Skeptics I no longer have any respect for.

[Justtristo]

Richard Dawkins
Start off with possibly the most well known atheist in the world. I used to respect Dawkins a lot; he was one of the people who got me to be more open about my atheism, to start a blog, to even start these forums. I used to hold his book "The God Delusion" in high regard, and indeed I got a copy signed when I met him a few years ago.

That book is ironically one of the reasons I've lost most respect for him. If you read it as your first book on atheism, or even on philosophy, you think it's brilliant. If however, you start to read other books on atheism, or delve into philosophical thinking even more, you realise that "The God Delusion" is a pile of crap. It tries to make several philosophical points, as well as commenting on various theological ones as well. The problem is, Dawkins has no training in philosophy, and certainly no training in theology either...and it shows...really badly.

The other reason I lost a lot of respect for him was over his handling of the "Richard Dawkins Forums", which were at one point in history, one of the largest internet atheist communities. Long story short, the admin team were crap, a load of things broke and weren't fixed, and then instead of pulling his act together and saving the community (of thousands I might add), he decided to shut down the forums completely. That said, we gained a fair few members that way, so it wasn't a complete loss.

While I broadly agree with you about Richard Dawkins being unlearned in philosophy, which is disappointing. However his “ignorance” of theology I can forgive easily.

Whatever his faults the impression I get from his writings, he seems like a decent minded British Liberal (rather like Bertrand Russell) and I like that. Also I respect him because he really irritates theists (especially Young Earth Creationists). Not to mention his ability to explain in layman's terms about evolutionary biology.

On Rebecca Watson, I believe thesummerqueen summed it up best that her behaviour is typical of women who have had bad experiences with guys. It was not like she was sexually harassed or worse assaulted by this guy.