Is Dawkins losing it?

Personally, I found his book, The God Delusion highly amusing, be it theologically boring and unfounded. While reading it, I often laughed out loud. But I read the book as Dawkins’ personal vendetta with organized religion, not as a scholarly book, and I hoped that he would move on to more serious stuff. Seven years later, however, it seems that Dawkins is stuck. Even more, he seems to be losing it…

Just consider the following tweet from July 1, 2013:

Hitler probably believed in God, Stalin probably not. But the beliefs of both their cults were irrational enough to be called religious.

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 1, 2013

 

If you follow the logic of this argument, he seems to say that if an idea is irrational, it is religious. Is this a former Oxford-professor who wrote this?

More recently, Dawkins saluted the highly controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders in his tweets:

Here’s what I actually wrote about Geert Wilders: “If it should turn out that you are a racist or a gratuitous stirrer and provocateur . . .

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 6, 2013

 

“If . . . racist or a gratuitous stirrer and provocateur I withdraw my respect, but on the strength of Fitna alone I salute you . . “

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 6, 2013

It seems that Dawkins is completely ignorant about the ideas that Geert Wilders has, or chooses to be so, otherwise he would probably have withdrawn his respect a long time ago. But because Wilders made Fitna, Dawkins considers him praiseworthy.

Just read Dawkins’ tweets in his timeline, to see that he is discussing all kind of stuff he doesn’t have a clue about (including aliens). Just consider the weird discussion recently about pigs, fetuses and abortion. If you have the time, read this summary of the discussion on the “Skepchick” website: http://skepchick.org/2013/03/pigs-fetuses-and-an-emotional-richard-dawkins/.

In a couple of weeks, Dawkins’ autobiography will be published. Frankly, it would be interesting to read why he took the path that he is still going these days. Let’s hope that he’ll snap out of it soon. It’s getting really hard to take him seriously these days.

Addendum, 16.54: More responses are growing by the minute. One response comes from Owen Jones in The Independent. Jones – an atheist himself – focuses on Dawkins’ latest anti-muslim tweet, and argues that “Dawkins dresses up bigotry as non-belief – he cannot be left to represent atheists”.

But there’s hope, according to today’s blog by Martin Robbins, because he observes that “atheism is maturing, and will leave Dawkins behind”. According to Robbins, “Richard Dawkins’ public output resembles that of a man desperately grasping for attention and relevance in a maturing community.” Robbins concludes:

Dawkins remains a powerful force in atheism for the time being. Increasingly though, his public output resembles that of a man desperately grasping for attention and relevance in a maturing community. A community more interested in the positive expression of humanism and secularism than in watching a rich and privileged man punching down at people denied his opportunities in life. That, ultimately, is the tragedy of Richard Dawkins – a man who knows the definition of everything and the meaning of nothing.

Ouch!