Did Prof. Dawkins really say this?

[Lisa Bauer]

This silly squeamishness sounds to me similar to the equally irrational aversion that lots of men have to menstrual fluid (particularly marked in patriarchal religions, I must mention) - some childish "eww" factor. It's sterile, it's only got a little bit of blood in it, and it comes from the same place that you're happy to stick in your mouth any other day. It may even help prevent anaemia on your part. Come on, grow up.

I've seen mother dogs eat the placenta of their puppies after whelping, and although it was gross it didn't nauseate me. No, the killer for me was the...well, I'm afraid I'll get sick again but I suppose I have to get used to it...the reference to "flash fried placenta." Jesus Christ!

Incidentally, I actually ended up going home sick from work Tuesday after that awful image got stuck in my head -- you can ask my boss (well, about the sick part; several people commented on how awful I was looking). I blame all of YOU!

[lordpasternack]

Flash fried placenta... Flash fried placenta... Nope does nothing to me. I thought it rather humourous, actually. It's just like any other meat. It goes that same nice meaty brown colour when cooked. I know because I stuck a blood-clot in the microwave a few years ago.

[lozzer]

Flash fried placenta... Flash fried placenta... Nope does nothing to me. I thought it rather humourous, actually. It's just like any other meat. It goes that same nice meaty brown colour when cooked. I know because I stuck a blood-clot in the microwave a few years ago.

Doesn't really bother me either,
I once at my own sick.
My stomach knows no bounds.

[Lisa Bauer]

Flash fried placenta... Flash fried placenta... Nope does nothing to me. I thought it rather humourous, actually. It's just like any other meat. It goes that same nice meaty brown colour when cooked. I know because I stuck a blood-clot in the microwave a few years ago.

Doesn't really bother me either,
I once at my own sick.
My stomach knows no bounds.

Isn't it weird how different things will "get to you" or stick in your craw, while others can't see what the fuss is about?

Anyway...shouldn't we get back to the topic at hand (whatever it was)? I read some half-assed commentary the other day on how Dawkins lost his faith at age nine because that's when he got "felt up" by his Latin master. Can you believe that crap? Of course it was from the fervid imaginings of some ID twits (http://telicthoughts.com/what-makes-dawkins-tick/)...

See, this is why you have to be careful what you choose to reveal about yourself, especially if you're a public figure who is the target of quite a lot of angry people -- they won't hesitate to turn it against you, misrepresent it, lie about it, and all that disgusting crap. I'm surprised Dawkins has been as open about himself as he is!

[lozzer]

Flash fried placenta... Flash fried placenta... Nope does nothing to me. I thought it rather humourous, actually. It's just like any other meat. It goes that same nice meaty brown colour when cooked. I know because I stuck a blood-clot in the microwave a few years ago.

Doesn't really bother me either,
I once at my own sick.
My stomach knows no bounds.

Isn't it weird how different things will "get to you" or stick in your craw, while others can't see what the fuss is about?

Anyway...shouldn't we get back to the topic at hand (whatever it was)? I read some half-assed commentary the other day on how Dawkins lost his faith at age nine because that's when he got "felt up" by his Latin master. Can you believe that crap? Of course it was from the fervid imaginings of some ID twits (http://telicthoughts.com/what-makes-dawkins-tick/)...

Well I cringe at the sight of heroin injecting,

Dawkins didn't lose his faith because of an boarding school teacher.
I can believe it too.Professor Dawkins mentioned it within the God delusion.
I don't believe any party tends to bring the matter up however.
And i,for one do not wish to participate in the discussion of it.

[lordpasternack]

I never cease to be amazed at the unbridled imagination, quote-bending powers, evident craftiness and above all, the ability of these faith-heads to believe their own bullshit*. I mean - where do they get it from? How do they do it?

I saw somewhere a video claiming that Dawkins had four illegitimate children to women in his "home country of Kenya"! And that Hitchens had knocked a girl down while drink-driving, making her wheelchair bound thereafter. I mean...!


*An extract straight from my old Art teacher who used to warn us: "If you're going to lie - lie with conviction. But whatever you do, don't start believing your own bullshit!" And throughout the school year he would bewail the many people he came across who clearly had fallen into the trap of believing their own bullshit.

[Lisa Bauer]

I never cease to be amazed at the unbridled imagination, quote-bending powers, evident craftiness and above all, the ability of these faith-heads to believe their own bullshit*. I mean - where do they get it from? How do they do it?

