Richard Dawkins On Electability & Status Of Atheists

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Richard Dawkins On The Electability And The Status Of Atheists (Richard Dawkins @ Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia; October 23, 2006).

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Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He was formerly Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He was voted Britain's leading public intellectual by readers of Prospect magazine and was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" for 2007.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene", which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term "meme". He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book "The Blind Watchmaker", he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics.

Richard Dawkins is an atheist, secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and supporter of the Brights movement. In his 2006 book "The God Delusion", he contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion − as a fixed false belief.

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[Katalyzt]

★★★★★

[AustralianPyro]

athiesim isnt pesamistic, its REALISTIC.

[skywize]

"...organizing Atheists is like herding cats." ROFL! Too true! As for electability, I don't really understand it. There are far more Atheists than I would have previously imagined in the U.S.. There should be a very good chance of electing one since they will have a pretty loyal following... considering the alternatives...

[SlappyThePenguin]

I'm proud to be an Australian. Our Prime Minister is an open Atheist and it didn't hinder her being ellected into the top job.

On a side note, she may be the worst leader this country has ever had, but it has nothing to do with her religious, or lack of religious beliefs.

[ComputerScience54]

religion and electability has absolutely nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with the VALUES religion is supposed to have. thus, a religion person has certain values. the rest is just mythological nonsense...

[Diomedes01]

I would go a little further and say that many other religions are ALSO unelectable in the USA. What chance would a Muslim have in running for a major office? Or a Hindu? Even a Buddhist.

There has always been a general mistrust amongst the US population regarding what religious affiliation a candidate needs to have to be electable. Mitt Romney has issues with his Mormonism when viewed by other Christian sects. So its not necessarily unique to atheism.

[Shavarnarak]

@Shavarnarak

I don't even think atheists would be that unelectable in the US. I think ALOT of people would be THRILLED to vote for someone who actively and aggressively opposes the religious right for example, because the rest of America HATES those fuckers, and is more then sick of their bullying. So they may say they won't vote for an atheist, but when one is actually on the bill that might be very different.

[Shavarnarak]

I dispute the idea that atheists are the least trusted minority. I don't buy that research. It IS true America doesn't like atheists, but I've yet to hear a story about atheists having the shit beaten out of them for being atheists. And whilst I'm sure some people would do that, I think the risk for gay people is MUCH higher.

Actually I think both gay and for that matter black/minority people face far more trouble in PRACTiCE then atheists.

And I am an atheist myself.

[nicksynnz]

I am an atheist, and have come up with foul mouthed atheists at PZ Myers Blog Pharyngula. No wonder why US people have problems with the atheists there.. I do as well and have more empathy with Creationists. The moderators on Dawkins forum are a little better but something strange is going on there, very strange.

[patrickledford420]

@Joerexia some religious bigot would burn it down and claim that they were doing gods work