The philosopher Leo Strauss once spoke of the reductio ad Hitlerum. By this he meant the promiscuous tendency of people to try to score a debating point by comparing their opponents to Hitler. The form of the argument is something like this: "My opponent doesn't like strawberry ice cream. Hitler didn't like strawberry ice cream. My opponent is just like Hitler." Strauss's point was that the reductio ad Hitlerum is the mark of the lazy and illogical mind.
Sure enough, here is Richard Dawkins employing the reductio against me in a recent comment on his website richarddawkins.net. Referring to me and a conservative rabbi named Boteach, Dawkins writes: "It occurs to me that people like Boteach and D'Souza may be honestly unaware that they shriek and yell in such an unbecoming way. Maybe this is just what preachers of a certain kind do. So people who profession is to preach, or who live their lives surrounded by preachers, just don't hear their ugly yells and shrieks as we do. They have become so inured to the preaching style of yelling that the resemblance to Hitler passes them by.
"I'm not suggesting that Boteach and D'Souza have literally damaged their ears. But at a higher cortical level they may have become desensitized through years of preaching, and exposure to preachers, so they don't hear, and literally and honestly don't understand, the strong resemblance to the hideous vocal style of Hitler. Once again, I need to emphasize that the comparison with Hitler is limited to vocal style. Of course nobody is suggesting that either Boteach or D'Souza have similar opinions to Hitler, or resemble him in any other way at all.
"But imagine listening to a Boteach speech or a D'Souza speech or a Hitler speech with no knowledge of English or German. I suspect that you'd hardly notice the difference. Contrast it with a speech by Christopher Hitchens. The voice is strong, even a little thrilling. But there's no hysteria there. The words match the content: measured, thoughtful, strong and powerful but never hysterical."
Had this not appeared on Dawkins' website, I would have thought it parody. But who can bring himself to laugh? Does Dawkins have any idea of how gross it is to compare a rabbi to Hitler on the sole ground that both men had a tendency to raise their voices? If this isn't anti-Semitism at the very least it shows a shocking disregard for what the Holocaust means to Jews. Perhaps the kindest explanation is that Dawkins has a pathological hatred for the clergy, and Boteach is a rabbi.
I, on the other hand, am a scholar and author. Dawkins, who knows this, weirdly insinuates that I am a preacher or spend most of my time with preachers. This couldn't be further from the truth. I have been a secular writer for 20 years and mostly I speak to university audiences and business groups. Moreover, the atheists I debate, like Michael Shermer and Peter Singer and Christopher Hitchens, routinely tell me how effectively I use wit and repartee and rhetorical understatement and learned analogies to make my points. Far from using "yells" and "shrieks," the only time I can recall even raising my voice was during my debate with Daniel Dennett, and this was not because I was upset but only because the microphone was not working properly.
I suspect that Dawkins has come up with this pathetic reductio ad Hitlerum in order to justify his cowardice in not debating me. "I can't debate Dinesh because he will use his Hitler voice to shout me down." Isn't the real problem that Dawkins has used his zoologist's credentials in order to wander into fields (physics, astronomy, history, phiosophy, anthropology, theology) where his knowledge is embarrassingly limited? I suspect he's worried that in a debate I will exposure his ignorance and make him an international object of ridicule.
Why not prove me wrong, Richard? Come out from under your desk and take me up on my invitation to debate. I promise to speak in whispers!
And here's some news from our Department of Atheists Who Aren't Wimps: On Friday July 11, I will debate Christopher Hitchens at the big libertarian conference Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. Our topic is "Christianity, Islam and the War on Terror." For more information go to freedomfest.com or simply click here.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 29)
91. If Atheists don't believe in religion why massacre Jews?
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Hitler needed an enemy, and Jews (bankers) were the perfect target. IN addition, atheist kill jews because God comes first with Jews, not the atheist state. You know, you clowns are so completely stupid it boggles the mind. All you do is ignore history and facts, while you drool the words of the idiot that programed you. Clearly, stupid is an atheist, and nothing is as worthless as a Liberal atheist.
Thomas J Gassett at 2:44PM on Jul 7th 2008
92. "their arugment is with the existence of God, not organized religion."
Huh, how did you spin it around this way? Always thought it was the opposite.
Mokele Mbembe
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This is the perfect example of an idiot that knows the words ... just not what they mean. Mokey best stick with discrediting bible stories ... it's all can do.
Thomas J Gassett at 2:46PM on Jul 7th 2008
93. God Free physics is an oxymoron.
The best argument to be made for the existence of God is physics.
Many that study this very wierd universe of ours began as atheist, and now see God. That's right. The current argument is this. Either this universe was designed to allow life, or the BB created many, perhaps even infinite universes. The idea is that you couldn't come up with our universe with a single throw of the dice. The laws of our universe are simply too complex and elegant to be an accident
But many physicists do subscribe to the idea of infinite universes. Why should that be any less likely than a Creator?
timbo at 2:55PM on Jul 7th 2008
94. Our atheist brothers spend their days discrediting bible stories, apparently unaware that their arugment is with the existence of God, not organized religion.
