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2/19/09

Student to Richard Dawkins: What if You're Wrong?

A Student Asks Richard Dawkins, "What if you're wrong?" She says hers is "the most simplest question," and poses it to him. Her solecism drew attention to her rather than the empty-minded response Dawkins gave. Once again, he simply proves himself an evangelist for atheism. His campaign against religion has a very emotional element to it. (For somebody who claims to be a rationalist, there is little that is rational about his evangelism.) He begins by presuming that the girl is a Christian, and continues with humor about believing in Flying Spaghetti Monsters. His point is that each believer with her religion and her God is a product of her environment. He doesn't bother with the implicit question--What if Dawkins is wrong about the existence of a higher intelligence regardless of religious belief? Instead, after a minute of his whimsical response he asks her, "What if you're wrong about the Great Ju-Ju Monster at the bottom of the sea?" This fits propaganda though it drew admiring whoops and applause from the student audience at Randolph-Macon College. Although he has one, he provided no reasoned explanation of his own position as an answer to a serious question from a young mind. Somebody not an ideologue could have explained that natural selection can still allow for that intelligence, although it would probably affect her view of the intelligence's attributes. (I make no brief either for or against a higher intelligence (which might be conscious or it might not be) ; I only point out Dawkins' tactics.)

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