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Is Richard Dawkins destroying his reputation? [View all]
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/09/is-richard-dawkins-destroying-his-reputationThe scientist and bestselling writer has become the face of a new crusading atheism. But even his closest allies worry that his online provocations do more harm than good
Richard Dawkins at home in Oxford. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
Sophie Elmhirst
Tuesday 9 June 2015 01.00 EDT
In Dublin, not long ago, Richard Dawkins visited a steakhouse called Darwins. He was in town to give a talk on the origins of life at Trinity College with the American physicist Lawrence Krauss. In the restaurant, a large model gorilla squatted in a corner and a series of sepia paintings of early man hung in the dining room though, Dawkins pointed out, not quite in the right chronological order. A space by the bar had been refitted to resemble the interior of the Beagle, the vessel on which Charles Darwin sailed to South America in 1831 and conceived his theory of natural selection. Oh look at this! Dawkins said, examining the decor. Its terrific! Oh, wonderful.
Over the years, Dawkins, a zoologist by training, has expressed admiration for Darwin in the way a schoolboy might worship a sporting giant. In his first memoir, Dawkins noted the serendipitous realisation that his full name Clinton Richard Dawkins shared the same initials as Charles Robert Darwin. He owns a prized first edition of On The Origin of Species, which he can quote from memory. For Dawkins, the book is totemic, the founding text of his career. Its such a thorough, unanswerable case, he said one afternoon. [Darwin] called it one long argument. As a description of Dawkinss own life, particularly its late phase, one long argument serves fairly well. As the global face of atheism over the last decade, Dawkins has ratcheted up the rhetoric in his self-declared war against religion. He is the general who chooses to fight on the front line whose scorched-earth tactics have won him fervent admirers, and ferocious enemies. What is less clear, however, is whether he is winning.
Over dinner chicken for Dawkins, steak for everyone else he spoke little. He was anxious to leave early in order to discuss the format of the event with Krauss. Though Dawkins gives a talk roughly once a fortnight, he still obsessively overprepares. On this occasion, there was no need he and Krauss had put on a similar show the night before at the University of Ulster in Belfast. They had also appeared on a radio talkshow, during which they had attempted to debate a creationist (an idiot, in Dawkinss terminology). She simply tried to shout down everything Lawrence and I said. So she was in effect going la la la la la. Dawkins stuck his fingers in his ears as he sang.
Krauss and Dawkins have toured frequently as a double act, partners in a global quest to broadcast the wonder of science and the nonexistence of God. Dawkins has been on this mission ever since 1976, when he published The Selfish Gene, the book that made him famous, which has now sold over a million copies. Since then, he has written another 10 influential books on science and evolution, plus The God Delusion, his atheist blockbuster, and become the most prominent of the so-called New Atheists a group of writers, including Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, who published anti-religion polemics in the years after 9/11.
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Those whose only goal is to attack religion have no interest in reading comprehension
Starboard Tack
Jun 2015
#102
So by that logic, you're going to start posting about the pope and his reputation, right?
trotsky
Jun 2015
#15
The pope is the center of the universe for theophobes and belligerent atheists
Starboard Tack
Jun 2015
#93
It makes you a bigot. Same as if you were opposed to interracial marriage.
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2015
#167
How is that deflection? She posted this OP. Or did you miss that reality?
Goblinmonger
Jun 2015
#110
"a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God."
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#173
"At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance"
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#174
"and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God."
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#175
"The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution...
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#176
Denying someone their human rights because he believes they're inferior does make him a bigot.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#189
"Being opposed to gay marriage does not make someone a homophobe or bigot"
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2015
#140
Apparently he's ignored all of the previous posts about pope homophobe.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#157
Those links are good to have handy whenever people are singing the pope's praises.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#182
See your last post where you lashed out at atheists for calling out your homophobic comments:
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#191
Did you vote in the GD poll? And defend religious homophobia in the thread?
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#194
As you can see I'm not the only one who thinks homophobic behaviour makes one a homophobe:
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#196
According to the definition at religoustolerance.org both you and the pope are homophobic.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#203
I am not your "fan" and I don't find your defense of religious bigotry the least bit amusing.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#207
Now you're saying that people who are opposed to interracial marriage aren't bigots.
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#198
Pope Francis’ new clothes: Why his progressive image is white smoke and mirrors
beam me up scottie
Jun 2015
#159
Plus you know, like lecturing at Oxford, some sort of backwater has been unknown school.
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2015
#82
"admiration for Darwin in the way a schoolboy might worship a sporting giant."
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2015
#11
So you understand that this is basically a reverse argument from authority right?
Promethean
Jun 2015
#22
Irrelevant. It's a chance to post something negative about DAWKINS!!!111!!!!
cleanhippie
Jun 2015
#23
Clearly. I mean, everyone else who doesn't see things your way must be stupid, right? n/t
trotsky
Jun 2015
#53
You so misjudge me and I am sure you have your reasons, but this is really about you, not me.
cbayer
Jun 2015
#41
And to think I was so worried about who would step up to post malarkey articles about Atheists
Heddi
Jun 2015
#39
His last peer-reviewed scientific paper was published over three decades ago
struggle4progress
Jun 2015
#40
I still think he has performed an important role and, in the end, will be honored for that.
cbayer
Jun 2015
#43
The atheisms of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud were influential long before Dawkins appeared;
struggle4progress
Jun 2015
#58