Late last month, two heavy-hitters within organized atheism, activist Ophelia Benson and scientist Richard Dawkins, reached a detente of sorts about聽online debate and posted it on their separate web sites.
鈥淒isagreement is inevitable, but bullying and harassment are not,鈥� the statement reads. 鈥淚f we want secularism and atheism to gain respect, we have to be able to disagree with each other without trying to destroy each other.鈥�
Before the virtual ink was dry, Dawkins had stepped in it again.
鈥淒ate rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse,鈥� Dawkins said on Twitter, where he has almost one聽million followers. 鈥淚f you think that鱿鱼视频app an endorsement of date rape, go away and learn how to think.鈥� Another tweet聽applied the same logic to 鈥渕ild date rape鈥� and 鈥渧iolent date rape,鈥� and still another compared 鈥渕ild pedophilia鈥� and 鈥渧iolent pedophilia.鈥�
The reaction was swift and severe. Some defended Dawkins, saying he was merely engaging in a thought experiment, while others decried another eruption of what they see as chronic insensitivity and misogyny and flimsy 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry but 鈥︹�� apologies for repeat offenses.
Atheists say controversial things online every day. But Dawkins鈥� position as the godfather of the modern atheist movement聽has revived a question that鱿鱼视频app been percolating for at least three years: Has the famous scientist become more of a liability than an asset for the movement he helped create?
鈥淩egretfully, I think Richard Dawkins has become a liability,鈥� atheist activist and author Greta Christina said in an e-mail. She has shared a podium with Dawkins at two high-profile atheist events, including 2012鈥瞫 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., which attracted tens of thousands of people.
Many credit Dawkins鈥� 2006 best-seller The God Delusion with swelling the ranks of atheism. His聽Richard Dawkins Foundation聽supports dozens of atheist organizations with its annual budget of $800,000.
鈥淗e is the reason I call myself an atheist, and he鱿鱼视频app a big part of the reason I became an atheist activist,鈥� Christina said. 鈥淏ut the unfortunate reality is that newspapers and other big media outlets have been making him into the major face of organized atheism 鈥� and it鱿鱼视频app creating an image of us that turns a lot of people off.鈥�
Dawkins declined to be interviewed, and a representative聽for his foundation said a statement he made on its web site would be his final word on the subject. Yet the current dust-up may have served as a wake-up call. On Aug. 6, presented聽with criticisms collected聽for this story, Dawkins added to an existing post on his foundation鱿鱼视频app web site.
鈥淭here should be no rivalry in victimhood,鈥� the addendum to the post reads, 鈥渁nd I鈥檓 sorry I once said something similar to American women complaining of harassment, inviting them to contemplate the suffering of Muslim women by comparison. But maybe you get the point? If we wish to insist 鈥� that all examples of a sexual crime are exactly equally bad, perhaps we need to look more carefully at exactly who is belittling what.鈥�
Dawkins was a famous evolutionary biologist before he touted atheism. His 1976 book,聽The Selfish Gene, bridged the gap between academic writing and popular science and became a rare best-seller. In it, he outlined his theory of 鈥渕emes鈥� 鈥� ideas that travel within a culture through discussion, writing or images 鈥� which spread far beyond academia and into popular culture.
But it was 2006鱿鱼视频app The God Delusion that many credit with sparking a growing interest in atheism in the United States. Along with best-selling books by the other members of the 鈥淔our Horsemen鈥� of atheism 鈥� the late Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett 鈥� Dawkins鈥� rising star mirrored the growth of atheism in the last decade. In 2012, the Pew Research Centre found聽5.7 per cent of Americans identified as either atheists or agnostics, up from 3.7 per cent in 2007.
