re: #142 ggt

It doesn’t help that radical athiests with PhD’s are pushing atheism. I listened to a book talk by Richard Dawkins and was truly offended. He had absolutely no respect for the belief system of others. I can see how those truly religious and uneducated-in-basic-science people out there would flock to Creationism after hearing him.

I think he is hurting science.

To those who downdinged this comment: GAZE.

I haven’t read Dawkins the way I’ve read Dennett, Hitchens, and various Harrises but I have seen Dawkins quoted and on youtube; and I can testify that he is, indeed, a troll.

Dawkins is not here to debate people of whatever faith. He is here to provoke them; to get them mad enough to retort back with something silly, stupid and/or incoherent. The best I can say for the Dawkins style is that his trolling is erudite, eloquent, and entertaining; and that he picks the right set of enemies. But when I want an actual argument I go to Sam Harris or Daniel Dennett.

I might not phrase it such that Dawkins actively “hurts science” (Stephen Jay Gould, by contrast, hurt science - c.f. The Mismeasure of Man) but Dennett certainly does a rotten job of evangelising science among believers who are skeptical of “intelligent design” etc, of whom Catholics seem to be the most popular example here.

So to ggt’s dinger berries, whom I haven’t bothered to click the “-6” to find out who they are, go ahead and downding this post too. [rest of my thoughts self-censored]