Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumRichard Dawkins doesn’t deserve this fellow atheist’s smears
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/richard-dawkins-doesn-t-deserve-fellow-atheist-s-smearsJohn Gray is an English writer, philosopher, and an atheist who has it in for New Atheists. (Ive previously analysed his missteps here, here, and here.) Gray seems to be one of those atheists who doesnt like science, claims that its bad effects are as prominent as its good ones, and has a sneaking love of religion. But hes never been as nasty as he is in his latest article in The New Republic, The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins. And it is nastiness with no apparent purpose other than to smear Dawkins, which Gray does by pretending to review Dawkinss latest book: An Appetite for Wonder, the first volume of his autobiography.
Its okay to slam a book if the ideas are bad, or its thesis is insupportable. Im thinking here of the best critical review of a science book Ive ever seen: Peter Medawars crushing review of Teilhard de Chardins The Phenomenon of Man, in which Medawar fatally demolishes de Chardins gaseous lucubrations. But you wont find Teilhards intellectual weakness in Dawkinss book. If youve read it, as I have, youll find it a fairly workmanlike autobiography, dwelling mostly on the details of Dawkinss life. There are a few bits about atheism (mostly about how Dawkins lost his faith, which appears to be a gradual process involving his exposure to Darwinism), but most of it is of the I did this and then went here variety. The best bits, for me, are at the end when Dawkins starts talking about science it ends when he publishes The Selfish Gene, for a second volume is in the offing as science is what really gets Dawkinss juices flowing, and hes best when writing about that, or about atheism. One senses that hes unenthusiastically recounting the details of his life as a kind of duty, perhaps goaded by an agent or publisher.
Good piece that picks apart criticisms that we've seen variations of right here on DU. Posted here so we can be safe from disruptors.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)My 1st name is John and my middle name (that I'm called by) is Gray!
But if John Gray is an atheist with a description like:
"Gray seems to be one of those atheists who doesnt like science, claims that its bad effects are as prominent as its good ones, and has a sneaking love of religion."
he is obviously as confused as any religionist. It is not "close minded" to dismiss magical crap. And how close minded is it to claim science's "bad effects are as prominent as its good ones"? The scientific method is not responsible for how science is applied, y'know.
mr blur
(7,753 posts)and who are "as confused as any religionist", haven't we?
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Everything is equal! No idea or answer is more correct than any other!
Well, except for those folks' opinions. Those are most assuredly better than anyone else's.
onager
(9,356 posts)And from several different directions. Just off the top of my head, prominent atheists/skeptics attacked recently and charges currently pending in the Hopping-Marsupial/Atheist-Sharia Internet Courts:
Richard Dawkins (Islamophobe, General Poopyhead)
Sam Harris (Islamophobe, poor TV entertainer)
Lawrence Krauss (sexual assault)
Ben Radford (rape, sexual assault)
Michael Shermer (rape, sexual assault)
Dr. Harriet Hall, Paula Kirby, Abbie Smith, Miranda Celeste Hale, Maria Maltseva, Sara Mayhew, Ellen Beth Wachs and many others: openly practicing the wrong kind of feminism/atheism. Remember, if they float they're guilty...
And...Bill Nye The Science Guy! Nye has been accused of groping women at A/A conferences, AND having a gay fling with "Star Trek" actor Robert Picardo. Jeez, where does he find the time to do science?
Link to Michael Nugent's latest, where that "S" word comes up again and the Comments are even more interesting than the article:
http://www.michaelnugent.com/2014/10/07/the-smears-get-increasingly-serious-as-pz-myers-crosses-a-new-line/
And because inquiring minds want to know, a link to the Bill Nye rumor:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/star-trek-actor-denies-affair-with-bill-nye-the-science-guy/Content?oid=2866889
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Pawlik claims her private investigator says the two longtime buddies once spent hours together in Nye's bedroom, according to TMZ.
So you think his future ex-wife is lying!
You're obviously an atheist misogynist! Blaming the victim!!!!
Hey.... how does the PI know they weren't just play with Legos? Or having a conversation. OH that's right, people only have sex in bed rooms.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)actual convictions and solid signed evidence of a cover up, why are you so bigoted?
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)makes sense he might be interpreted as the 'leader' or organizer of it.
Wonderful delivery:
Gelliebeans
(5,043 posts)Been a target for a while now. Which has been unfair because we aren't organized as an institution with a rule book.
My hope is that the fury that is whipping up about him is because people know he is right and the argument to stay silent about non-belief or atheism is becoming less relevant.
Just look at how millennials feel about religion and sexual equality compared to just gen x'ers.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/
I don't know, but look at how fast peole realized that LGBT long overdue and deserved to have equal rights under the law...once they knew someone who was "out" in a span of 10 years the numbers jumped.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)I think the hellraising over his comments is totally overblown in order to discredit him and all atheists. Apparently any atheist who says "I exist and I'm not going away" is a militant atheist. Oooooh scary militant atheists!!
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)that people are throwing a hot fit over has any bearing on whether a god or gods exist, despite the attempts of fundies or the religionistsas over in Religion to paint it otherwise. Every bloody atheist in the world could be a raving sexist, and it wouldn't make their tribal gods any more real.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)When you ask a religious person "What is the rational basis for your belief? Do you have any facts to support this belief?" they lose their shit because they can't answer you and get furious at you for asking it.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)For thousands of years now they've had no response to that first evil atheist: "What's your evidence?"
When you have no answers, you have to attack the person who's asking the questions.