I saw somewhere a video claiming that Dawkins had four illegitimate children to women in his "home country of Kenya"! And that Hitchens had knocked a girl down while drink-driving, making her wheelchair bound thereafter. I mean...!

My God, are you serious?!? I suppose it comes with the territory of being a public figure -- the gossip rags have to have something to print, "haters" have to make the people they hate seem as awful and/or pitiable as possible -- but that's stooping pretty damned low!

Anyway, the point I was thinking of (I probably shouldn't have mentioned that example in my last post, as it is far too personal, yet that didn't stop the writer from using it to make some BS pseudo-psychoanalysis) is that one should never ever underestimate the virulent nastiness of the jerks out there, or how they'll twist the things you say and do against you, if not simply make it up out of whole cloth. Which feeds my long-held misanthropic attitudes and ongoing distrust of other humans, I am afraid to say. (I wouldn't trust me if I somehow met myself, either...sigh.)

SLIGHTLY back on topic: there is this quick quote at the end of the new introduction to The Blind Watchmaker: "I was reminded of the creationist student who, through some accident of the selection procedure, was once admitted to the Zoology Department at Oxford University." The story ends happily, with the student attending one of Dawkins' lectures on evolution and saying excitedly, "It really makes sense!"

[lordpasternack]

Well, I presumed we were straddling alongside the relevant topic, talking about how people take great pleasure in quote-mining Dawkins, and bending and twisting the actual words said to their tastes.

As for your misanthropy - I'm almost the opposite. I am generally quite a trusting person, and generally optimistic about what motivates other human beings. But as a direct result of this, I usually feel really quite upset to find that person is genuinely just rotten to the core.

To be fair about the case with the creationist - he may have remained a creationist simply through ignorance of the alternative; having had doctrine drummed into his skull all his life and not been properly exposed to evolution. Not all biology classes at school do more than mention evolution in passing - which makes it relatively easy to walk away from school with an incomplete/bastardised understanding of it. And I say this as someone who took a school biology exam just two years ago. (Though I did do Human Biology, which is supposed to discuss evolution less than the wider Biology course.) He was evidently quite an intelligent person in spite of his ignorance, and, well, I suspect he didn't leave Oxford a creationist.

[Lisa Bauer]

Well, I presumed we were straddling alongside the relevant topic, talking about how people take great pleasure in quote-mining Dawkins, and bending and twisting the actual words said to their tastes.

I suppose you're right...what do you think of my other example of gross quote-twisting, the one that goes something like, "Dawkins thinks that teaching children religion is child abuse; he would like to have the state take away the children of religious parents who insist on raising their children in their own faith." I mean, if you frame the idea as "THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR CHILDREN!!!", what the hell do you expect? Talk about short-circuiting the logical, reasoning part of your brain and going right for the animal instincts!

As for your misanthropy - I'm almost the opposite. I am generally quite a trusting person, and generally optimistic about what motivates other human beings. But as a direct result of this, I usually feel really quite upset to find that person is genuinely just rotten to the core.

I have this weird combination of being super-cynical (of humanity in general) AND super-trusting (of particular humans that I actually come into contact with), depending on circumstances and on whether I can "intuit" if the person seems kind and trustworthy enough. Sometimes I'm wrong, which adds to my misanthropy, but usually they really do turn out to be very kind, generous, trustworthy people. I really don't understand myself sometimes...

To be fair about the case with the creationist - he may have remained a creationist simply through ignorance of the alternative; having had doctrine drummed into his skull all his life and not been properly exposed to evolution. Not all biology classes at school do more than mention evolution in passing - which makes it relatively easy to walk away from school with an incomplete/bastardised understanding of it. And I say this as someone who took a school biology exam just two years ago. (Though I did do Human Biology, which is supposed to discuss evolution less than the wider Biology course.) He was evidently quite an intelligent person in spite of his ignorance, and, well, I suspect he didn't leave Oxford a creationist.

It said that he'd attended a small fundamentalist college in America. To be honest, wouldn't being a creationist be the kind of thing that you would want to conceal as much as possible? I sure would, if I were that misguided! My biology teacher in high school did teach about evolution (old hat to me; I'd read about it myself in first grade!), and interestingly said he had no problem with the idea that evolution happened, but was somehow set into motion by a divine being (though I never knew his actual beliefs or lack of same). I suppose that's how most religious people who accept evolution handle the issue; that's how I handled it, anyway.

[lordpasternack]

I have made a pertinent response to that post of yours in a new thread in the Off-Topic section, Layla. As I've said in the OP, I didn't want to derail the thread but had to say it.

It's here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=47317&p=979456#p979456