Dawkins dissed again and again (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 15:52 (3650 days ago) @ dhw

http://www.deadphilosopherssociety.com/2014/03/30/reading-richard-dawkins-led-to-my-con... 
> http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100267804/is-richard-dawkins-leading-p... 
> DAVID: These thoughts are what made dhw ask me to write my book. The critiques of The God Delusion are right on. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi in UK told Dawkins outright he was antisemetic for his put down of Genesis.
> 
> dhw: Errrm, well, actually no, these were NOT the thoughts that made me ask you to write your book (or that made me write my own "Brief Guide"). These people are complaining about Dawkins' ignorant and arrogant dismissal of religion. But Dawkins is first and foremost a scientist who tries to use his science as a means of attacking religion, and what was needed was a scientific response, not a religious response. The critiques that I read were not "right on" at all, because you cannot counter science with faith or myth or theology.-But the point of one review is that he wasn't using proper science:-"I started reading this thinking that I might read a logical, skeptical, nay scientific critique of religion. Instead, I found something right out of a Boston Globe editorial on a bad day: strings of pejorative adjectives pretending to be argument, bald assertion pretending to be evidence, an incredibly arrogant attitude, and a stance of moral equivalence incapable of distinguishing between the possible strengths and weaknesses of different religions, including the militant atheism Dawkins advocates. This is not academic analysis, it is bad journalism.-
> dhw: What was needed was a book to show that Dawkins' scientific arguments were flawed. That is why I encouraged you, and why I feel your book is so important. I should stress, of course, that I neither accept nor reject your conclusions or those of Dawkins. My personal satisfaction lies in the fact that you have done such a great job in restoring the scientific balance between the two sides.-Thank you.