
Mary Spiro, the author of the article, and concocter of this piece of
gross misrepresentation.

Iain

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Received on Thu Jul 9 19:14:04 2009