(July 29, 2015 at 9:53 am)Alex K Wrote:(July 29, 2015 at 9:46 am)BrokenQuill92 Wrote: I'm not sure what to call myself other than Alaina. I've never liked Richard Dawkins he's always seemed a bit of a pompous prick to me.Oh, he most definitely is a pompus prick, but he and his attitudes towards religion have also been an incredibly important life boat for atheists who felt isolated in mostly conservative theist societies - whether we like all of his actions and attitudes or not.
Quote: I'm not saying he doesn't have a few good points, but he really shouldnt make it seem like he's the voice of all atheists. I like Christopher Hitchens, but again he's like the drunk uncle who's really fun but needs to be let away from the party occasionally. As both someone with a disability and a woman of color I have to work very hard to compartmentalize my views on Darwin. Well he's for all intents and purposes the keystone of modern evolutionary biology my brain still has to get around his other views which are quite scary.Can you elaborate? Do you perceive Darwin as unusually racist and ableist (or possibly a proponent of eugenics), or do you simply feel queasy about elevating any 19th century figure to hero status because of the zeitgeist?
Quote: And which some people still believe in. I do tend to feel a sense of camaraderie with other atheists, being stuck in the south it's hard to remember sometimes that I'm not up shit creek without a paddle. But I am also just myself.
Darwin just had the usual 19th century views on blacks and the disabled. The usual we are underbred, and blighting the gene pool tripe. And so it's rather scary to me that some people are all for eugenics where me reproducing is concerned.
