Tram Town
Friday, December 03, 2004
| Category: Science I wonder if Richard Dawkins wouldn't be better off shutting up sometimes as during a conversation with Bryan Appleyard in The Times: "... My attacks on George Bush have nothing to do with science or the scientific method. I just can’t stand the man’s style, the way he swaggers and struts and smirks and the way he looks sly and deceitful and the way Americans can’t see it. I’m irritated by the way they think he’s just a regular guy you can have a drink with.”As Oxford’s professor of the public understanding of science he might do better than to include ad hominem attacks against the US president in an ostensibly scientific book: Anti-Americanism keeps intruding in the new book. There is a very irrational paragraph on nuclear strategy that stoops to lampooning Bush’s pronunciation — “nucular” — and even an anti-foxhunting footnote which, I point out to him, is utterly illogical. He agrees.If I ever run for high office I feel sure Dawkins would criticise me for using a short A when pronouncing castle and dance. Keep your academic leftiness to yourself Professor Dawkins! |
