“It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is either ignorant, stupid, or insane.”
First, that the somebody in question is not telling the literal truth is a very likely alternative. Some who claim they don’t believe in evolution may in fact believe in evolution, but don’t want people to know, or want to signal support for those who don’t believe in evolution.
Seems like Dawkins comment wasn’t quite so “absolutely safe” after all. To further criticize Dawkins, this is a case where he is in fact showing unwarranted intellectual arrogance, making an absolute claim of fact, when a tiny bit of reflection on Dennett’s theme of “belief in belief” would have shown him the error of his claim. I have repeatedly found that Dawkins is not at his intellectual or gentlemanly best when the evolution is questioned as a historical fact.
Second, even if you ignore the liar aspect, I don’t think the statement is true unless one plays Clintonian games with language. I could say that everyone is stupid, insane, and ignorant, and it would be true in the context I intend. But in plain, everyday English, his statement was an insult, and it was false.
On your question, I feel that there would be more value in those defending this statement as pejorative free to try to come up with a revised statement that was in fact pejorative free. But I’ll give you one of my own:
“Someone who claims to not believe in evolution is stupid or insane, or is simply ignorant of the theory of evolution and the associated evidence for it.”
Note that this hardly sugar coats the judgment on the person, and many would still find it offensive. But this at least differentiates ignorant from stupid and insane, and more importantly, it delimits the ignorance to an arguably justified scope. If I were at my gentlemanly best, I would leave out the stupid and insane parts entirely, and just say that if you don’t believe in evolution, I think you don’t understand it. Again, many would find that blunt and rude, but I guess that’s as gentlemanly as I get.
It occurs to me that Dawkins could, in a perfect world, have saved us this argument by just using “simple ignorance” instead of unadorned “ignorance”. But then, The God Delusion is annoyingly philosophically unsophisticated. Its main virtue is that it appears to work.
The book pretty much states as its explicit purpose making as many people as possible aware that being religious is a choice and that there can be alternatives. Watertight philosophical rigor would probably harm that goal.
Getting smart people to think that religion deserves seriously thought out counterarguments might just be a way for theists to keep winning anyway.
Dawkins quote:
First, that the somebody in question is not telling the literal truth is a very likely alternative. Some who claim they don’t believe in evolution may in fact believe in evolution, but don’t want people to know, or want to signal support for those who don’t believe in evolution.
Seems like Dawkins comment wasn’t quite so “absolutely safe” after all. To further criticize Dawkins, this is a case where he is in fact showing unwarranted intellectual arrogance, making an absolute claim of fact, when a tiny bit of reflection on Dennett’s theme of “belief in belief” would have shown him the error of his claim. I have repeatedly found that Dawkins is not at his intellectual or gentlemanly best when the evolution is questioned as a historical fact.
Second, even if you ignore the liar aspect, I don’t think the statement is true unless one plays Clintonian games with language. I could say that everyone is stupid, insane, and ignorant, and it would be true in the context I intend. But in plain, everyday English, his statement was an insult, and it was false.
On your question, I feel that there would be more value in those defending this statement as pejorative free to try to come up with a revised statement that was in fact pejorative free. But I’ll give you one of my own:
“Someone who claims to not believe in evolution is stupid or insane, or is simply ignorant of the theory of evolution and the associated evidence for it.”
Note that this hardly sugar coats the judgment on the person, and many would still find it offensive. But this at least differentiates ignorant from stupid and insane, and more importantly, it delimits the ignorance to an arguably justified scope. If I were at my gentlemanly best, I would leave out the stupid and insane parts entirely, and just say that if you don’t believe in evolution, I think you don’t understand it. Again, many would find that blunt and rude, but I guess that’s as gentlemanly as I get.
It occurs to me that Dawkins could, in a perfect world, have saved us this argument by just using “simple ignorance” instead of unadorned “ignorance”. But then, The God Delusion is annoyingly philosophically unsophisticated. Its main virtue is that it appears to work.
The book pretty much states as its explicit purpose making as many people as possible aware that being religious is a choice and that there can be alternatives. Watertight philosophical rigor would probably harm that goal.
Getting smart people to think that religion deserves seriously thought out counterarguments might just be a way for theists to keep winning anyway.
Fully watertight philosophical rigour is probably optimising the wrong thing, yes. c.f. Mencken on one horse-laugh versus ten thousand syllogisms.
That last is a reasonable try, yes. Thank you.