Richard Dawkins, Evolutionary Biologist & "strident

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Anyone know of this person?

I saw him on a show last night and I am fascinated!

I am Catholic and strongly so, but am a scientist as well.......and very interested in his views.

So any personal experience re: Richard Dawkins, before I invade Google, would be good.

Thanks,

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A quick You Tube search will turn up a lot.

His book "The Selfish Gene" is a very good discussion of evolution on a genetic level. He is good at laying out an argument very logically.

He also has a web site that you might find valuable to look at.

richarddawkins.net/

If you like Dawkins, you might also want to check out:

P.Z. Myers

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

And The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe which has a very entertaining weekly podcast

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/

Be warned though Dawkins is atheist (but you probably know this already) and doesn't have any love for religions nor does he see why anyone would want to be religious.
Some religious people are okay with this whilst others find it really offensive.

Both Dawkins and PZ Myers have a very compelling writing style. I'm a big fan of Myers' blog, which Jagatai has linked to, there is some really fascinating stuff on there, but again, it is very anti-religious.

Also, a big fan of SGU and quite a few other skeptical podcasts. I really enjoy spending my commute to work being entertained by intelligent conversations about science.

Great links Jagatai!

Dawkins... I've heard of him at UW, from some guy who sells bibles and Christian literature. He always has a sign hanging from his table in the Union breezeway, saying "Richard Dawkins is wrong: Evolution is a lie, and there is a God."

Personally, though I don't like him (the seller) because he tries to push his beliefs on everyone who passes by. I consider myself liberal Christian with agnostic tendencies (meaning that I believe in God but don't actively practice religious customs. I don't even go to church... I probably should, but that's the way it is) but I seriously get annoyed by the way he preaches on, and so I give his table a wide berth when passing through Union.

My personal beliefs tend to mix science and religion. Kind of like the old Deism movement during the Renaissance, that many scientists such as Newton believed in. I believe that God created the world, then set it to run by the laws we now know as physics, chemistry, and biology. You could say that if the universe was a computer program, then God wrote the source code. I disagree with the account of Creation in the bible because even though the bible is the word of God, it was written by men, and at the time of its writing men were much less knowledgeable about how the world came to be then they are now. Its historical fact that when human civilizations didn't understand something, they would simply say it was magic/act of God/other supernatural element. Who's to say that this account of wasn't simply faked because no one had a clue how the world started at the time?

That said, I still believe that God exists, and that he steps in from time to time to manage things in this universe, but for the most part he lets it run via the laws of science. That it why I don't see science in itself as a sin. Forsaking God for the sake of science... yeah, that's kind of bad, but I think its possible to be Christian and still believe in scientific discovery, as long as its for the right reasons.

I find the guy very interesting, and certainly a very good arguer against the notion of organised religions or fundamentalism.

His book "The God Delusion" is an excellent read which may either leave you reconsidering your love of faith, or hating him for poking holes in your faith. Atheists will find it an excellent tome for reinforcing their lack of faith in a theistic organisation.

Both Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers regularly express feelings that harsh opinions should be expressed in harsh words (Edit: For the record, I tend to agree), and in that they live as they teach. Not the politest bunch, in other words. PZ Myers also makes no secret of how much he enjoys laughing at people.
In fact, he has on occasion encouraged his own reputation as a mean guy, and he bemoans photographs and reviews that make him seem nice.

Thanks for your responses everyone.......and special thanks to the poster that supplied all those links......very interesting.

I am still trying to sum up what it is that I find so alluring about this person......when I figure it out, I'll let you know

I like to be questioned........and since being close to joining the Convent from high school, I have gone through intense periods of "faith angst"......

Thankfully my priest and mentor in high school said to me many times "Question everything. It is the only way that you can remain unbiased in a theological context. As for unconditional faith in God, well, that is personal, and you must contend with it for the rest of your monastic life. Just know that you are loved, unconditionally, by God."

Science won in the end, but it did nothing for my spiritual conflicts. I tried to explain everything with logic.......emotion, beauty, love, the soul and so on, and not all of it fits into neat little boxes......my darned black and white thinking.

As I get older, my relationship with God gets easier and I often wonder what kind of Nun I would have made.......I probably would have been excommunicated for being an anarchist. I can love God, without living by a man made religion.......I still consult my local priest on various matters of spirituality and we often discuss my conflicts between science and faith. He is a wonderful, educated person.

Strangely, I am more "religious" than some of the fundamentalists I encounter who seem judgmental, bigoted and downright frightening, and I haven't been to church in years nor gone to confession.

It has come to me my fascination with this man........he is as passionate about atheism in its purity and honesty as the priest I had in high school was about his own faith in God. At opposite ends of the scale, they are both right........I could never argue their logic, even if there were things I vehemently disagreed with.

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