Irenaeus, Siteadmin, Check users, oversight, Administrators
351,636
edits
Changes
→Richard Dawkins on hurtful mockery
Richard Dawkins has encouraged his supporters to go beyond humorous ridicule.<ref>[https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/dawkins-mock-them-ridicule-them-in-public/ Dawkins: Mock them. Ridicule them! In public]</ref> He wrote, "I lately started to think that we need to go further: go beyond humorous ridicule, sharpen our barbs to a point where they really hurt."<ref>[https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/dawkins-mock-them-ridicule-them-in-public/ Dawkins: Mock them. Ridicule them! In public]</ref>
Richard Dawkins has encouraged his supporters to go beyond humorous ridicule.<ref>[https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/dawkins-mock-them-ridicule-them-in-public/ Dawkins: Mock them. Ridicule them! In public]</ref> He wrote, "I lately started to think that we need to go further: go beyond humorous ridicule, sharpen our barbs to a point where they really hurt."<ref>[https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/dawkins-mock-them-ridicule-them-in-public/ Dawkins: Mock them. Ridicule them! In public]</ref>
== Richard Dawkins and fundraising ==
=== Richard Dawkins' cult of personality ===
''See also:'' [[Richard Dawkins' cult of personality]] and [[Atheist cults]] and [[Atheism is a religion]] and [[Atheism and leadership]]
[[File:Vox Day.jpg|thumbnail|left|175px|[[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] noted that the [[Richard Dawkins' cult of personality]] has some similarity to the cult of [[Scientology]].<ref name="The Cult of Dicky Dawkins">[http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-cult-of-dicky-dawk.html The Cult of Dicky Dawkins]</ref> ]]
On August 16, 2014, Andrew Brown wrote an article for The Spectator entitled ''The bizarre – and costly – cult of Richard Dawkins'' which declared:
{{cquote|...the [[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website|Richard Dawkins website]] offers followers the chance to join the ‘Reason Circle’, which, like [[Dante]]’s [[Hell]], is arranged in concentric circles. For $85 a month, you get discounts on his merchandise, and the chance to meet ‘[[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science]] personalities’. Obviously that’s not enough to meet the man himself. For that you pay $210 a month — or $5,000 a year — for the chance to attend an event where he will speak...
But the $85 a month just touches the hem of rationality. After the neophyte passes through the successively more expensive ‘Darwin Circle’ and then the ‘Evolution Circle’, he attains the innermost circle, where for $100,000 a year or more he gets to have a private breakfast or lunch with Richard Dawkins, and a reserved table at an invitation-only circle event with ‘Richard’ as well as ‘all the benefits listed above’, so he still gets a discount on his Richard Dawkins T-shirt saying ‘Religion — together we can find a cure.’
The website suggests that donations of up to $500,000 a year will be accepted for the privilege of eating with him once a year: at this level of contribution you become a member of something called ‘The Magic of Reality Circle’. I don’t think any irony is intended.
At this point it is obvious to everyone except the participants that what we have here [[Atheist cults|is a religion]] without the good bits.<ref>[http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9286682/the-bizarre-and-costly-cult-of-richard-dawkins/ The bizarre – and costly – cult of Richard Dawkins], The Spectator, Andrew Brown 16 August 2014</ref>}}
[[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] noted that the Richard Dawkins cult has some similarity to the cult of [[Scientology]].<ref name="The Cult of Dicky Dawkins"/>
Dawkins was one of the founders of the New Atheism movement. The [[New Atheism]] movement, which has waned in recent years, was called a cult by the [[agnosticism|agnostic]], journalist Bryan Appleyard in a 2012 article in the ''New Statesman'' in which he describes the abusive behavior of New Atheists.<ref>[http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2012/02/neo-atheism-atheists-dawkins ''The God wars'' by Bryan Appleyard], ''New Statesman''</ref> Although the New Atheism movement does not perfectly fit the various characteristics of a cult, it does fit some of the characteristics.<ref>[http://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/how-cultish-is-new-atheism/ How cultish is the New Atheism?]</ref>
See also: [[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science|Richard Dawkins's Foundation and an embezzlement allegation]] and [[Atheist nonprofit scandals]]
== See also ==
== See also ==