Re: Richard Dawkins Discussion of His New Book, The Greatest Show on Earth

silverchris — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:55:19 -0000

"I hope that one day soon, all children will read that book before they go to bed. Let’s leave the 40-percenters and their bible-hugging ways in the past."

This to me sounds to me like replacing one unreflective, child-indoctrinating ideology with another. Personally, I think I'd prefer that all who were willing and able would read both the Bible and Dawkins (actually not Dawkins, I'd prefer a more sophisticated atheist) before they got to bed. And some Quran and (definitely) some Shakespeare wouldn't hurt either. And the bit about the tiger and the gazelle... Dawkins isn't a very deep thinker, is he? I mean, really? His argument against Creationism is "why did God give both animals a fair shot?" Maybe so that the ecosystem could function properly? Just maybe? But I understand that he was giving a defense of Evolution, not so much an attack on Creationism (I suppose that's in his other book), so that's understandable. Plus, he was essentially making a joke to a bunch of like-minded individuals who already agreed with his perspective, much like, well, a preacher giving a slapdash response to atheism at a Sunday morning service. Also... conflating creationism with Holocaust denial may not be entirely a fair comparison. We have scads of first-hand accounts of the Holocaust. But somehow I don't think there's much first hand testimony from the Common Ancestor of All Life. Since it didn't have hands and all. But again, I understand: it was more preaching to the choir...

Seriously though, although I might disagree with some of its points, I enjoyed reading this article; it was good.

Re: Will Columbia professors continue writing for Al Ahram?

silverchris — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:37:26 -0000

Huh. This is odd. I assume that refusing all contact with a country's citizens merely because you disagree with their country's political actions is pretty much wrong, regardless of what that country has or has not done to others. Would anyone suggest that we ban all North Korean citizens and Iranian citizens from all contact with New York Times writers? Because that sounds like a great way to make sure we get no first-hand testimony whatsoever, and ensures that we will lack a crucial perspective on any situation involving those two countries. Better still, do you think it would have been wise for the New York Times to cut off all contact with every single German citizen during World War II? Every Japanese citizen? Every Italian citizen? Every Russian citizen during the Cold War? All Afghans after Bin Laden took credit for the September 11 attacks?

But if you want to know less and hate more, more power to ya!

Also:

"This kind of prejudiced zionist attitude does not belong on a mainstream columbia blog. Please, out of respect for all the non-jewish, politically impartial students, faculty and staff on campus, do not write such misleadingly persuasive articles."

...are we supposed to take this seriously? "Please do not write such misleadingly persuasive articles"? Really? We should censor this individual's viewpoint because he takes a hard line against the actions of a group he disagrees with? And because he happens to write so well that other people might--gasp--agree with him? Wouldn't that require us to censor this entire conversation, as well as most conversations period? Regardless, I am somewhat perplexed at the attitudes of many people reacting negatively to this article, which is, yes, biased (all articles are, and the bias shown by this author seems to me to have far more to do with holding to certain ideals endemic to "American" culture--insofar as that exists--than any political view about Israel), but also raises a good point as to whether or not Columbia professors will continue to support an organization that has undertaken an action that seems, on the face of it, contrary to the intellectual climate of the university that not only embraces contact from groups that the majority of its members disagree with, but actually invites them to speak at its public forums.

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Re: Richard Dawkins Discussion of His New Book, The Greatest Show on Earth

Re: Will Columbia professors continue writing for Al Ahram?