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Dorky Dawkins?

Entry 1155, on 2010-02-06 at 12:34:55 (Rating 3, Activities)

Yesterday I was sitting in one of the cafes we have distributed around the campus of the university I work at writing some notes on Richard Dawkins' latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth, when an odd person came up to me and claimed: "he's a real dork you know". I enquired: "who do you mean, Richard Dawkins? What's the problem?" but by that time he had scuttled away.

So it seems that Dawkins' influence is significant with all kinds of different people. I have no idea what this particular individual's problem was - presumably he was some sort of religious freak who didn't like criticism of his beliefs - and its unfortunate I couldn't have got some more details. Actually, now that I think about it more, maybe its fortunate I didn't engage this person in debate because I suspect he might not have made much sense (so much for universities being the center for informed intellectual debate!)

Anyway, if you are interested in the subject, my brief summary of some of the highlights from the book (which is actually well written and very readable) is here. If you have any comments please leave them in the discussion system, but please make it a bit more consequential than an ad hominem attack on the author!

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