Richard Dawkins picks and chooses which religions to slam.

Do I even need to bother saying which one?

I’ve noticed that this happens a lot:

In a recent Al-Jazeerah interview, Richard Dawkins was asked his views on God. He argued that the god of “the Old Testament” is “hideous” and “a monster”, and reiterated his claim from The God Delusion that the God of the Torah is the most unpleasant character “in fiction”.

As you can see, Dawkins has no trouble attacking the Hebrew God in a most direct and uncompromising manner. No atheist wallflower he.

Asked if he thought the same of the God of the Koran, Dawkins ducked the question, saying: “Well, um, the God of the Koran I don’t know so much about.”

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’ve got nothing against Islam itself, per se* – more accurately, I can tell a Sufi from a Salafist, and more importantly I can tell a crazy-eyed backwater nutjob from, say, a Kurd currently living in Iraq**.  But it has not escaped my notice that there’s a certain double standard out there when it comes to people talking smack about religions.  And, honestly?  It’s not escaped anybody else’s notice, either.  Which is half of the problem, right there.

Moe Lane

*Don’t test my patience.

**And don’t think that those guys aren’t defining themselves that particularly.  Given the current trajectory of Turkey, possibly at some point we should contemplate whether we should be doing that ourselves.

19 thoughts on “Richard Dawkins picks and chooses which religions to slam.”

  1. My favorite recent Really Militant New Atheist moment of cognitive dissonance was a pair of essays penned by Sam Harris. In the first one, he went on at length about how his very being, the thoughts he was having, his denial of a God, etc., were all set in stone at the very beginning of time as the first atoms shot forth from the Big Bang. In realizing this Nihilist Calvinism, he felt freedom in his thoughts, feelings, etc.
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    In the very next essay, he held forth at length about how stupid Mitt Romney was for believing an obvious fraud like Joseph Smith and questioned his very ability to exist in the modern world, given his obvious gullibility.
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    *blink* *blink blink*
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    Yeah, he didn’t seem to see the irony, nor did any of his fawning commenters.

        1. I don’t want to get into a comparative religion discussion, but if you look into Mormonism, they believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers that disagreed over how to save humanity.

        2. Here’s an SAT analogy that may assist.
          .
          Judaism:Christianity::Christianity:[Islam|Mormonism]
          .
          Protestants will acknowledge the importance of the Old Testament, as will Catholics and Orthodox. With a few exceptions, however, not even the most “main-line”/”progressive” denominations will see Allah as the “same” god, nor will they recognize the “Jesus” that “visited” the Americas as anything other than religious fraud.

      1. Mormons fall into the broader catagory of “Jesus Plus” religions. The believe in Jesus and the Bible plus somthing else that they lend equal vorasity to. In their case the Book of Mormon. In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses it’s the Watchtower publications. There are many others in this catagory.

    1. I expect many Jews, Muslims, and Christians would be surprised to find out so, Gator.
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      It is fair, methinks, to point out that quite a lot of the Torah is revered by Christians and Muslims (although the latter kvetch about “corruption by rabbis” or something…) so .. your claim is rooted in reality.
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      Of course, the *real* reason Dawkins and his fellow travelers don’t bash Islam is quite simple …
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      Mew

      1. I have several friends who are avowed atheist, whose reaction to my strong beliefs is best described as indifferent. Guys like Maher and Dawkins don’t strike me as atheist because they are too angry at God not to believe in him.

        1. Too many who claim to be atheist (without god) are actually abbreviated anti-theists (angry at god) ..
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          Unfortunately, no group has a monopoly on petty idiots.
          .
          Mew

  2. Poor Dawkins doesnt want to become a target for assignation like a Dutch politician that speaks ill of Islam. Maybe if he believed in God he wouldnt be so scared of death

    1. so you are saying that Dawkins is lacking in uh, what Mick Foley used to call testicular fortitude?

  3. So what you are implying is that Mr. Dawkins is standing firm in his belief that he doesn’t want a death sentence over his head?

  4. More along the lines of he doesn’t want his head cut off with a dull rusty knife. But then I find myself headed in the direction of Paganism these days.

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