Professor Richard Dawkins

Can we have some opinions and conversation on this guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRitr8RYsh4

There's been conversations about Richard Dawkins before, and a lot of Jedi quote him when discussing Atheism in the IP assignment. He tends to get a mixed reaction around here.

I'm more interested in what your opinions are. My opinion is that people demonize him because he doesn't bend to sensibilities; especially to those of SJWs or the extremely religious. I would agree that his early work was especially good, but some things that he tweets are easily arguable.

My opinion is this:

He's a brilliant and intelligent asshole. He knows his facts and has a probing mind unafraid to ask the hard questions, but he has no compassion or empathy.

I wish he was gentler and less arrogant about his positions. Hitch was the same way. You're not going to win friends by calling people delusional, stupid, and wrong... and when it comes to topics like religion, delivery is almost everything. Because he's one of the loudest voices, people see that arrogance as a defining trait of atheists, and it's a pain to have to get through that.

I much prefer Alain de Botton's approach to atheism. So much can be done when you come to the table with an attitude of curiosity and mutual respect.

i think that he is an ideologue of the same ilk as any religious zealot
he has a worldview that he is totally confident in, and he enjoys battering those he deems inferior

hes also willfully blind; he sees the negative uses of religion and religious people, but refuses to acknowledge the positive aspects and contributions to the world that also come from religious traditions

he is intelligent, and he is advocating truth as he sees it, but he has got a pretty savage way of doing it

Being kind and gentle is not always the right solution. It won't convince theists who fear their god more than almost anything else. I suppose that's the people he wants to address.

As a public speaker, well, he gets his shit back.

Best
Kc

Opinions are like hair follicles. Everyone has a zillion of them.

Interesting that most made this about his atheistic beliefs when first and foremost, he is a scientist.

He is known for his debates with theists of course, but I think more, he is concerned with not allowing willful ignorance. You can spout the positives of religion all day, but there is always the foundation of a willful ignorance in the face of evidence. Or, using lack thereof, or the ever popular God of the gaps argument as if that proves anything one way or the other.

I imagine it gets frustrating when even in 2016, there is a movement that truly believes the earth is flat.

Especially for such a highly educated individual.

He can be a huge douche, however, that is nothing new in the human populace.

My opinion is he is a well educated man, who knows his stuff, and as time has gone on, has become bitter and frustrated with a world where people believe that all opinions are valid, and equal.

Which, just in case your confused, they are not.

Quality of thought is important.

Kaccani wrote: Being kind and gentle is not always the right solution. It won't convince theists who fear their god more than almost anything else. I suppose that's the people he wants to address.

Right.

From what I read in "The God Delusion," he's more against teaching harmful memes of blind obedience to authority figures that serves no other purpose than to further the spread of fear of torment and anguish in the eternal hereafter. He's more against the culture of fear and most religions further breed that culture of fear.

His trash talk towards those with legitimate beliefs is rather harsh, but harsh doesn't mean wrong. Whether or not one believes the other person is a first-class A-hole, it doesn't negate what the other person says anymore than saying, "Oh yeah, well you're stupid." I am of the opinion (take it or leave it; I'm inclined to think most here have disdain for my opinion) that the way people dismiss him because of how his words make them feel is rather childish. How many times have we been reminded to attack the argument and not the person? But, he presumably doesn't peruse this place, so that makes it okay, right?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