Re: On Dawkins and donkeys

Bryan Bishop (bishopdo@pilot.msu.edu)
Mon, 24 Nov 1997 22:13:04 -0500

At 01:23 PM 11/24/1997 -0500, you wrote:
>While out for lunch, a former student slipped a copy under my door of an
>article in Science, Volume 277, 15 August 1997. I noticed the following
>comment by Richard Dawkins: "The universe we observe has precisely the
>properties we should expect if there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no
>evil and no good, nothing but pointless indifference."
>
>I have never read such an assinine statement in my whole life. Either that
>our pure pride mixed with a generous portion of ignorance. Is this typical
>of those in the evolutionary business?
>

In a graduate level evolution class, one student made roughly the same
comment, that God does not exist, and the notion that people who believe in
God don't make good scientists to boot. The guy quickly found out that
even though he was in a room of evolutionary students, he was the one all
alone and generally derided for not being a "good scientist". So to answer
your question, I would say Dawkins and his like are not typical of those in
the evolutionary business. All religions do have their fundalmentalists.

Bryan