Re: Dawkins, Davies and daughters

On 2008-04-08 18:54:24 +0100, "Jeremiah Harbottle" <harbotte@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:



Given that Dawkwins is a Professor of a scientific subject, I think he knows
more about science than you.

I also take it you've never read any of his books? And why shouldn't people
with so-called "beliefs" be criticised? A lot of them insist on being given
respect for their beliefs, when to a large percentage of the population
their beliefs are no more credible than believing in the the Tooth Fairy.

I have read several of his books. When he is writing on Biology and evolution he is nothing short of superb. He writes with clarity and authority and brings the subjects lucidly to life. Trouble is, when he starts writing about religion he writes from near-complete ignorance. Worse, he writes from self-willed ignorance having made it clear that he has not read (nor will he read) any modern theology or Bible study. This borders on intellectual dishonesty of the worst kind - especially if he wants to suggest that the religious mindset is 'medieval' in some sense.

His intellectual dishonesty goes further in his reporting of those whose views differ from his own. To wait, for example, until Stephen Jay Gould was dead to suggest that Gould did not really believe or mean what he said about the relationship between religion and science smacks of dishonesty. To record a lengthy interview with the Bishop of Oxford (for his programme "Root of All Evil") wherein the latter explains why he has no problem accepting evolution, then to leave every word of that explanation on the cutting room floor smacks of dishonesty.

And he is, perhaps, even more dogmatic when he comes to those who are both scientists and religious believers. Such people are "traitors to reason" and have "compartments in their minds". Francis Collins (Head of the Human Genome Project) for example is guilty of "betraying Reason" (Dawkins's words).

.

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