Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Dawkins: Treat ID Proponents the Same as Holocaust Deniers

William Dembski
August 26, 2005
Intelligent Design
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Location of incident: “European Forum Alpbach,” (http://www.alpbach.org/English/indexen.htm), work group “06: From scientific journal to breaking news: science and the media (EN)”

Date of incident: Friday August 26, 2005

Report of incident: science.ORF.at (http://science.orf.at/science/news/139604) — ORF is the Austrian state television, with a well-respected news platform in various media forms (e.g., radio, TV, and internet).

Incident, key quote: “Wie aber sollte den ID-Vertretern begegnet werden? Seinem ersten Impuls folgend würde Dawkins Studenten, die ihn mit derartigen Ansichten konfrontieren, aus dem Hörsaal werfen – genau wie dies auch Studierenden der Geschichte widerfahren sollte, die den Holocaust in Frage stellen.”

Translation (by WmAD): “How should one respond to ID proponents? Dawkins’s first impulse would be to take those who confront him with that view and throw them out of the lecture hall — exactly as one would do to students of history who question the Holocaust.”

Comments
Here's the thing about Dawkins -- he knows that creationists show well in almost any debate. They don't always win, but they always at least make a significant showing. I'm sure Dawkins was shocked in the 1980's when the Oxford Union debate that HE participated in only gave a 198-115 vote in favor of evolution. If anyone wants to hear the debate see here: http://www.tonguesrevisited.com/oxford_union_debate.htm The fact that thinking people can reject evolution completely rocks his worldview, and the fact that more than 1/3 of the audience at OXFORD voted with the creationists must have really messed with him. Could you imagine how bad it would be for Darwinists if it were public information that thinking people and scientists disagreed? It would destroy their whole notion that evolution is something that is taken as fact by all true scientists. He has since refused to do any debates with creationists. And that's why he has to sink to such low tactics. He knows that debating creationists will show their flimsy foundation. He knows that the public (even the intellectual public) tends to grasp the ID ideas when presented in a fair and open debate. He simply cannot risk having the issue debated openly, so he has to squash it before it comes out.johnnyb
August 29, 2005
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That's funny, even Holocaust deniers wouldn't be thrown out.Ben Z
August 27, 2005
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The surest way to make sure that Holocaust deniers continue to multiply is to do exactly what Dawkins suggests. Which is why serious historians are careful to refute them point by painful point. I image Dawkins must know this, which leaves two alternatives. Either this was an emotional reaction that he knows is wrong, or the difficulty in refuting ID'ers makes this impulse an attractive course of action.jeffburton
August 27, 2005
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As far as I'm concerned, Dawkins is the scientific equivalent of a clown. He has nothing of real value to bring to the table. All he does is make a fool of himself. Davidcrandaddy
August 26, 2005
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