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Dr. Richard Dawkins On Why Disagreeing With Religion Isn't Insulting

In part 2 of this video interview (with transcript), Dr. Richard Dawkins explains the function of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, headlined by his website. They're holding it up as a blueprint for similar groups: "We're trying to encourage, with some success, other organizations to make use of our facility, so that they will use our website, or have their own websites which are based upon ours, and have the same look and feel and use the same infrastructure." One of the Foundation's other purposes is to oppose organizations like the Good News Club. "What it is, is a group of Fundamentalist Christian organizations, who go into public schools after the school bell has rung for the day. So that it's no longer violating the Constitutional separation of church and state. ... And it's actually the Good News Club people masquerading as teachers, and they're being extremely effective." Dr. Dawkins also talks about his own comments, and explains why they're perceived as offensive: "Ignorance is no crime. There are all sorts of things I'm ignorant of, such as baseball, but I don't regard it as insulting if somebody says I'm ignorant of baseball, it's a simple fact. I am ignorant of baseball. People who claim to be Creationists are almost always ignorant of evolution. That's just a statement of fact, not an insult. It's just a statement. But it sounds like an insult. And I think that accounts for part of what you've picked up about my apparent image of being aggressive and offensive. I'm just telling it clearly." Hit the link below to see the rest of the interview.

10 of 1,152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why disagreeing with Richard Dawkins isn't rape by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you really want to get that tattooed on you? People might think you have a Bachelor of the Arts in English and that would be embarrassing.

  2. Re:Baseball by rcamera · · Score: 4, Funny
    --
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream
  3. Re:Why disagreeing with Richard Dawkins isn't rape by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, no. That's "BA". This is BA+! It's differenter! That guy from the A-TEAM is sure gonna be ticked off, though.

  4. Re:Dawkins: Islam "1 of the great evils of the wor by andrew2325 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I agree that Islam is a serious problem. There are serious problems with some hindu and buddhist beliefs, thinking it's okay for people to suffer the way they do and not even try to help. I am a Christian, and I don't believe the world is as old as scientists say. One reason behind this is instrumentation does lie. I've seen someone resurrect, amongst numerous other things we won't even go into. I'm not even saying this to argue with you. There is no need to try to state a debate with me because I would likely ignore any further comments that try to discredit things I believe, which is not ignorance because I know nearly every side to that argument. What I've seen is not your everyday phenomenon, explainable by swamp gases or delusions.

  5. Re:Baseball by vlm · · Score: 4, Funny

    the rules have evolved over time.

    The game itself evolves over time.. or does it? If you have video footage of the 3rd and 7th inning, I deny the innings between exist until you provide proof. And if you find someone's cellphone cam of the 5th inning, I'll merely switch my tactic to complaining there's supernatural intervention evidence because the game now jumped from the 3rd to the 5th inning and from the 5th to the 7th... until you find proof of the 4rd and 6th innings... been there seen that.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  6. Re:Distinguishing conflict from disagreement by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's important to realize (or accept) that pure religion is not coercive

    Aye, 'tis true! That Scotsman is a fucking saint, he is!

  7. Re:Distinguishing conflict from disagreement by SecurityGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    a threat from the immoral (god)

    Awesome Freudian slip.

  8. Re:Why disagreeing with Richard Dawkins isn't rape by Custard+Horse · · Score: 3, Funny

    I prefer Atheism# - much easier for the beginner.

    "Who is this God person anyway?"

  9. Re:Distinguishing conflict from disagreement by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe I should stop before I beat a dead horse even deader, but isn't atheism in and of itself a religion.

    Son, that horse isn't dead -- it's made of straw.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  10. I don't really get this "Base-ball" stuff by Arancaytar · · Score: 1, Funny

    I gather that "Base-ballists" believe that there are nine players to what they call a "team" and they play with an oblong object they call "ball" which they alternately attempt to throw, catch or hit with a wooden club. That seems irreducibly complex to me. And yet Wikipedia claims that Baseball "evolved" from other games - that they themselves admit are difficult to trace. They refer to a 14th-century French manuscript (French!) that appears to suggest even clerics were not above playing a game resembling this "base-ball".
    Now I ask of you: Is it plausible that a game as absurd as this would develop naturally by random chance out of other games? Ball games just changing into one another? And look at who is at the forefront of promoting and perpetuating this supposed game: The hopelessly secular public highschools and elitist ivory-tower universities again.

    You may claim I'm ignorant of "Base-ball" or sports in general, but I'm just seeing this with the common sense God gave me. "Base-ball" is a scam!