or Tales of my Dad and Me!
In case you missed it, Richard Dawkins sent a tweet that ruffled a few feathers. My Dad is still pretty much my
intellectual and moral cornerstone, so I always want to hear his opinion. At
the time, I felt that our texts were cutting edge fiery debate. In the cold
light of day, I don’t think either of us look particular dynamic, or come off
very well. We’re both white atheists. And neither of us have won a Nobel Prize. "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night"
K – What do you think about Dawkins’ tweets? I think it’s
bad science xxx
D – No it’s good science! Haven’t looked today yet. Is all
well with u? Xx
D – It is the same as Catholic doctors. Medicine should be
about provable facts and science. It can’t be in the same space as fairy
stories such as religion. If you believe women are inferior where is your intellectual
rigor (and throw acid in their face) xx
K – It’s BAD science! And a completely bollocks comparison –
we can’t compare an elite university college with a faith found mainly in less
economically developed countries! Xxx
K – And no Christian ever won the Nobel prize?
D – Twitter trolls do it because they are bad. Religious
people do it because a dead book told them too. Xxx
D – Well as the man said we need to study the fact.
K – His tweets weren’t talking about medical procedures done
in the name of Islam. If he wanted to argue that religious belief clouds
science, then that’s fine. But he made a lazy inference. He has a brilliant
scientific mind – and he should know that words have power and need to be selected
carefully. I didn’t read that tweet and think “yes Islam stops science”, I read
it and thought “he’s implying that Muslims are stupid” xxx
D – Interesting. He sometimes leads people in to see if they
confuse fact with bigotry. He stated a fact but I agree that it cannot be
regarded as value neutral. He sees it as his responsibility to take on Islam to
prove that his anti-religion doesn’t avoid the dangerous targets.
K – Meh. Perhaps I do see bigotry because as a good little
lefty I’m more aware of the erroneous persecution of Islam, particularly by
Western media. But do you not think that comparing a hegemonic institution with
a religion a bit incongruous? A similar comparison could be made about black
people. Of course, we know that socio-economic factors play hugely into the
under achievement of people. Dawkins may have a decent argument if he had put
it into an essay – but tweeting it is inflammatory, attention seeking and
intellectual trolling. It’s just a way for him to inflate his own sense of
intellectual self worth to see people retweeting it all flabbergasted, while he
sits back in his ivory tower and thinks, “ahh, if only they understood I did
that on purpose to show intellectually superior my argument is”.
K – I’m not saying his persecution IS erroneous, but it’s
inevitably going to make him look like a twat. And what does that achieve? Plus
it’s Eid soon.
K – If a point’s worth making it’s worth making well.
K – Dad come back! Xxx
D – That last bit is true he is an intellectual snob – but he
says we should be elitist. We want elite pilots elite doctors elite thinkers
etc. Also black people are a race, born into it. “Muslims are willing converts
and by no means a racial grouping there is a growing strand on the left, that
is, ‘liberal’ to support Islam but if you look at any of their behaviours
(flogging rape victims for sex outside of marriage etc) in any other grouping
we would be opposing them.
K – Well tweet about flogging then. People go nuts for that
sort of thing.
K – Btw I’m thinking of transcribing this into a blog, is
that ok? Xxx
K – With my heady blog following of two, I expect we’ll go
viral by noon tomorrow.
D – He does – frequently. Of course. Tales of my dad and me!
Xxx
K – I’ll call it something better than that J xxx
K – Me jokeo
K – Internet meme trumps all arguments. It is known.
K – Dadddddd! Sorry if I offended you with the title thing.
D – Love the meme – didn’t offend at all. It was intended
irony on my child rearing skills xxx
K – You have great child rearing skills! Why, just in this conversation
I’ve shown my ability to read, and my dexterous opposable thumbs.
K – Since deciding to blog about this my texts have become
increasing contrived and self-conscious. I wonder if anyone will notice.
D – But what about the leave and berries we still have to
get thru!*
*This is a reference to a David Attenborough documentary we
once watched, where he explain that Organ-utans have to teach their young how
to identify over 200 different kinds of nuts and berries before they are able
to fend for themselves. They also have to learn how to construct shelters out
of leaves – it’s very adorable.
K – I had home grown courgette and garlic for tea! And the
pie you gave me a week ago – I’m well prepared xxx
