I have found my new religion

[matgb]

My friends, a momentous occasion has come upon us. It is time, my friends, to join a new religion. I find this great new scheme has already been found in the mass media, and in this glorious interview he reveals himself:

Our pub quiz team is named The Church of Richard Dawkins. At a recent Oxford quiz night, we were told to change our name in case it was deemed offensive to any churchgoers present. Have you any suggestions for a " less offensive" name? RICHARD O SMITH, Oxford

And they call me intolerant! I am shocked that this happened in Oxford, of all places. I hope you win the tournament so resoundingly that you can dictate terms and call yourselves whatever you like. "Offensive" my foot.

I particularly also liked

Are people who advocate intelligent design stupid, and do you think natural selection will operate to remove them from future generations? ADAM KHAN, The Hague, Netherlands

The majority are ignorant, which is not the same thing as stupid. Natural selection will not remove ignorance from future generations. Education may, and that is the hope to which we must cling.

but the whole thing is definately worth a read. I shall forthwith petition to have this great man added to the list as our only living saint.

/silliness. And I am so glad the Independent has dumped that stupid subscription scheme that was never going to make them any money, it means I can link/exerpt rather than nick the whole thing wholesale...

And this was going to be cross posted but I'll have to do that later, seems I'm not actually a member of a few of the comms I want to send it to, and I'm due out in a bit...

Comments

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

I liked this one:

Should men submit to their selfish genes, dump their wives and go for younger, blonder models? CAROLYN SANCHEZ, Manchester
No. We gave up submitting to our selfish genes long ago, when we took up clothes, contraceptives, sonnets, cubism, astronomy, snooker, bungee-jumping and other things that our selfish genes would at best consider a waste of time. Scientific facts about the world do not translate into moral " shoulds".

-----

Because I hate people who argue that EVERYTHING mankind does is some form of evolutionary traits just as much as i hate those crazy creationists.

Yay Dawkins!

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was very happy about the Independent dropping the stupid subscription.

I liked his answers a lot.

"Do you consider parents forcing children to accept their religion a form of child abuse?" JAMES MACDONALD, Bronte, New South Wales
"Yes..."

"If you died and arrived at the gates of Heaven, what would you say to God to justify your lifelong atheism? VALERIE JACKSON, Richmond
"I'd quote Bertrand Russell: "Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence."

Dude.

[rho]

One wonders if "go fuck yourself, you over-zealous upholders of perceived political correctness" would be deemed less offensive. Probably not, alas.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

One wonders whether any genuine churchgoers did in fact deem it 'offensive'. I rather doubt it.

[srk1.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that and I don't much like Dawkins in general. I still think his approach to atheism is completely wrong-headed, though.