Richard Dawkins - Anti -Christ or Great Thinker?

http://gawker.com/5818993/richard-dawkins-torn-limb-from-limbby-atheists

I don't even really know whose side to take.

are you sure you don't know whose side to take?

Ugh. It's bad enough to read his comments on that blog, but then I'm unable to read them without hearing that voice which makes it 10x worse.

I mean obv Dawkins is being a dick. But the woman's initial complaint also seems kind of dickish, esp calling out some dude on her blog for what ultimately wasn't harmful behavior.

I'm pretty sure which side to take lol

But the woman's initial complaint also seems kind of dickish

totally beside the point.

yeah u right

Dawkins response - that she should shut up because other women have it worse - is just a stupid argument

But the woman's initial complaint also seems kind of dickish, esp calling out some dude on her blog for what ultimately wasn't harmful behavior.

It kind of is harmful behavior though, isn't it? Aren't you making the same argument as Dawkins? It ended well, so everything is cool?

eh, dawkins stepped in it.

skepchick felt creeped by the elevator proposition and wrote about it. fine. she's got every right to feel creeped by w/e, and there's always something a bit transgressive (or at least risky) about out-of-the-blue propositions. especially late at night when there's no one else around.

dawkins thought she was making something out of nothing, foolishly exaggerating this trivial non-encounter into a self-aggrandizing grievance. fine, that's his right, and it's not like the crime in question was so terribly severe. unfortunately, he selected a breathtakingly hostile and dickish means of getting his point across (surprise!), and the shit hit the fan.

But the woman's initial complaint also seems kind of dickish, esp calling out some dude on her blog for what ultimately wasn't harmful behavior.

she only identifies him as "a man," though. she wasn't attacking anyone personally, and there's no trace of hostility or martyr-anguish in her description of the event. she's just telling a story about a thing that happened that creeped her out a little. perfectly legit, imo.

dawkins' response, otoh, is directly personal and openly hostile.

it sounds more like he's taunting this probably rhetorical "muslima" lady, though, which is way worse, even if it's directed at rhetorical people.

i mean, skepchick didn't really "call out" anyone. instead, she casually mentioned an incident in passing, as a "teachable moment," veiled in respectful anonymity.

muslima = racial puppetry

I always wonder what Romana thinks about all of this. Like is she equally as obnoxious as he is?

the best part about this whole episode is the "skeptic" community clutching their pearls as they realize richard dawkins is... not actually that great a guy

lol

maybe more appropriate for the libertarian thread

yeah i mean the atheism stuff he mentions there is totally reasonable by comparison.

my main lol from that is learning that piers morgan is pretending to be religious for the U.S. market. classy guy.

I like how the first four paragraphs plus the first two words to the fifth could be entirely removed without affecting his "thesis" in the slightest.

my main lol from that is learning that piers morgan is pretending to be religious for the U.S. market

yeah I haven't seen this but... really Piers?

tbf he pretends to be human for the UK market

it's such a horrible piece it's barely worth commenting on. i guess the main glaring fallacy though is, when scientists don't know, they try and figure out. what exactly is penn doing or advocating that we do to figure out whether or not the welfare state is a good idea?

let the fuckers starve and see how that works out

atheists are the most hated minority in the US. Dawkins didn't do that, and what he says doesn't make a bit of difference.

Tea Party less popular than atheists, Muslims

He said, "God," an answer that meant Piers didn't know either, but he had a word for it that was supposed to make me feel left out of his enlightened club.

Yes, everyone that believes in God is only doing so out of spite against you.

Also for someone who is 'humble' enough to keep saying he "Doesn't know", he certainly seems steadfast in his knowledge that there is no God.

Really glad I never saw his "Bullshit" show. I can imagine how condescending it is.

I agree about Penn Jillette, but Piers was being such a tit. They deserve each other really these two. Check it out, Piers is saying stuff like "when we die I believe we go to a celestial place that is wonderful". Unbelievable that he's posing as this intellectual christian like he's Malcolm Muggeridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edJLBy0xtc4

I mean how is that so different from "We are all star stuff" by Carl Sagan?

i hate this technocratic libertarian atheism thing but jesus even this assholes are more tolerable than piers morgan

Perhaps a conversation with Piers Morgan is enough to finally convince you there is no God.

we're made of star-stuff is sort of demonstrably true unlike the universe's most boring night club that never shuts

Check it out, Piers is saying stuff like "when we die I believe we go to a celestial place that is wonderful". Unbelievable that he's posing as this intellectual christian like he's Malcolm Muggeridge.

hahahaha

Oh, Piers Morg only does that "here is my opposing view" for all his subjects.

If he was interviewing the Pope, he'd be asking that old chestnut about "Why if there is a god does he allow suffering and starvation etc" biz.

I don't think I've heard Piers Morgan even mention his faith in the decades he was polluting the UK media.

Good luck USA, please keep him!

tbf apparently he went to a catholic school, but he's not exactly lady julia flyte

http://i.imgur.com/5MkZN.png

... thread for ILM?

reddit has been on fire with horrible ragecomics about atheism lately

http://i.imgur.com/NSNx0.png

lonely guy singin baout things

idk I think church-as-bookclub is one of the most appealing ways to look at it

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrxv1wn3Yi1qzvl4eo1_400.gif

Ugh in the same way that anything a Christian said used to come across as "You're going to hell and I'm not", all these Atheist affirmations sound like "I'm smarter than you and revel in being smug about it".

Also if Simon Pegg wants to sing songs all the time about physics why doesn't he become a teacher?

would have to have a working knowledge of physics

He's the chief engineer on the USS Enterprise.

there are lots of nerds who have written songs about physics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me06I9GDM_k

these are awesome