Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Dawkins Reference.

I have no opinion on the subject of most paranormal claims. Being paranormal, such claims are difficult to prove with complete assurance, and impossible to refute completely. These phenomena remain outside my particular interest; however, the arguments that are made are very interesting, more interesting than the phenomenon under discussion, at least to myself who is possessed of no paranormal capacities.

The attached article describes an incident with Richard Dawkins and Rupert Sheldrake, a paranormal researcher. Dawkins apparently thought Sheldrake was a rube, and intended to skin him out. However, it is Sheldrake who revealed Dawkins' actual intent and the true extent of his scientific curiousity.

In a capsule, Dawkins terminates his own interview rather than consider evidence that is contrary to his Materialist agenda. It is not evidence he is interested in; it is his own dogma and its dissemination which he pursues.

At the risk of becoming tiresome (I will quit this soon... I promise) Dawkins is a fraud. He is a religiously, fundamentalist, hate engendering, dogmatic, Materialist, fraud. Again, he is danger to the intellectually ill-equipped.

4 comments:

Zetetic_chick said...

Hi Stan,

Very interesting post. See the commentary about Sheldrake vs. Dawkins incident by this author:

"In a commentary on his website, biologist Rupert Sheldrake recounts his experience in - almost - appearing in The Enemies of Reason, a British documentary written by well-known biologist and public advocate for atheism Richard Dawkins. He describes how he was recruited to appear in the documentary with promises that there would be an opportunity for scientific discussion. But when he tried to engage in such a discussion, both Dawkins and they director made it clear that they were not interested in discussing evidence. The TV programme was intended to debunk, not give a fair view of the scientific evidence".

"Dawkins has of course every right to promote his religious views- in this case, the religious views of atheistic materialism, which considers evidence for presumably transcendental phenomena a mortal threat to its belief system. However, when Dawkins and people like him promote their views in the name of science, they commit labeling fraud. Dawkins may be a scientist by trade, but when he acts and argues as a fundamentalist believer in materialism, ignoring evidence that challenges his belief system, then he commands no more credibility and scientific authority than any other kind of religious believer"

"Unfortunately, Dawkin's behavior with respect to observations and evidence submitted to him by Sheldrake demonstrates little evidence for "reason or respect for evidence"- it rather suggests that Dawkins "profits from obscuring the truth"

http://www.suppressedscience.net/news.html

It seems that, as materialists "knows" that parapnormal/psi phenomena doesn't and can't exist, it's a waste of time to consider evidence for it. (There can't exist evidence for non-existing phenomena!!!!)

Interesting the scientific and rational mind of those self-proclaimed "brights" guys...

ZC

Stan said...

ZC, Thanks for the link...

The minds of rationalizers work in the opposite mode from rationalists. Rather than seeking answers based on evidence, the rationalizer wants only evidence that supports his preselected answer (in Dawkins case the preselected answer is always Materialistic Atheism). Evidence that threatens his preselected answer is rejected out of hand, without the "need" for any scrutiny.

Dawkins is so entrapped in this mode of thinking that it seems to him to be normal; he decries the usual method of evidence first, then the conclusion based on the evidence, even though that would be the scientific method.

I like the term "labelling fraud", it describes what Dawkins is doing quite well. He claims "science", but in fact uses anti-scientific methods in his thinking. This is obvious to many, but Dawkins is a hazard to many more who are susceptible to such fraud.

Zetetic_chick said...

Hi Stan,

I think the following information may be of interest to your readers.

In this extremely good talk, Rupert Shaldrake explains (and documents) how professional "skeptics" have misrepresented his research:

http://www.sheldrake.org/B&R/audiostream/SPR_HowSkepticsWork.mp3

He also explain the common tactics used by them. Experienced professional skeptics often use the same type of tactics and rhetoric to debunk and misrepresent evidence and research contrary to materialism.

Some of the "skeptics" mentioned are James Randi, Michael Shermer, Lewis Wolpert, Peter Atkins and Richard Wiseman (are any you surprised that all of them are atheists and materialists :-)?).

Shaldrake's talk is a must hear! It's a handbook to learn the common skeptical tactics.

ZC
P.S
Dawkins isn't the only one!!!!

Stan said...

ZC,
Another good comment, Thanks!

I'll try the link a little later, it sounds interesting.

Stan