Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Times Online ^ | July 19, 2008 | Kate Muir

[Soliton]

Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge. The nearest we get to this now is celebrating the thrill of Germaine Greer walking out of Celebrity Big Brother.

[aruanan]

Just because the groupy is dumb doesn’t make the rock star stupid.

No, but in this case the rock star is dyspeptic, intellectually dishonest, pandering, question-begging, and out of his depth in theology and philosophy of religion, sadly so, given his current position. But then many people have been hired (or elected) to fill positions for which they are incompetent.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Typical Soliton response - makes noise while completely ducking the issue....

[Nick5]

It’s all presentation. A role he plays. He’s smart, and he believes what he’s saying, and the public personna is what sells his books. Which are astonishingly well written, and entertaining, whether you believe in them or not. It may be science and polemic, but he tells a damn good yarn.

[tang-soo]

Isn't this him?


Too bad he gave up comedy and started all this controversial stuff. I really liked his character on Hogan's Heros and I just love to watch his reruns of Family Feud. I have 5 seasons on DVD. I just love to put my feet up and drink my tea while watching my Richard - all day long I do.

[Soliton]

It’s all presentation. A role he plays. He’s smart, and he believes what he’s saying, and the public personna is what sells his books. Which are astonishingly well written, and entertaining, whether you believe in them or not. It may be science and polemic, but he tells a damn good yarn.

His science is great. Shame he lets PR get in the way.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Wasn’t he the guy from “Family Feud”? “And the Survey Says......”

:-)

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Slings and Arrows]

I think the gang from South Park nailed Dawkins: “It’s not enough to be an atheist - you also have to be a d*** about it!”

[caveat emptor]

I don't know of anybody who goes out of their way to insult Dawkins or cast aspersion on his work, yet he incessantly seeks out others to mock and belittle.

There's a hilarious video spoofing Dawkins here, which Dawkins apparently didn't understand, as discussed here (and in case you can't watch videos).

As to the motives for his attacks, I suspect he's on the same mission as these guys

[Soliton]

His atheism hurts his science

[Slings and Arrows]

Very true.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

He laces his own post with heavy doses of insults while urging his lackeys and sycophants to write in an adult style. What a joke.

Also, he seems to be aware that his sycophants are not in the habit of writing like adults in the first place. Hence the need for a fatherly reminder. Terry Eagleton of the London Review summarized Dawkins this way:

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. Card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins, who is the nearest thing to a professional atheist we have had since Bertrand Russell, are in one sense the least well-equipped to understand what they castigate, since they don’t believe there is anything there to be understood, or at least anything worth understanding. This is why they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be.

[BenLurkin]

He used to play power forward for the Philadelphia 76ers.

[Tailgunner Joe]

He's a British anti-semite who thinks the US government is occupied by crafty evil Zionist Jews who have tricked us stupid Americans into worshipping their made-up "God." He called 9-11 "the neo-cons' Pearl Harbor." Just another lunatic nazi "9-11 Truther."

[Jacob Kell]

Isn’t he also a militant intolerant atheist?

[LomanBill]

I drink your soup!

I drink it allll up.

Till you have no soup left on your land.

Draaaaaainage!