Saturday, August 05, 2017

Okay, here we go:


Thinking people are not necessarily thoughtful people.

It's not that I disagree with criticisms of Richard Dawkins.  As far as I'm concerned he's an empty head in windy spaces.  That his most famous book is considered one of the most important science books of the 20th century is frightening to me.  On the other hand, there are delightful ironies:

“Let us try to teach generosity and altruism,” Dawkins suggests, “because we are born selfish.”

Because that's just straight up Christianity.  Not that "monotheism" gets any pass in this analysis of Dawkins:

Ultimately, the crucial issue is not about cancelling his appearance on a radio show* but recognizing that, just as religion has caused millennia of suffering based on delusional ideas, Dawkins himself has created a new delusional framework offering a false rationale for an economic and technocratic system destroying human and natural flourishing. 

Um....yeah.  Uh-huh.  I expect "thinking people" (the kind the author says Dawkins has corrupted) to be better informed and more thoughtful.  That sentence is followed by this one:

The choice is not between religion and science, as Dawkins and his followers suggest. The real choice is between a flawed worldview that leads inexorably to globally destructive behavior and one that recognizes life’s deep interconnectedness and humanity’s intrinsic responsibility within it.

Again, straight up Christianity as I understand it.  Humankind is a steward of the earth, not it's exploiter and destroyer.  Every human being is my brother and sister.  You want concern for nature, look no further than St. Francis, from whom the current pope took his papal name.  Again, thinking people should be more thoughtful than this.

Does what I understand represent all of Christianity?  Well, no; no more so than Dawkins represents the thinking of all biologists (he's gutted in this article, like a fish) or the thoughts of all "thinking" people.  But, you know, declaring somebody dangerously delusional is like pointing a finger at them; with three more pointing back at you.

The speck in your brother's eye, the log in your own.  'Round and 'round that observation we continually go.....

*The essay starts by claiming Dawkins' being banned from KPFA recently because of his anti-Islamic (i.e., racist) views was a controversy that "reverberated around the world."  Well, I'd heard of it.  I never noticed that anybody else did, though.  Mighty small world these "thinking people" live in.

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