The Improbability of God by Richard Dawkins

[marieelissa]

 

[liljp617]

bleh, his writing in the field he's educated and specializes in is much more interesting.  The Selfish Gene for example.

[jordandog]

Love what Dawkins uses as the reason why he refuses to debate with Creationists. He was supposed to have a debate with a fairly prominent one back in the 1980's and decided to talk with Stephen Gould, a friend, collaborator, and renowned evolutionary biologist.

Dawkins: "I telephoned Stephen Gould for advice. He was friendly and decisive: "Don't do it." The point is not, he said, whether or not you would 'win' the debate. Winning is not what the creationists realistically aspire to. For them, it is sufficient that the debate happens at all. They need the publicity. We don't. To the gullible public which is their natural constituency, it is enough that their man is seen sharing a platform with a real scientist. "There must be something in creationism, or Dr So-and-So would not have agreed to debate it on equal terms." Inevitably, when you turn down the invitation you will be accused of cowardice, or of inability to defend your own beliefs. But that is better than supplying the creationists with what they crave: the oxygen of respectability in the world of real science."

**Taken from book: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love