鈥淩ichard Dawkins has done a lot to bring atheism to a whole new generation,鈥� said Phil Zuckerman, a sociology professor who studies atheism and who also credits Dawkins with speaking out against the pedophilia scandal within the Catholic Church. 鈥淥n the other hand, Dawkins seems to embody everything that people dislike about atheists: He is smug, condescending and emits an unpleasant disdainfulness. He doesn鈥檛 ever seem to acknowledge the good aspects of religion, only the bad. In that sense, I think he doesn鈥檛 help atheism in the PR department.鈥�
One of Dawkins鈥� biggest missteps came in 2011, when he blasted Rebecca Watson, a young atheist activist who wrote about feeling sexually harassed at a freethought conference. In a now infamous series of comments posted to the blog Pharyngula, Dawkins wrote in a message titled 鈥淒ear Muslima,鈥� 鈥淪top whining, will you? . . .聽For goodness sake grow up, or at least grow a thicker skin.鈥�
That incident 鈥� and others that did not involve Dawkins 鈥� led several atheist groups to include sexual harassment policies at conferences and many say it swelled interest in the newly founded聽Women in Secularism聽conferences in 2012.
鈥淢y life was already negatively affected by his 鈥楧ear Muslima鈥� statement,鈥� said Amy Davis Roth, president of a Los Angeles women鱿鱼视频app atheist group and a speaker at Women in Secularism conferences. 鈥淚n that statement he told one of my co-bloggers to essentially get over sexism and sexual harassment that she experienced because women have it worse elsewhere. His seemingly ignorant yet authoritative statements unleashed a barrage of online harassment directed at our blog and its contributors that has yet to cease to this day.鈥�
There have been other online eruptions as well. Last year, he garnered negative attention with a tweet some called racist. 鈥淎ll the world鱿鱼视频app Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge,鈥� he tweeted last August. 鈥淭hey did great things in the Middle Ages, though.鈥�
Amanda Marcotte, an atheist activist, blogger and freelance journalist who has been critical of Dawkins, said comments like that keep unbelievers聽from joining atheist groups or supporting its causes.
鈥淎 lot of close friends of mine do not believe in God and they see his (Dawkins鈥�) Islamophobia, they see his sexism, they see his unwillingness to engage with people who don鈥檛 come from a white man鱿鱼视频app perspective and they are done,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey have no interest in that. Zero.鈥�
So when his recent tweets about rape and pedophilia hit the Twittersphere two days after the release of the civility agreement with his longtime critic, the debate started anew.
鈥淧erhaps he was testing it,鈥� Benson said of the agreement, which she characterized as a positive step in repairing a rift over feminism within atheism that she traces to Dawkins鈥� 鈥淒ear Muslima鈥� comment.
Benson said Dawkins attracts people to the movement with his well-reasoned arguments against religion and superstition. But he then repels them with what many see as an unwillingness to listen to ideas other than his own.
鈥淚n his two or three recent Twitter combats, the most striking thing is he does not listen to anyone except his fans, no matter how reasonably things are put,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that鱿鱼视频app a good way to represent long-term, healthy atheism.鈥�
And it isn鈥檛 only women atheists whom Dawkins upset. Writing on聽The Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta said: 鈥淚鈥檓 a fan of Richard Dawkins. I know he means well. But damn, it鱿鱼视频app annoying having to defend him. More importantly, I shouldn鈥檛 have to!鈥�
Adam Lee, who blogs at Daylight Atheism, said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think (Dawkins) has done more harm than good to the atheist movement, but the balance has been shifting towards harm. He has made comments about women and minorities that give people a bad impression of what atheism stands for. I wish he would stand back and let other people add their voices to his.鈥�
Of course, Dawkins still has legions of supporters. Among his biggest is Dennett, one of his fellow 鈥淔our Horsemen鈥� and a philosopher at Tufts University.
鈥淚 thought Richard鱿鱼视频app responses were right on target. If some radical feminists (and others) think that all rape is equally bad, do they think it is not quite as bad as murder? If so, are THEY condoning rape? 聽And if they think rape and murder are always equally bad, they really have lost their bearings and do not deserve our attention. Richard has been immensely important.鈥�
Even some of Dawkins鈥� critics say they are heartened by his recent statement over the 鈥淒ear Muslima鈥� incident.
鈥淚 consider this a very hopeful sign that he鱿鱼视频app gaining a better appreciation of perspectives different from his own,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to say that this one statement wipes the slate clean, but it does make me more optimistic and hopeful that his understanding will continue to evolve.鈥