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To: dandelion

Considering his hatred of religion, America and free markets, Mr. Dawkins is a free-thinker along the same lines as Marx and Chairman Mao...

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And not content with the dumb comparison to Hitler, you now bring in Marx. Dawkins has made no comment about free markets. Tell me, have you actually READ any of his books, or seen the documentary in question? I doubt that you have.


50 posted on 01/14/2006 6:43:37 AM PST by TheWormster
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To: TheWormster

Dear Wormster, please read the entire post. Yes, I have read Dawkins work, and I have followed him for DECADES. Let me quote to you from them, with links and direct quotes provided, and analysis from a leading Marxist forum on why Dawkins is considered by many to support Marxist theory in some levels:

Richard Dawkin's Review of "Not in Our Genes"

Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature
by Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin and R.C.Lewontin (Pantheon Books, 1985)

Reviewed by Richard Dawkins in "Sociobiology: the debate continues", New Scientist 24 January 1985

http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Reviews/1985-01-24notinourgenes.shtml

EXCERPTED:

"Sociobiology, it seems, makes the two assertions "that are required if it is to serve as a legitimization and perpetuation of the social order" (my emphasis). The "Panglossianism"—J. B. S. Haldane’s term is (mis)used without acknowledgement—of sociobiology "has played an important role in legitimation", but this is not its main feature:

"Sociobiology is a reductionist, biological determinist explanation of human existence. Its adherents claim, first, that the details of present and past social arrangements are the inevitable manifestations of the specific action of genes."

Unfortunately, academic sociobiologists, unaccountably neglecting their responsibilities towards the class struggle, do not seem anywhere to have actually said that human social arrangements are the inevitable manifestations of genes."

END EXCERPT

Now this is not an endorsement of Marxism - but his attitudes towards America, capitalism, and religion have been more strident lately, and they have gained wide acclaim in many leftist circles. Of course, being Dawkings, he aslo dismays them, for they would like him to be far more strident regarding politics in general.

Mr. Dawkins is considered by many in the *Marxist* community to be Marxist-leaning in nature. A wonderful (and actually quite refreshing) discussion of Marx/Dawkins can be found at the leftist forum RevolutionaryLeft.com...

http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/lofiversion/index.php/t43487.html

Now, whether or not Mr. Dawkins is even remotely Marxist is extremely open to interpretation. He appears to have attempted to keep "politics" out of his science, but in his quest to debunk religion, he has become diadatic himself, and prone to the same zeal that he derides in the religious community. The article I quoted from earlier is a from a review of Dawkins new documentary, and they seem to indicate this zeal taking him to deeper levels of emotion, in this case specifically against Americans and free markets:

O Come All Ye Faithless:

http://www.sundayherald.com/53499

Oh come all ye faithless

A new series depicts religion as dangerous bunk. But is presenter Richard Dawkins just preaching to the converted? By Stephen Phelan

EXCERPTED:

When Dawkins was commissioned for The Root Of All Evil?, he was already writing a book on the same theme, titled The God Delusion. The programme is not a TV adaptation of the book, he insists, but “most of the script for my voice-over and pieces to camera are pretty much taken from it”. Producer Alan Clements will accept credit for the original “uneasy and timely idea” of making a documentary about the apparent “rise of faith and retreat of reason in modern society”. He stands by the finished product 100%. “I think these are important films,” says Clements, “and programmes like this need to be made and watched. But I can’t take credit for the philosophy of it and the way it’s expressed.”

This is, then, for better or worse, a programme that lets Dawkins be Dawkins. His views, already well known, are expressed here with often electrifying clarity. He deconstructs such “fairy stories” as the assumption of the Virgin Mary with witty, angry and rigorous academic passion. But by his own admission, he has nothing particularly new to say, or to learn, about this subject. “I pretty much knew what I was going to find when I started making the films, which didn’t make it any more palatable or acceptable, of course.”

Dawkins describes all religious faith as “a process of non-thinking”, although he seems to have been particularly fired up by the current fusion of free market forces, neo- conservatism and Christianity in the United States, which he equates with the Taliban in its insidiousness. ****“In Britian, religion is slowly dying the death it deserves. America is very different, a country in the grip of a lunatic religious mania.”**** (asterisks added by me to emphasise DIRECT DAWKINS QUOTE).

END EXCERPT

Now, this is a direct quote from Mr. Dawkins, from his TV series. As you can see, his tone has changed from his earlier works. This is indicative of his turn away from science towards social commentary and didacticism. In this, he DOES resemble Marx - in Marx's work, the science of economy and class struggle became corrupted into a war against religion and self-determination. So too with Dawkins - his earlier (and quite frankly brilliant) works in science are being corrupted by his zeal to debunk religion. It is not a crime to become zealous, but it does need to be seen for what it is. Do not judge Dawkins alone on what he has written - see what he has to say in lecture and on camera, if you are going to have an accurate picture of his work...


54 posted on 01/14/2006 10:03:19 AM PST by dandelion
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