Dawkins cringe thread

[Magritte]

Look at this nasty-ass bigot. He's long since blown past "bad spokesman" status and is now well into "crazy uncle" territory. No one else can make me cringe like Dawkins can.

[KR Wordgazer]

Not only a bigot, but sexist. There's no reason to emphasize that Julia Sweeney is "the lovely" - in fact, it makes no sense in this context. What would her looks have to do with her world view? "The well-read" or "the highly competent" or something would make much more sense.

[Magritte]

Not only a bigot, but sexist. There's no reason to emphasize that Julia Sweeney is "the lovely" - in fact, it makes no sense in this context. What would her looks have to do with her world view? "The well-read" or "the highly competent" or something would make much more sense.

Good catch, I didn't even notice that. "Not Victoria Jackson" would also suffice.

BTW here's a link to that Julia Sweeney video - https://youtu.be/M76xDtRUx_8

[Jim B.]

I agree with KRW that "The Lovely..." is a sexist comment. The video itself I found pretty unobjectionable but I agree with Magritte in finding Dawkins cringe-worthy. Remember his tweet about a hypothetical woman pregnant with a down syndrome child?

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014 ... rome-tweet

[met]

What's strange to me is how few atheists- famed for their liberalism - even notice that those guys are mostly neocons. Very down on the islamic world.....m

[Jim B.]

What's strange to me is how few atheists- famed for their liberalism - even notice that those guys are mostly neocons. Very down on the islamic world.....m

Neocons were originally Truman Democrats but I don't know how 'liberal.' Almost everybody in AMerica was a war monger back then, the only difference was the degree.

It's a strange debate going on, where many fundie Christians are siding with anti-Muslim atheists like Dawkins, Harris and Maher. But you're right -- if someone agrees with us on a very important issue, the temptation to look the other way on other less-than-admirable beliefs of theirs is definitely there.

[Superfund]

I can understand the dissapointment I sure Dawkins has caused many appeals to Christ, I can imagine, Like, Oh Christ not again.. etc

Willaim Lane Craig is arguabley as bad, out of curiosity I had a look at his "Eastwooding Richard Dawkins" on youtube clip, If I was stuck in front of tv with no off button i'd have to get up and leave the room it was so bad. Fingers down a blackboard kind of bad..

Or the rare times he gets into his rumpa-room theology, those kids books that he published... Because 6 year olds definatley need to be taught to moralise the wars of Leviticus or whatever book it was from.. :/

[Magritte]

WLC works best in a debate where he can make rapid fire points that are hard to respond to en masse. On paper he's less impressive. I couldn't finish Reasonable Faith. It was full of one howler after another.

People are complex, aren't they? I used to have the naive view that ail atheists were liberals like myself, but there's plenty of of right wing and libertarian atheists too. Penn Jillette doesn't just make me cringe, he makes me want to crawl under a rock and die. Another unpleasant surprise for me, by the by, is how many liberals aren't "reality based" at all when it comes to things like vaccination (sometimes medicine in general) and 9/11.

[Jim B.]

WLC works best in a debate where he can make rapid fire points that are hard to respond to en masse. On paper he's less impressive. I couldn't finish Reasonable Faith. It was full of one howler after another.

Yeah, I'm not that impressed with WLC from his televised debates. He's to theism what Dawkins is to atheism. There are much better people out there to represent those positions, but for whatever reason aren't deemed to be as 'marketable.'

People are complex, aren't they? I used to have the naive view that ail atheists were liberals like myself, but there's plenty of of right wing and libertarian atheists too. Penn Jillette doesn't just make me cringe, he makes me want to crawl under a rock and die. Another unpleasant surprise for me, by the by, is how many liberals aren't "reality based" at all when it comes to things like vaccination (sometimes medicine in general) and 9/11.

I agree about Jilette and about neither side having a monoploy on mass-delusional belief. Some of the most dogmatic, inflexible people I've ever known have been on the far left.

[Magritte]

I renounce and repudiate atheism. If you must call me anything, call me a secular humanist. All these new atheist guys are jackasses and idiots with the reasoning ability of a turnip. Look at sleazy neocon Sam Harris trying to milk a debate out of Chomsky:

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the- ... -discourse

I think this guy's twitter stream sums it up best: