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Oklahoma, Vatican Take Opposite Tacks On Evolution
nizcolas writes "Notable evolutionary biologist, author, and speaker Richard Dawkins was recently invited to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma as part of the school's celebration of Charles Darwin. However, Oklahoma lawmakers are working to silence Dawkins with the passage of House Bill 1015 (RTF), which reads in part: '... the University of Oklahoma ... has invited as a public speaker on campus, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published opinions, as represented in his 2006 book "The God Delusion," and public statements on the theory of evolution demonstrate an intolerance for cultural diversity and diversity of thinking and are views that are not shared and are not representative of the thinking of a majority of the citizens of Oklahoma ...'" Pending legal action, Dawkins is set to speak tonight at 7 pm. (Luckily, we no longer live in the era of Bertrand Russell's court-ordered dismissal on moral grounds from the College of the City of New York.) And reader thms sends word of the Vatican's Darwin conference (program): "The conference, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species," has been criticized by advocates of Creationism or Intelligent Design for not inviting them. The Muslim creationist Harun Yahya, most famous for his Atlas of Creation, also complained about not being invited."
Full disclosure: I am an ex-Christian now agnostic.
In my recent experience atheists have gone a lot further than religious people. Take for example this: every evangelical religious person that came up to me was friendly and sincere (usually from the USA or S. Korea funny enough). With most of those people you could have a nice civilized chat. I get the idea no matter how misguided their beliefs were that they at least that they care deeply about people and do so out of love. The one group actually just made a quick stop at the university â" they were helping out at a state hospital over the holidays.
Now switch back to the atheists (most of which study with me). When they speak about religion they have an inexplicable hate for Christians. They go so far as to say that religious people are less intelligent than atheists. It is a level of bigotry that is worse than the classic white-black racism. They will nag you to watch stupid films such as Zeitgeist or read Dawkins' books â" and when you point out the inaccuracies they will get angry without any reason. Every angry atheist I met thinks he is smarter than everyone and that he is special in some way. I sincerely don't know who or what made them so angry and full of hate.
They have this aura of superiority â" yet not one of the atheists I met spend his holiday slaving away in a state hospital.