Richard Dawkins

[123everton]

Caught a bit of his show on T.V last night before I fell asleep, has anyone else noticed his nervous tic?
Whenever someone speaks to him about tarot etc, his eyes start to twitch and he blinks excessively.
It's not a serious question, I just thought it was funny.

[BertiWooster]

What's Richard Dawkins going to say when he rings the bell on the pearly gates and St Peter , advices

' you cant come in mate - you've not paid your National Insurance subs '

something like - ' cant you take a joke mate ? '

[123everton]

LOL at Berti.
It's funny how you can poke fun at Jesus, draw pictures of Mohammed and it's a joke it's satire, get over it, talk about Dawkins or Darwen and the atheist's smiles become a frown, well some of them. I suppose we all venerate our idols to a greater or lesser extent, sadly when challenged some will refuse to admit it.
Thing is the director noticed this and the editor too, that's why the camera focussed on him, I thought it was hilarious (you know there's a whole genre of T.V shows based on the premise of two diametrically opposed individuals being forced together), I'm often faced by viewpoints I find absurd (I got a lift off a very close friend who had a dream catcher in her car) I didn't suffer an appoppolexy, I couldn't care less.
I just wish Dawkins and people like him (the religious too) would catch themelves on and say you're different to me, so what.
It's a journey I doubt he'll ever take.

[Ankou]

of course, as long as you don't say anything bad about jeremy clarkson then all's well.

[123everton]

Ankou, it's a deal, JC is very entertaining, but rubbish at buying second hand cars.
Whoops!

[naomi24]

If you couldn't care less Everton, why do you consistently argue that religion must be respected regardless of the effect it has on anyone else?

[keyplus90]

In my own personal experience I must say what Everton said. I have found that majority (if not all as usual with people from all beliefs) of atheists are the most intolerant people. Although they blame religious people for that but looking at proportion atheists are long way ahead. And actually that changed my thinking about atheists in last couple of years since I walked onto this website. Before that I used to believe that if few people do not want to believe in God then it is their choice and they have every right to do so, but now I believe that they are far ahead of the religious people they blame for being intolerant. Perhaps a curtain of being unknown as we are on the websites brings real character out of few.

[keyplus90]

And then my thinking about Richard Dawkins has changed after I watched that programme. Now I believe that he might be a good scientist as I am not a scientist to assess his abilities so I would agree with him on that. But he has no knowledge whatsoever about religions (especially Islam) but as most atheists do he believes too that he knows everything.

[joko]

you make an interesting observation everton, and i am sure many would have been happy to have discussed this with you...

but you didn't say any of that in the OP did you...you just chose to poke fun at someone with a tic...

changing the tone of your post after the fact to defend yourself won't bring a positive turnaround in responses

[jomifl]

Well Everton, that was a very useful contribution, perhaps you should start a thread on personal afflictions both physical and mental.

[jomifl]

So Keyplus, where do come across so many atheists as to be able to make such a statement about them being intolerant. I am not saying they are not intolerant as I don't knowingly meet that many myself, being an atheist, atheism doesn't come up in conversation that often. They don't wear atheist hats or atheist badges or have atheist sideburns. I would like to see your statistics on the subject, then perhaps we could decide whether your sample is big enough and what degree of confidence we can apply. Failing that we will have to assume that your personal bias is affecting your conclusions. I think a peer review is called for here.

[joko]

i suspect, based on reading many of keypluses posts, that he has a habit of talking about religion to whoever he happens to be with...which is why i expect he has come across a lot of opposition...

[keyplus90]

Why do you want to wait for statistics and then for few things statitics are never available or are personal that others may not believe so for that reason I will give you another very practical alternative.

"Just pretend for few days that you have started there there is God and chose any religion and then you say that on this website and see what happenes. That is what you call first hand knowledge and nothing could be better than that. Try it.

[123everton]

Catch yourselves on, his tic only manifests itself when he's faced with things he finds absurd, watch most any sit-com (Dad's Army springs to mind) and you'll see the same affliction used for comedic value.
If it is such a sore point for you all (and perhaps him) WHY did the producers, the editors and the director choose to emphasise it?

[naomi24]

I think your imagination has gone into unwarranted gleeful overdrive Everton. It's his programme so why would the producers and the director want to purposefully emphasise anything that you and his other opponents might construe as a personal fault? That makes no sense at all.

What's that expression? Catch yourself on? Yes ... I'm sure that's it.

[jomifl]

Hi Keyplus, I didn't quite understand your last posting, could I prevail upon you to re-word it. Just a quick question and I wouldn't expect you to answer it if it is too personal, but at what age did you choose your religion and why. I realised that I was an atheist at the age of 15, because I couldn't reconcile the myths with the facts and the smug hypocrisy of the established church in the UK was too much.

[123everton]

Is it really such a huge personal fault, it's a facial expression, the producers (I assume) included it to demonstrate his own incredulity.
It appears the sense of humour bypass was a complete success.

[naomi24]

//Is it really such a huge personal fault//

Well, you seem to have taken great delight in it. Personally I don't find people's afflictions funny, but it's no surprise that they amuse you.

[123everton]

So you don't find shows like "Come Dine With Me" amusing?
The idea that groups of people with nothing in common having to talk to each other.

[Ankou]

x factor is full of people with inflictions.

the general populus seem to find these extremely entertaining.

[naomi24]

What on earth does 'Come Dine With Me' have to do with you finding physical afflictions amusing? No, don't answer that Everton. It seems we're already in peril of being wafted off onto yet another of your infamously disjointed world tours.