@rebeccawatson He's a secular Christian, in the same way there are secular Jews and secular Muslims. People don't ID this way because fish don't recognize the existence of water and Westerners only contrast their internal views with those of other Westerners. But fundamentally it's the same; and just as secular Jews range in levels of bigotry from Netanyahu to people who protest the Occupation, secular Christians range too.
@rebeccawatson And, that's how this looks from the perspective of atheists who are not from a Christian background. (Relatedly, in the 2000s when I was involved in CFI, nobody else there was Jewish, despite there being plenty of Jewish atheists.)
@rebeccawatson Yeah, he's been working the "I'm a total bigot and anti-empathy so rational" thing for decades now. In fact, all his work is based on this basic belief (likely learned in the posh English boarding schools where he was being sexually abused as part of the normal ritual destruction and initiation of rich White boys to extreme cruelty).
@rebeccawatson this all made me reflect on my background (mexican attending catholic school all the way through h.s). I was always a sceptic but then I married into atheism and that pretty much sealed the deal. Still, we love attending religious themed mexican parties (baptisms, quinceañeras, weddings) cause holy fucking shit lots of alcohol and that makes for great parties. I love telling fellow mexicans I’m not catholic and I’m not even some other christian. Great party conversation topic.
@alda@rebeccawatson He wasn't always like that, though, was he? For me The God Delusion was the main letdown and just a book full of vitriol and spite, without any insight. Dawkins was great when he was popularizing science and zoology. The Ancestor's Tale is still one of my favourite books. Seems like either he turned 'angry old white man' in the 90s or he just didn't let it show before.
@toon Even his scientific work is all about his Social Darwinist/British Imperialist perspective projected onto the world on the world. He's always been terrible but not loudly so until his precision institutions and his own authority started to be challenged. He's a mess, probably partly because he's in absolute denial that being sexually abused at school affected him at all (because pedophilia and sexual abuse are such a common part of English posh school culture). He's now into "Christianity" because it, once again, allows him to preten dhe's superior and more rational than everyone else (the combination of privilege and abuse are a particularly toxic blend psychologically and are at the heart of disordered narcissism). @alda@rebeccawatson
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