It is ridiculous to spend so much bandwidth in one day on a figure like Dawkins, increasingly a caricature of a parody of himself. But I’ve been distracted recently by the demands of stories elsewhere… and frankly, this just fell out of a tree:
Just in from Religion News:
But in recent months, a few of his opinions have riled many in the atheist community as well. Remarks he made on Twitter and elsewhere on subjects ranging from sexual harassment (“stop whining”) to Down syndrome fetuses (“abort and try again”) have sparked suggestions from some fellow nonbelievers that he would serve atheism better by keeping quiet.
No, no, Dick, keep talking, keep talking.
When Religion News Service reported on his controversial July tweets on pedophilia — Dawkins opined that some attacks on children are “worse” than others — the 73-year-old British evolutionary biologist and best-selling New York Times author declined to be interviewed.
…
Bottom line: He stands by everything he has said — including comments that one form of rape or pedophilia is “worse” than another, and that a drunken woman who is raped might be responsible for her fate.
Dawkins is quite right to complain of “a climate of bullying, a climate of intransigent thought police which is highly influential in the sense that it suppresses people like me.”
But as Canadian free speech journalists could tell him, things have been way worse when the thought police had the law on their side. (And maybe will again.)
If his beef is just that other atheists wish he would retire or something… and apparently, they do wish that…
Okay, so people don’t like him. Because he has chosen to be the bad clown, not the mad clown, the sad clown, or the happy clown. The role doesn’t come with good press.
Now, on a serious note, re people with Down syndrome:
Richard Dawkins on Down syndrome: Immoral that such a person should live
Priceless: A mother’s plea to son with Down syndrome to be tolerant of Dawkins
and
Why should Richard Dawkins even live?
Overall: Holy kaziddle. Usual coverage resumes tomorrow.
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