As a sign of how little I read outside science these days, it’s taken a full week for this debacle to reach my consciousness via the sharpener. And without launching into is-he-or-isn’t-he 1, the Sharpener article’s comment about prevalent mud-flinging attitudes reminded me of a recent Doonesbury comic [clicky the linky; I don't want to break copyright law and reproduce it here]. LOL all you want. It’s sad but true that we are headed towards an era of smear2.
1 For what it’s worth, I really don’t think Dawkins can be accurately named and shamed as an anti-semite. If anything, as a devout atheist, he’s just anti-any-religion-you-care-to-name. Call him an anti-religionist if you must. Anti-semite has overtones of picking on a particular racial and religious group that we all know has been very badly treated by the world in general lately. Bad choice of example. But then again, can you choose any example of religious dominance in state-run affairs and not offend anybody? Hell no.
2 And I don’t mean PAP smears. No, those are good things. If we were headed into the era of free PAP smears for all women, that would be much better…
