richard dawkins (1 Viewer)

[taubstumm]

i havent read it, am i allowed to be an athiest or does i needs to get christened by dawkins?

yeah, you need to be christened -- he comes over to your house and dunks you in a vat of unholy water and makes you swear to be all sciency

 

[piratecore]

you need a new peer group.
not talking about my peer group, but in general social situations, i've generally seen the opposite. i've been challenged about my atheism on several occasions, but i'd really only discuss atheism with fellow atheists. and that's the behaviour i'd generally see from others.

other than my family i dont generally come across any christians unless theyre handing me a leaflet in the town telling me i had better come to their church and stop being a bummer or i will burn in hell for eternity. i am sure i meet others but i dont bring up the subject unless someone brings it up with me or they are my friends (none of whom are christians or religious that i know of). i wish my sister was not into it, but she is a very nice person and not preachy at all and her social views are progressive-ish on many issues. she doesnt have the general religious view of wanting to control every aspect of everyones lives in order to acheive some paisleyite/ratsingerite/islamic chaste and pious theocratic dystopia. i still wish she wasnt a part of this ridiculous death cult and i worry about lots of the arseholes who are respected preachers, reminiscent of a certain, sleazy mr j kyle, spouting their shite into her ear. i used to have arguments with her and my ma all the time because i dont understand it at all, but now i just leave it.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I recently read Unweaving the Rainbow and, despite a few good (but probably out of date) arguments on how Science is good for things like law cases, he manages to gloriously miss the point an awful lot.

I especially hate when he tries to creative with his explanations, like in the form of dialogue between people or using stuff like stage directions. blegh!

 

[piratecore]

the teapot circling around the sun is my favourite. in the tv or radio interviews with people when people question him and he comes off with completely irrelevant comparisons to justify his arguments. he actually comes across as quite stupid which i am sure he isnt. extremely condascending though. Some of the christian retorts on youtube are quite interesting, taking apart many points made in the god delusion, mostly just small details but it makes it look like he hasnt done quite enough research on some subjects covered

Christopher Hitchens is another arrogant prick although i quite enjoyed reading god is not great, once i got around his enormously inflated ego and toxic politics. an interesting read, and thankfully not one you have to take as gospel.

saw a book on amazon that i might buy once my exams are over, called the politically incorrect guide to islam. it looks quite good. islam is quite politically incorrect anyway.

 

[1000smurfs]

the teapot circling around the sun is my favourite.

ALL your Teapot belong to me :

Betrand Russell

Would have made a great Doctor Who

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I liked The God Delusion.
Sorry.

 

[pete]

me too.

 

[flashback]

i'm an atheist, and richard dawkins often annoys me. but hey, the selfish gene is great.

one thing that everyone should know about The Selfish Gene is it is not Dawkin's idea. It is Bill Hamilton's. Hamilton was a truly great scientist, and a shit orator / writer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._Hamilton

Dawkins took a piece of Hamilton's (I think PhD thesis...) and popularised it.
Dawkin's then built an entire career on this.
Scientifically Dawkins does not matter.


If you want to read a good book on this stuff you could have a look at an american philosopher called Daniel Dennet, he wrote Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Cheesy title but its a good book. Also it has some nice elegant thinking in it, rather than Dawkins year in year out flogging of his dead horse.

 

[flashback]

the rest of Dawkin's books are grand light reading to skim through. Some of his examples are cute.

I think he is probably a bit of a prick, and obviously a total media whore. But if he can get people off their God addiction fair play.

I think though he does not advance this cause. I think he only really preaches to the choir, and fucks off most of the rest of people. I could be wrong here though.
He is dogmatic, and he is not elegant in his thinking, unlike a lot of other dudes out there.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

I've changed my mind. I liked The God Delusion too. I was just moaning.

 

[the strange guy]

Dennet's book 'Consciousness Explained' is one of my favourite
books.
I agree though, Dawkins is a smug cunt.
He portrays himself as a man with strong opinions, but he's
actually just a preachy fucker, making him just as bad as the
clergy he hates so much.

 

[pissypants]

this is a very weird thread. its verging on the point where folk are confusing being an athiest with also having to like richard dawkins.

As I've said elsewhere, even though I'm an atheist and agree with most of what the likes of Dawkins / Hitchens / Maher have to say, they still come across as pretty smug and repugnant.

 

[nooleen]

i liked him in south park, haven't read any of his books though.

 

[snakybus]

I love the way people are saying - "ok, just so you know, I'm an ATHEIST, right?" before dissing Dawkins just in case anyone thinks they're a namby-pamby christian. Don't worry guys, it's cool, we know you're tough guys, okay!

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I guess it's hard not to appear condescending when you're dealing with adults that believe in fairytales.

 

[taubstumm]

I guess it's hard not to appear condescending when you're dealing with adults that believe in fairytales.

heheh

zing

 

[magicbastarder]

If you want to read a good book on this stuff you could have a look at an american philosopher called Daniel Dennet, he wrote Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Cheesy title but its a good book. Also it has some nice elegant thinking in it, rather than Dawkins year in year out flogging of his dead horse.

daniel dennett came up with the 'brights' idea, though, which is pretty much unforgivable.

 

[the strange guy]

daniel dennett came up with the 'brights' idea, though, which is pretty much unforgivable.

He promoted the idea, but didn't come up with it.
It is pretty cringy though.

 

[Lili Marlene]

one thing that everyone should know about The Selfish Gene is it is not Dawkin's idea. It is Bill Hamilton's. Hamilton was a truly great scientist, and a shit orator / writer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._Hamilton

thing is

Dawkins is a shit writer.

is he a good orator?

 

[Squiggle]

thing is

Dawkins is a shit writer.

is he a good orator?

Dawkins is also a shit orator.