This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

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This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by General Chatter »



Dr. Richard Dawkins is at it again, this time reading another batch of “fan mail” from his many eloquent admirers.

Dawkins is an author, professor and evolutionary biologist, well-known for coining the term “meme” that sparked a field of study called memetics, an outspoken advocate of evolution, and the best-selling author of many books, including The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. He is also an ardent critic of creationism and intelligent design. This has ... upset many people.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by StroppyChops »

It's a shame many fundamentalists don't have his sense of humor.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by LTO »

General Chatter wrote:Dawkins is an author, professor and evolutionary biologist, well-known for coining the term “meme” that sparked a field of study called memetics, an outspoken advocate of evolution, and the best-selling author of many books, including The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. He is also an ardent critic of creationism and intelligent design. This has ... upset many people.
Well, that and he's an ass.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by randompeeps »

General Chatter wrote:He is also an ardent critic of creationism and intelligent design. This has ... upset many people.
That's not what upsets them, it's the belligerent way he explains his views that has led to a situation where only those who already agree with him will listen to anything he says. Compare that to the likes of Sam Harris or Laurence Krauss and well, you'll see there isn't even a comparison to be made. Sam Harris manages to actually engage religious people by pointing out the many paradoxes and contradictions in their beliefs instead of just yelling "I'm a scientist so I must be right" which is what Dawkins generally resorts to.

I agree with almost everything he says, he's just not very good at saying it in a useful way.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by flying chicken »

That's what I have been sharing all long on and offline. Cunt if you ask me.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by LTO »

randompeeps wrote:
General Chatter wrote:He is also an ardent critic of creationism and intelligent design. This has ... upset many people.
That's not what upsets them, it's the belligerent way he explains his views that has led to a situation where only those who already agree with him will listen to anything he says. Compare that to the likes of Sam Harris or Laurence Krauss and well, you'll see there isn't even a comparison to be made. Sam Harris manages to actually engage religious people by pointing out the many paradoxes and contradictions in their beliefs instead of just yelling "I'm a scientist so I must be right" which is what Dawkins generally resorts to.

I agree with almost everything he says, he's just not very good at saying it in a useful way.
Yup.

He's not only preaching to the choir, he's made sure to drive everybody else out of the room except the choir.

I also agree with most of his conclusions in regard to evolution/creationism, the existance of God, etc, (though his arguments tend to be rather shallow and lifted from people smarter than himself,) but I absolutely can't stand reading his stuff. And I've really tried. He is a strutting ass whose writings seem designed to turn off any reader except the militants. He is one of the very few authors whose books, if I wanted to read it, I'd go out of my way to buy a bootlegged or stolen version just so as not to send any of my money his way.
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Re: This is so funny...Dr. Richard Dawkins love letters

Post by cambodiaeo »

I thank skeptics (James Randi, etc.) for opening my eyes and helping me to get rid of a good part of the sub-cultural clutter I had. I met him a couple of times, really smart person.

However, I walked away from it all once I understood it is just one more -ism. When I read in the Skeptic Magazine that one cannot really be skeptic of Skepticism, that was an eye opener. When I compare Carl Sagan to what's said today, and especially how, I deeply regret we lost him way too soon.
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