If Mary Spiro is a Christian then it's all the more disappointing that
she should mis-represent Dawkins in this way. It would just give
atheists more ammunition against dishonest Christians.
You can see the Dawkins/Maher interview for yourself as it's posted on
the original web-page:
As I recall when I saw it, Dawkins had earlier said the Collins WAS a
"bright guy" and a very good scientist. The "he's not a bright guy"
was just part of humorous banter.
This is not the first time someone has been totally misrepresented by
a journalist by selective use of quotes. In the UK Daily Telegraph
last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury was accused of not believing
in the Christmas story by very adroit use of ellipses, which omitted
the fact that he was saying the myths were the parts of the
traditional tale that were not in the Bible.
Journalists are notorious for dishonesty in this way (selective
quoting), but I would have hoped for better from a Christian
journalist.
Iain
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 2:20 AM, <mrb22667@kansas.net> wrote:
> I did a double-take, seeing the name Mary Spiro below. I know her personally.
> She is a Christian, by the way; though its been a year or two since I've seen
> her and I don't know what her current faith journey is like. I don't think she
> was deliberately trying to be biased against Collins, though I agree that the
> caption is sensationalistic and her quoting Dawkins like that (if the interview
> was as you describe) was probably misleading. But it was more of an
> embarrassment to Dawkins, though to have such dismissively biased inanities
> attributed to him --and unfortunately for him, quite believable attributions at
> that. Look on the bright side: at least Christians who think scientifically
> are getting some press-time that isn't mocking. (at least, I don't take it to
> be, not from Mary, anyway.)
>
> --Merv
>
>
> Quoting Iain Strachan <igd.strachan@gmail.com>:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
>> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
>>
>
>
>
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Received on Fri Jul 10 02:56:14 2009
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