As many of my friends will know, I’m quite a big fan of Richard Dawkins. But for some reason his website seems to spawn an army of what can only be described as mildly irritating atheists. A particular aspect I frequently bemoan is the necessity of some members to contort a fairly innocuous article into some anti-religious rant. Honestly, it’s unceasing. Take for example this article discussing Neanderthals. Just scroll down to the comments and you’ll be greeted with:
It all just gets you thinking about why the Neanderthals died out. I’ll theorize that their bigger brains found our ancestors’ ravings about our divine origins totally hysterical — and the resulting campaign of genocide simply took the poor buggers off guard.
Funny, yes? Well, no, not when the same joke/theme/structure is applied over and over again. I’ll throw out some more, as I don’t want to single out one individual:
I like to imagine science as a massive guillotine, with creationists frantically trying to stick objects to stop it’s progress. Science may be moving somewhat slowly, but nothing can really stop its progress. (From an article about RNA as a precursor for life on Earth.)
At least one commenter was honest enough to give up any pretence of being interested in the article itself:
When you look at the big picture, Obama has a tough road ahead of him and needs to harvest the support of everyone in America, even that large swath of intolerant, evangelical America, who are Americans none the less. I can’t say that I agree with the choice but I understand it. ( About, um, Quantum computing…)
Maybe it’s a running joke? Or perhaps it’s what you should expect from a website run by Richard Dawkins? Personally, I find these comments serve as an effective cure for insomnia: their repetitive nature will guarantee instant sleep, plus you’ll probably learn something new (from the articles at least). Oh, and one more thing, what’s with Dawkins’ dvd covers:
Cheers for the mildly anti-atheist blog! I’m gonna try and upgrade it from mild and claim that atheism is a joke and that Dawkins is a comic genius! He’s like Chuck Norris without the muscles, martial arts skills or sense of irony.
I’m not theistic but I don’t see how atheists can have any more right to claim that god doesnt exist than theists have to claim that he does. There is no evidence either way. It’s a matter of belief, and if you want to be scientific then agnosticism is the only way to go.
One could claim that god is inflationary and doesnt have any explanatory value; and on that basis we may as well go for occams razor and say he/she/it/one/thou.. doesnt exist. But! Existence itself cannot and never will be able to be explained by science. The question as to why there is anything at all just does not live within the realms of objective physical reality, hence the expression “metaphysics.”
In terms of evolution, and moral judgements and all that crap, yes science wins handsdown! No question; as to the question of “why?” then a god is as good an explanation as any. Maybe its a rubbish pointless question to start with, but still it annoys me when people call themselves atheists as if it is scientifically jusitified!