During Richard Dawkins' American tour in March 2009, he gave a talk titled "The Purpose of Purpose". I travelled with Richard to these cities and filmed the talks, which I've edited together here. The content of the talk remains intact, while the editing moves between the different locations and Richard's Keynote presentation. (From Richard Dawkins.net via Atheist Media Blog).
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This guy is just incredible. The amount of disrespect and ridicule he throws around at those with whom he disagrees says a lot about his personal character. So to, does the fact that he's onto his third wife, which couples well with the way he makes himself sound like a complete turd in many interviews and engagements. I mean, I can completely understand why those who agree with him might like hearing him speak- it'd be akin to masturbation, albeit intellectually. But I often wonder, on the rare occasions that I listen to him, whether he actually realises how offputting he comes across as to those whom he's presumably trying to convince. He needs to take some lessons from Aristotle about the art of persuasion- You don't persuade people by getting them emotionally offside from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteAlthough to be honest, after hearing about all the misrepresentations and twisted facts in the God Delusion, it is surprising that anyone would take him seriously, in an intellectual sense, anymore anyway.
Once you get away from his vitriolic, insulting, sarcastic tone and his arrogant attitude, and try to focus on what he has to say, it's pretty clear he hasn't got much substance anyway.
Equating intelligent design with young earth creationism (at the beginning implied via mentioning the Discovery Institute)is a smear of the utmost proportions, and loses him credibility instantly. Does he not actually realise that many of foremost modern defenders of Intelligent Design are not even Christian, much less Bible bashing literalists? The fact that he's sacrificing honesty for rhetorical effect in his opening minutes should mean most studious listeners avoid wasting their time listening to the man. And so I'll stop after a rather unenlightening and frustrating 4 minutes!