Friday, October 13, 2006
Interview with Richard Dawkins
Salon features an excellent interview with Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a very eloquent but plain-spoken advocate for science. He's often demonized by both the evangelicals and some scientists who would rather he not be so blunt, but his thought is clear and his arguments persuasive. Check it out.
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I find Dawkins highly annoying. I agree with him substantively but his arrogance and presumption is offputting. Many people need religion for a lot of reasons, to get through life easier. Why is it so important that everyone perceive life like Richard Dawkins? Who is Dawkins to say they are wrong? People like Dawkins make a religion out of not being religious--why can't you simply not believe and let everyone else alone? His crusade to eliminate religion is not much different (other than the fact that he has much less chance for success)than the fundamentalists' railing against homosexuality. It's just as intolerant.
It's not Dawkins who is trying to push religion into classrooms, stop potentially life-saving medical research, or discriminate against people because of the way they're born.
Unlike the fundamentalists, Dawkins isn't being proactive, he's being reactive. When the religious actually leave others alone, I doubt you'll see many strident atheists speaking out.
But Dawkins isn't just reacting to fundamentalists. He is really arguing against anyone believing. He is just as much against religious moderates as he is the extremists. I just find his attempt to deign all believers, no matter how moderate, as fools to be arrogant. I suspect Dawkins isn't someone who would brook disagreement with any of his views very lightly. There is this whole movement among atheists to call themselves "Brights." That's stupid because there are lots of intelligent people that do believe, albeit more moderately than the nuts. If he were to say, I'm crusading against the dangers of fundamentalism, that would be one thing. Religion exists because it fills a need for many people--not one that you or I or Dawkins need, but one that exists anyway. It's a scary universe out there. I simply find his elitism annoying.
At the end of the day, though, Dawkins is right. Humanity would be better off without irrational thought. Of course you can never eliminate irrationality completely (we are humans, after all) but getting rid of some of the major sources of irrationality would only be a good thing. You wouldn't want children believing in Santa Claus all their lives, would you?
Many atheists do not like the term "Brights". Intelligence does not correlate with belief or lack thereof. As Michael Shermer points out in his book, "Why People Believe Weird Things", smart people become adept at defending beliefs they've arrived at for non-rational reasons.
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