Go figure?
I think it's only in your fevered imagination that atheists do that. Most spend their time doing what anyone else does but without the pointless illusion of a God
timbo at 3:00PM on Jul 7th 2008
95. Tom; you cannot prove there is a god any more than anyone can prove there isn't one.
Discrediting the bible is adequate.
Ryan Anderson at 2:57PM on Jul 7th 2008
96. DD YOU ARE RIGHT. I HAVE TO LAUGH AT THIS COMPARISION AT LEAST WITH REGARD TO YOU. I DO NOT KNOW ANY THING ABOUT RABBI BOTEACH, SO I WILL LIMIT THIS COMMENT WITH REGARD TO YOU. HITLER WAS A FAR SUPERIOR INTELECTUAL THAN YOU. HE ALSO WAS ALWAYS MONITORING THE RESPONSES FROM HIS AUDIENCES IN AN ASTUTE FASHION AND TAILORED HIS HATE SPEECH ACCORDINGLY. I DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE EVEN A TENTH OF HITLERS ORATORIAL ABILITIES.
R Shanker at 2:59PM on Jul 7th 2008
97. Yes, I know... I'm a turd...
Ryan Anderson at 2:58PM on Jul 7th 2008
98. Hitler needed an enemy, and Jews (bankers) were the perfect target. IN addition, atheist kill jews because God comes first with Jews, not the atheist state. You know, you clowns are so completely stupid it boggles the mind. All you do is ignore history and facts, while you drool the words of the idiot that programed you. Clearly, stupid is an atheist, and nothing is as worthless as a Liberal atheist.
So your saying god did not come first with Christians? That is why most were spared under Hitler's regime?
No one is dumber than a person who assumes to know history all the while denying history itself. Totalitarianism was the regime Hitler instilled. God also came first with Christians but they were in no way massacred like the jews were under Hitler's command. In his regime only man ruled, not god, yet he spared many Christians the torture he reserved for Jews alone.
goddess1prevail at 3:02PM on Jul 7th 2008
99. Ryan,
"you cannot prove there is a god any more than anyone can prove there isn't one."
You should specify that the onus is upon him to prove HIS god. If you leave it too generalized he can smuggle his 'arugments' into deist territory, alternate definitions of god, or semantic manipulations.
Mokele Mbembe at 3:06PM on Jul 7th 2008
100. Tom is also forgetting that most Germans, including most members of the Warmacht, were Christian.
Ryan Anderson at 3:08PM on Jul 7th 2008
101. Mokele; Good point.
One of the fun things that keeps this board spicy is we've never bothered to define "god" for the purpose of the argument. Yahweh is pretty easy to disprove. The Spinoza's God, not so much.
Ryan Anderson at 3:14PM on Jul 7th 2008
102. I think it would be interesting to explore the long latin word that describes the mental illness shared by the same useless shutins that haunt this blog constantly. Get a real life. You don't need to be shit talkers forever.
Thomas J Gassett at 11:39AM on Jul 7th 2008
xxx
There isn't one, but you might want to look up Borderline Personality Disorder and think back on who abandoned you when you were a liberal and what it did to you.
Like many who show up here you differ from normal people in an easy to understand way: where normal reasonable people of sound judgment have gain controls you have on and off switches. This may be biochemical or may be self-inflicted, but it's there.
Additionally it would be safe to say your disc is finalized - 'nothing new here' you say endlessly.
of course not, you've been ROM for a long time.
Clif Kuplen at 3:16PM on Jul 7th 2008
103. God also came first with Christians but they were in no way massacred like the Jews were under Hitler's command. In his regime only man ruled, not god, yet he spared many Christians the torture he reserved for Jews alone.
goddess1prevail at 3:02PM on Jul 7th 2008
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Tell us if you can Goddess 1.
Why have the Jews been persecuted and slaughtered more than any nation and people in the world?
Remember there is prophecy concerning this very thing..
According to you , the God of the bible is nothing more than a myth..
But yet this prophecy that is listed in the bible is still being fulfilled even today, and as long as they live for what they said to Pontius Pilate at his trial.
I suppose you will deny this also.
Observant at 3:20PM on Jul 7th 2008
104. But many physicists do subscribe to the idea of infinite universes. Why should that be any less likely than a Creator?
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Translation: God is a 50/50 possibility, that can't be proven or disproven anymore than the theory of infinite universes.
This is strikingly different from an athesit point of view ... wouldn't you agree? No wonder these dolts whine about bible stories, and think it's some kind of proof. These wanabee atheist (petulant children) offer nothing more than deist, or theist arugments ... they can't even grasp an arugment about God. Clearly, another name for what passes for an atheist on this blog is moron.
Thomas J Gassett at 3:20PM on Jul 7th 2008
105. I think both christians AND atheists are full of shit. No, make that bullshit.
Penn at 3:22PM on Jul 7th 2008