Stay In Your Box, Science!
Matt Nisbet, of Framing Science infamy, has posted a draft chapter of his book. Here’s my favorite section:
Dawkins, for example, argues as a scientist that religion is comparable to a mental virus or “meme” that can be explained through evolution, that religious believers are delusional, and that in contrast, atheists are representative of a healthy, independent, and pro-science mind. In making these claims, not only does Dawkins use his authority as the “Oxford University Professor of the Public Understanding of Science” to denigrate various social groups, but he gives resonance to the false narrative of social conservatives that the scientific establishment has an anti-religion agenda.
Yes, Dawkins is denigrating various social groups. He is doing so because those groups promote horribly ill-founded ideas. And being a member of a social group doesn’t make it okay to push stupid ideas on other people any more than joining the mafia makes extortion okay.
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