Hey,
I did not go into into in in depth when I called Dawkins an asshole. Let me please add that Arcanus, you have written an absolutely fantastic post about the topic. It was thorough, and intelligent. I told Kyu long ago that I didn't like Dawkins because I found his arguments to be weak, and his comparison of extremists to normal believers. He didn't like that. If I remember, he said I shouldn't call someone a jerk because I didn't like them, and I told him that was a cart/horse misplacement.
I agree wholeheartedly that Dawkings does everything you said. He writes entire books that would make you think that no one has ever had a positive relationship with God. What did you think about the 'Methinks it is like a weasel," thing? That struck me right away. He was trying to show the ability of evolution to appear to have a designed result (If I remember correctly). I thought it was laughable that he could write a computer program that chose the best 'mutation' and started over with it... And then go on about the lack of design. In that experiment he is God, the computer is complex reality, and the outcome is fixed. I don't think anyone here thinks that the world has an end result we are working towards, so why couldn't Dawkins write the program to not pick the every best 'mutation', and also not delete all the others and start over 'clean-slate' with the best. That is also a very poor representation of evolution. I just always thought that little experiment he did was absurd.
Good post, well written, and very intelligent. I wish I could have been as thorough when I denounced Dawkins, but alas I am mentally handicapped...
Thank you,
-Pip
I did not go into into in in depth when I called Dawkins an asshole. Let me please add that Arcanus, you have written an absolutely fantastic post about the topic. It was thorough, and intelligent. I told Kyu long ago that I didn't like Dawkins because I found his arguments to be weak, and his comparison of extremists to normal believers. He didn't like that. If I remember, he said I shouldn't call someone a jerk because I didn't like them, and I told him that was a cart/horse misplacement.
I agree wholeheartedly that Dawkings does everything you said. He writes entire books that would make you think that no one has ever had a positive relationship with God. What did you think about the 'Methinks it is like a weasel," thing? That struck me right away. He was trying to show the ability of evolution to appear to have a designed result (If I remember correctly). I thought it was laughable that he could write a computer program that chose the best 'mutation' and started over with it... And then go on about the lack of design. In that experiment he is God, the computer is complex reality, and the outcome is fixed. I don't think anyone here thinks that the world has an end result we are working towards, so why couldn't Dawkins write the program to not pick the every best 'mutation', and also not delete all the others and start over 'clean-slate' with the best. That is also a very poor representation of evolution. I just always thought that little experiment he did was absurd.
Good post, well written, and very intelligent. I wish I could have been as thorough when I denounced Dawkins, but alas I am mentally handicapped...
Thank you,
-Pip
