Dawkins
in 2014 is a man so convinced that he possesses God-like powers of
omniscience that he can’t understand why everyone is angry at him for
pointing out the obvious
Another day, another tweet
from Richard Dawkins proving that if non-conscious material is given
enough time, it is capable of evolving into an obstreperous crackpot who
should have retired from public speech when he had the chance to bow
out before embarrassing himself.
“Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse,” huffs
Dawkins. Seeming to have anticipated, although not understood, the
feminist reaction this kind of sentiment generally evokes, he finishes
the tweet: “If you think that’s an endorsement of date rape, go away and
learn how to think.”
. . . . Dawkins
has been arrogant for years, a man so convinced of his intellectual
superiority that he believes the one domain in which he happens to be an
expert, science, is the only legitimate way of acquiring or assessing
knowledge. All of his outbursts in recent years follow from this belief:
he understands the scientific method, a process intended to mitigate
the interference of human subjectivity in data collection, as a
universally applicable way of understanding not just the physical world
but literally everything else as well.
Hence his constant complaint that
those appalled by his bigoted vituperations are simply offended by clarity;
feeble-minded obscurantists who cling to emotion, tradition or the
supernatural to shield themselves from the power of his truth bombs.
You don’t have to be religious to find this level of hubris baffling. In his review of The God Delusion, Terry Eagleton remarks:
Imagine
someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is
the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels
like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.
Dawkins’
narrowmindedness, his unshakeable belief that the entire history of
human intellectual achievement was just a prelude to the codification of
scientific inquiry, leads him to dismiss the insights offered not only
by theology, but philosophy, history and art as well.
To him, the
humanities are expendable window-dressing, and the consciousness and
emotions of his fellow human beings are byproducts of natural selection
that frequently hobble his pursuit and dissemination of cold, hard
facts. His orientation toward the world is the product of a classic
category mistake, but because he’s nestled inside it so snugly he
perceives complex concepts outside of his understanding as meaningless
dribble. If he can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist, and anyone trying to
describe it to him is delusional and possibly dangerous.
All we
can do at this point is hope his decline into hysterical dogmatism
culminates in a reverse deathbed conversion. But if there’s one thing
Dawkins has tried to impress upon us, it’s that miracles don’t exist. So
I’ll do him the courtesy of not holding my breath.
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