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Richard Dawkins disapproves of "anti-scientific" literature, like "Harry Potter"

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Oberon

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Peguy, I can't help but note that everything you post on this message board is nothing more than an elaborate take on the "atheists are just as crazy as the religious hardliners, therefore the truth must lie somewhere in the middle" fallacy.

I think that's rather an oversimplification. The truth often doesn't lie somewhere in the middle. Pieces of it may be scattered hither and yon.
 

Lark

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I can't take much of what Dawkins says seriously since I am too repelled by his arrogance to be properly able to consider what he has to say. I have two friends who've met him in person and who have no intention of meeting him again. The first friend is a Christian who interviewed him for the BBC and found it hard to have a proper conversation with him, the second friend is an atheist who was very excited to win a meeting with Richard Dawkins since he is one of his personal heros. During the meeting Dawkins ignored my friend and instead typed on his mobile phone and when my friend asked him to sign a copy of Darwin's "On the origin of species" Dawkins refused because he hadn't written the introduction to this particular edition. I mean seriously, behave less like an asshole and it might actually help you to get your message across.

Yeah, sounds like grade A asshole there, especially that business about not signing a copy of the book which he'd not introduced, to be truthful I'd have thought he would consider it a privilege or honour because he's so cracked up about Darwin but apparently not.

I used to suspect the same about AC Grayling, in print he seems just as nasty but I've heard a couple of interviews with him for Philosophy Bites in which he appears amiable and respectful without compromising his own deep seated beliefs. At the very least I can respect that without being swayed by what he has to say.
 

ajblaise

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I'm not too worried about Harry Potter, and the anti-witchcraft Christian league hates Harry Potter a lot more than atheists.... but we do have kids believe in a whole lot of supernatural stuff while they are young and impressionable. Tooth fairies, then an Easter bunny, then a Santa Clause, and depending on if you're a Christian or not; the Bible. And kids take this stuff literally at first. Then feel betrayed when they find the truth, or they slowly realize it's a joke.

I wonder what effect that has on the mind as well. Does it make people more likely to believe in the supernatural in adulthood, compared to if they didn't have these harmless fairy tale stories told to them as if literally true while young and before knowing any better.
 
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Oberon

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I'm not too worried about Harry Potter, and the anti-witchcraft Christian league hates Harry Potter a lot more than atheists.... but we do have kids believe in a whole lot of supernatural stuff while they are young and impressionable. Tooth fairies, then an Easter bunny, then a Santa Clause, and depending on if you're a Christian or not; the Bible. And kids take this stuff literally at first. Then feel betrayed when they find the truth, or they slowly realize it's a joke.

Yeah. Don't forget to throw in Marxism, too... same deal.
 
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Oberon

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Well, at least Obama-Marxism is real. And at your front door!!!

As if you can swing a dead cat in the US without hitting a church member or two...!

:D

Look, I didn't really want to get into a tit-for-tat match. I only posted by way of saying "I saw what you did there."

I saw what you did there.
 

ajblaise

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As if you can swing a dead cat in the US without hitting a church member or two...!

:D

Look, I didn't really want to get into a tit-for-tat match. I only posted by way of saying "I saw what you did there."

I saw what you did there.

I just wanted to say my "Obama-Marxism" line.
 

ajblaise

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Guys you've got to be trolling me with those posts. :D

Oberon and I usually do fine.

We're not going to get all ugly and drawn out forever like in certain other political arguments here.
 

Lark

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Oberon and I usually do fine.

We're not going to get all ugly and drawn out forever like in certain other political arguments here.

Nawh I was hinting at what I think Oberon was hinting at too.

The posts I was highlighting where framed as "obvious truths" when I considered them anything but.
 

ajblaise

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The posts I was highlighting where framed as "obvious truths" when I considered them anything but.

It's a casual forum, and politics isn't even the center of it, so why should we frame posts with the agonizing hesitancy and humility, of, say, an actual serious academic environment?
 

Lark

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It's a casual forum, and politics isn't even the center of it, so why should we frame posts with the agonizing hesitancy and humility, of, say, an actual serious academic environment?

I wasnt suggesting you should, I was just saying pretty much the same as Oberon that I saw "what you where doing there", that's why I said trolling, not in the sense of abuse or more malign troll behaviour but "fishing" for someone who'll react to a ploy
 

ajblaise

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I wasnt suggesting you should, I was just saying pretty much the same as Oberon that I saw "what you where doing there", that's why I said trolling, not in the sense of abuse or more malign troll behaviour but "fishing" for someone who'll react to a ploy

Eh, I didn't really require anyone to react to that post. Better for no one to question My Word.

If an opinion is controversial or even unpopular, but it's said anyways, it's not necessarily looking for a fight.
 

Mole

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I can't take much of what Dawkins says seriously since I am too repelled by his arrogance to be properly able to consider what he has to say. I have two friends who've met him in person and who have no intention of meeting him again. The first friend is a Christian who interviewed him for the BBC and found it hard to have a proper conversation with him, the second friend is an atheist who was very excited to win a meeting with Richard Dawkins since he is one of his personal heros. During the meeting Dawkins ignored my friend and instead typed on his mobile phone and when my friend asked him to sign a copy of Darwin's "On the origin of species" Dawkins refused because he hadn't written the introduction to this particular edition. I mean seriously, behave less like an asshole and it might actually help you to get your message across.

Richard Dawkins isn't giving us a message like some rube preacher. Richard has been commissioned by the British Government to nurture our understanding of science.

And in particular Richard has been commissioned to increase our scientific understaning of the origin of species and genetics.
 

Ivy

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All of this is beside the point- the point being, Harry Potter is lame. Seriously, how many times can one writer use the sentence "Dumbledore's eyes twinkled" before taking it out of rotation?
 

Randomnity

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All of this is beside the point- the point being, Harry Potter is lame. Seriously, how many times can one writer use the sentence "Dumbledore's eyes twinkled" before taking it out of rotation?

:cry:
 

Nicodemus

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All of this is beside the point- the point being, Harry Potter is lame. Seriously, how many times can one writer use the sentence "Dumbledore's eyes twinkled" before taking it out of rotation?
That certainly depends on the lifespan of the author and the method of writing.
 
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