Dear Richard,
We're both scheduled to discuss issues of Darwin and God on the Riz Khan Show on Al-Jazeera on Monday, July 21. Viewers who are interested can watch the show live here. The segments will also be posted on Youtube and I'll link to them.
But a few hours after I mentioned our forthcoming debate on this blog, you posted a comment on your website essentially accusing me of making the whole thing up. So first you accuse me of having a Hitler voice, and now you accuse me of misrepresentation.
Here's what happened. Al-Jazeera contacted me a while ago, asking me to appear in a point-counterpoint format with a leading opponent. I said I was writing about God and atheism, and suggested I appear with a prominent atheist. They chose you. Then the producer Zeresnaey Abraha confirmed that you were ready to do it. Late last week I got a studio notice from Al-Jazeera giving me the time for me to arrive at their rented San Diego studio. The other guest was listed as "Richard Dawkins" and your studio details at Oxford were given.
Apparently when you found out that the two of us were booked on the same show, same segment, you rushed to the producer to insist that we appear separately. Your pretext according to Abraha was that you have a long-standing pledge not to debate "creationists." I can understand that you don't want to give legitimacy to people who flatly deny evolution or who insist that the earth is less than 6,000 years old. The only problem with you invoking this pledge is that I believe in evolution and am not, nor have I ever been, a "creationist."
Apparently the format now is that we will each be interviewed separately. So technically it's no longer a debate, although it is most certainly an exchange of rival ideas on the same topic. It's a pity that we cannot engage each other directly.
To be honest, I find your behavior extremely bizarre. You go halfway around the world to chase down televangelists to outsmart them in an interview format that you control, but given several opportunities to engage the issues you profess to care about in a true spirit of open debate and inquiry, you duck and dodge and run away.
If we debate on the Riz Khan show, a format comparable to ABC "Nightline," you cannot seriously think I will drown you out with Hitler shouts. And if I tried that in an academic setting I would make a complete fool of myself. I have done several debates with your fellow atheists Michael Shermer and Christopher Hitchens (and have just scheduled my second debate this fall with Peter Singer) because all of them have consistently found me a serious and worthy opponent. Hitchens told me in Las Vegas that each time our debates are different because both of us adjust to what the other guy said the last time around. This is how knowledge is tested, through the process of critical exchange, isn't it?
You are supposed to be the public champion of science and reason and enlightened discourse. This is basically what your title at Oxford says, right? This is why the Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi is paying your salary, isn't it? So are we to believe that despite the seriousness of the issues involved, issues that engage your whole life's work, you won't even stand up and defend your views even in a hospitable setting like Oxford or any other venue of your choice?
Many years ago I read The Selfish Gene and was deeply impressed. What especially struck me was your intellectual audacity, your willingness to jump into a big debate and take on the big questions, and of course your literary eloquence. If you are so confident that your position is right, and that belief in God is an obvious delusion, surely you should be willing to vindicate that position not only against Bible-toting pastors but also against a fellow scholar and informed critic like me!
If not, you are nothing but a showman who takes on unprepared and unsuspecting opponents when you yourself control the editing, but when a strong opponent shows up you manufacture reasons to avoid him. Somehow, I would have thought the author of 'The Selfish Gene would be made of sterner stuff. .
Reader Comments ( Page 6 of 26)
76. http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
PROFESSOR X at 12:46PM on Jul 21st 2008
77. Dawkins only debates people who speak at less than 140 decibels.
Jay at 1:16PM on Jul 21st 2008
78. I'd like to know why Mr. D'Souza accepted an invitation to appear on Al-Jazeera. That network's news coverae is so slanted they make FOX look "fair and balanced".
Mike Luongo at 1:02PM on Jul 21st 2008
79. Prof X,
If we could see 3% of God with finite eyes and finite photon intake, God would himself be finite.
Mokele Mbembe at 1:04PM on Jul 21st 2008
80. Why should RD appear on a program to give D'Souza credibility? He says he's not a creationist but believes in evolution but he thinks he's inept creator controlled evolution. He is a creationist. Keeping things in context: D'Souza used to date transsexual plagiarist Anne Coulter.
brandyscottxxx at 1:09PM on Jul 21st 2008
81.
What would be humorous is if DoubleD turned out to be ProfX.
JefFlyingV at 1:16PM on Jul 21st 2008
82. Here's my plan for blog peace. Apologetic Disarmament. We each attack each other's apologetic techniques until each of our philosophies are rendered indefensible and impotent to attack each other. Then we will be equally without base for argument as we conclude that no one is righteous, everyone is clueless, and we can all finally leave each other alone for good. Once everyone loses, everyone wins.
Mokele Mbembe at 1:41PM on Jul 21st 2008
83. Big Tuna -
Your prize awaits. I bestow upon you the most prostigious Title, "Chicken Of The Sea." You may now bask in it's reverent glory.
ex-christian
Mmmmmm, canned chicken.
a born atheist at 1:44PM on Jul 21st 2008
84. DINNY LOVES AL-JAZEERA BECAUSE religious nuts are OK with him..
Dinny blamed the US for 9-11, saying we should be "moral" like the muzzies want everyone to be. I think is was in this same idiotic blog, reprinted from a magazine, from back when mags would publish his drivel
dan k at 2:05PM on Jul 21st 2008
85. Dinny, stop boring us with atheist baiting, and tell us what we really wonder about...Is Mann Coulter male or female in the panties, or is she kind of indeterminate?
dan k at 2:16PM on Jul 21st 2008
86. DD is a mindless Christian who writes books for people who think Adam and Eve and Noah and his Ark were real people and a real ship............
Larry at 2:56PM on Jul 21st 2008
87. Dawkins should definitely 'man-up' here and tell D'Souza to 'fuck off!'.
Since Dawkins has been consistent in his refusal to debate D'Souza, one could hardly say that he is losing credibility by continuing to refuse to debate him.
D'Souza comes across as 'milking' the situation for all it's worth.
Do we really need to see D'Souza/Renzo restate the 'argument from unknowablity' again and again?
Do we really need to hear, "Oh, you can't imagine God... well imagine God sitting in front of some dials then. If the Earth had been a bit closer to the Sun blahblahblah..."
not-pboyfloyd at 3:06PM on Jul 21st 2008
88. DD I do not blame Mr.Dawkins for not wanting to be with you in the same room. Would you volunteer to get in to a pissing contest with a Skunk? Every sane person knows that your way of debating is to rant and rave without making any sense. It was news to me that you are a believer in Evolution also. Now there are so many religions in the world members of which are praying to so many different Gods. Is your position that Jesus is the only real God? What about Catholics who think Virgin Mary is the real God. What about Allah? Buddha? and various deities of various other religions? By proclaiming that Jesus is the only "God" are you not being too presumptious?
Ray
R Shanker at 3:11PM on Jul 21st 2008
89. You can't 'know'! I'm a philosopher so I should know that you can't know! Since you're obviously not a philosopher(like me) then you probably don't know that you can't know! (Hang on a second, I'm coming!)
Ohhh, Ahhhh, Ohhhh... that was quite apposite!
Where was I?
Oh yes, *Science* can't know! How do I know?
For 2500 years philosophers(mostly religious philosophers[shh!]) have been clarifying men's minds by telling them that they can't know!(and it worked for them!)
-Renzo's sychophant
not-pboyfloyd at 3:16PM on Jul 21st 2008
90. Oh Ray..
This might come as another surprise to you, D'Souza is a Catholic!
not-pboyfloyd at 3:22PM on Jul 21st 2008