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*[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/09/is-richard-dawkins-destroying-his-reputation Is Richard Dawkins destroying his reputation?] by Sophie Elmhirst, ''The Guardian'', June 9, 2015
*[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/09/is-richard-dawkins-destroying-his-reputation Is Richard Dawkins destroying his reputation?] by Sophie Elmhirst, ''The Guardian'', June 9, 2015
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== Richard Dawkins explanation of his Elevatorgate comments ==
[[File:David-Allen-Green.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Fellow [[Philosophical skepticism|skeptic]] [[David Allen Green]] wrote: "Can Richard Dawkins still credibly pose as a champion of rational thinking and an evidence-based approach? In my opinion, he certainly cannot, at least not in the way he did before."<ref>[http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/richard-dawkins-chewing-gum Sharing a lift with Richard Dawkins by David Allen Green - New Stateman - 06 July 2011]</ref>
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<small>(photo obtained from [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DavidAllenGreen.jpg Wikimedia commons], see: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en license agreement])</small>]]
When someone posted this comment to Richard Dawkins at [[PZ Myers]] blog [[Pharyngula (blog)|Pharyngula]] on July 2, 2011:
{{cquote|Richard Dawkins:
Did you just make the argument that, since worse things are happening somewhere else, we have no right to try to fix things closer to home?...<ref>http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/always_name_names.php</ref>}}
Richard Dawkins responded:
{{cquote|No I wasn't making that argument. Here's the argument I was making. The man in the elevator didn't physically touch her, didn't attempt to bar her way out of the elevator, didn't even use foul language at her. He spoke some words to her. Just words. She no doubt replied with words. That was that. Words. Only words, and apparently quite polite words at that.
If she felt his behaviour was creepy, that was her privilege, just as it was the Catholics' privilege to feel offended and hurt when PZ nailed the cracker. [[PZ Myers|PZ]] didn't physically strike any Catholics. All he did was nail a wafer, and he was absolutely right to do so because the heightened value of the wafer was a fantasy in the minds of the offended Catholics. Similarly, Rebecca's feeling that the man's proposition was 'creepy' was her own interpretation of his behaviour, presumably not his. She was probably offended to about the same extent as I am offended if a man gets into an elevator with me chewing gum. But he does me no physical damage and I simply grin and bear it until either I or he gets out of the elevator. It would be different if he physically attacked me.
Muslim women suffer physically from misogyny, their lives are substantially damaged by religiously inspired misogyny. Not just words, real deeds, painful, physical deeds, physical privations, legally sanctioned demeanings. The equivalent would be if PZ had nailed not a cracker but a Catholic.
Then they'd have had good reason to complain.
Richard<ref>http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/always_name_names.php</ref><ref>[http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/richard-dawkins-chewing-gum Sharing a lift with Richard Dawkins by David Allen Green - New Statesman - 06 July 2011]</ref>}}
=== Excerpt of David Allen Green's commentary on Dawkins explanation ===
[[David Allen Green]] wrote:
{{cquote|Explanations often can make things worse, and so it did in this case. As Phil Plait correctly states, there is no natural meaning to this other than the fact that Dawkins is comparing the discomfort of a woman propositioned in a lift with him sharing a lift with a man chewing gum.
This is all strange stuff indeed from a man professing to be a promoter of rational thinking. He is making connections which do not exist and positing analogies which do not make any sense. From a person with his supposed intellectual reputation, this is surely a disgrace. This is more what one would expect from Richard Littlejohn than Richard Dawkins.
But it seems part of a possible trend. Those who merely pose as rationalists and promoters of liberal values are being found out.<ref>[http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/richard-dawkins-chewing-gum Sharing a lift with Richard Dawkins by David Allen Green - New Statesman - 06 July 2011]</ref>}}
== Rebecca Watson and Elevatorgate ==
== Rebecca Watson and Elevatorgate ==