Richard Dawkins

Anybody have opinions on this guy? I’ve been tempted to read his stuff for a long time, but wary for some reason. Somebody described The Selfish Gene to me yesterday, which sounded interesting, but again, I’m wary of it. Thoughts?

You can find some thoughts and discussion (but no Richard Dawkins Fan Club) here.

I’ve only read his work summed up by others. I wonder what intrigued you?

Some of my other recent reading picks up some of the same threads, but weaves them very differently. Daniel Quinn’s Tales of Adam–I found a really rich and beautiful story of the spark of life expressing itself in constant transfomation through the graceful and raw dance of hunter and prey. And The Great Canoes and Dzelarhons, in which 800 year old trees carry families across oceans.

I guess the way you perceive and tell the story matters a lot. I have to agree with Willem and others that stripping the story down to the skeleton of the skeleton robs us of our real treasures. But the soul-crushing science monster with its giant brain and emaciated heart (hey, that sounds strangely like another story that haunts this culture–those little pasty grey aliens. hmmmm. . . ) continues to chase after that naked thread of ash left after the flesh of story and feeling burns off under the electron microscope. . .

well, i’m always intrigued by stuff that shows the folly of Christianity, but I’m also interested in biology/evolution and whatnot. Thanks for the link and other suggestions!

Yarrow Dreamer,
you said

But the soul-crushing science monster with its giant brain and emaciated heart (hey, that sounds strangely like another story that haunts this culture--those little pasty grey aliens. hmmmm. . . )

Hey, thats a good point!! It’s like a projection of the heartless beings this culture is aiming to be. And I always thought it was backwards how this culture gets all excited about life on other planets while ignoring/killing life on our own planet. What the hell??? And we know other animals can communicate with each other, but we can can’t directly translate the dolphins or whales, so what makes us think we’d be able to talk to aliens? Plus, the aliens in pop culture are pretty much always humanoid… so would we be dissapointed if they actually looked nothing like us!!!

Sorry, that was a little off-topic rant ;D,

Brian

P.S:
I did like the glowing heart, empathetic, life giving and plant-collecting “E.T.” aliens. And I heard the new “The Day the Earth Stood Still” that’s about to come out is about aliens destroying humans in order to preserve biodiversity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(2008_film)