Dawkins and OUT

[meleah]

My weekend can be summed up like this: Goths, Dawkins, Cut Copy, Cherry Blossoms. Well okay the last part is planning stages of a weekend biking around DC during the Cherry Blossom festival, but its still exciting. This is exactly the sort of week one moves to NYC for - join a CSA one night, see friends bands' another two, go to an awesome gig in a

Comments

[kowari]

So, you would say that you have changed your opinion of Dawkins having seen him speak in person?

[meleah]

Yup definitely. I was being influenced very much by media representations, especially on the atheism thing, as the last book of his I read was Unweaving the Rainbow, which only gestures at the direction he's lately taken. Between that and the theists around me who like to disparage Dawkins for 'misunderstanding' theology and complain of his strident arrogance, I was coming to the conclusion that he was, really, a bit of an arse. Oh and that Root of all Evil? show with clips of him destroying preachers whilst going red in the face didn't help either. But I'm back, and reading the God Delusion as we speak.

[kowari]

So you were falling prey to some of the things you knew were techniques used by media to construct people as they see fit (ooooo I both love and hate media and they way they control public opinion!!)

But it's great to know that he actually IS the reasonable, rational guy I had hoped he was, not the media stereotype he had been portreyed as. This makes me happy. Thanks for the review leah!!

[meleah]

Mmm, but the show really is sort of his own fault there - and we're all prey to spin, without any better information to process, its pretty hard to avoid!

[qamar]

Great post! I'm so glad you're having a good time in NY. I *love* the New Yorker cover. :)

[scoia]

Good to hear he's not a twat. The avid followers of his work combined with the press really put me off for a bit there.

[meleah]

I actually really hate those guys. The thing that shits me most about 'avid followers' is that they discard all critical faculty of their own and then yell at others for not having any. Its sort of hilarious, or would be, if they weren't supposedly on my 'side'.

[pollyanna_n]

Thanks for the post. I am really interested to hear your views. I'm a big Dawkins fan, if only for the fact that he does not pull his punches. I am fascinated with your account.

[mightyodinn]

Great post!