Richard Dawkins was interviewed by Bill Maher last night about The God Delusion. He makes clear that his book was intended to sway the middle, not to persuade ardent believers. Interesting too that Dawkins once again makes clear that he is not certain there is no god, and on a 1-7 rating, where 1 is total belief and 7 is total unbelief, he puts himself at 6 or 6.9. I wonder how long the anti-evolutionists will keep getting this one wrong?
Speaking of getting it all wrong, leave it Davescot over on Uncommon Descent to get his facts wrong and offer a completely worthless analysis:
"I watched Dawkins on the Bill Maher show last night. Among other interesting things he said was when it comes to belief in gods if you were to rate his belief on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being most belief and 10 being least he puts himself at a 6. Then he compares belief in gods with belief in fairies and pink unicorns. So I guess he’s conflicted about those too. Bill Maher then ridiculed religion in predictable trite ways which caused Dawkins to reconsider the belief rating and up it to “6 point 9″. Hilarious. Richard Dawkins is really a centrist on religious beliefs. Who’da thunk?"
Who'da thunk indeed, because the ratings question was posed as one to SEVEN, not one to ten. But then, since when does Davescot care about such a pathetic level of detail. Catch this one quick before it goes down that famous Uncommon Descent memory hole.
And finally, Dawkins had a hilarious response to the possibility of him having a deathbed conversion. He is going to have witnesses present with a tape recording to make sure it can be proven that he did not have a deathbed conversion. Alas, people like Davescot will probably make shit up about that too.
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2 comments:
"He makes clear that his book was intended to sway the middle, not to persuade ardent unbelievers."
This is where the battle lies. It often isn't that they fear us, they simply fear that we actually make more sense, and slowly the middle ground will come to us. Look how much the middle ground has shifted in the last hundred years. We teach science in the schools and you see it on television.
I believe that the use of science and rational thought will grow exponentially over the next few generations.
-Amber Culbertson-Faegre
I agree with you Amber. That's the big advantage we have. All we need is education, the rest will follow.
Sorry about the typo above, it should read "...not to persuade ardent believers".
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