News Blog: Dawkins says Francis Collins "is not a bright guy"

News Blog

Dawkins says Francis Collins "is not a bright guy"

By Nikhil Swaminathan | Apr 16, 2008 11:33 AM | 3

On Friday night, Bill Maher had evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion Richard Dawkins on his show Real Time with Bill Maher for a powwow on atheism. Aside from equating a belief in God to having an "imaginary friend," the two discussed how it is that some scientists can also be religious. Perhaps predictably, Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project, who at 27 converted to evangelical Christianity and in 2006 wrote the book The Language of God came up. Take a look at the video below to see how Bill Maher caused Dawkins to lose some of his esteem for Collins. (Around 3:40 into the video.)

-- Edited by nikhil swaminathan at 04/16/2008 11:34 AM -- Edited by Christie Nicholson at 04/16/2008 2:03 PM

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1. Steve Skeete 09:55 AM 7/20/09

Every Christian who loves a challenge should love Richard Dawkins.

Christians should see him as the great non-religious hope, the man who believes it is his destiny to dethrone God.

He is the kind of person who makes bigotry and prejudice chic. He considers himself intelligent and smart, yet publicly denigrate a real scientist, a Nobel Prize winning one at that, whom he lauds as being just the "manager" of the Human Genome Project, simply because this man believes in a personal God. It is obvious to Dawkins, and in his view, ought to be obvious to every scientist, that anyone who believes in any kind of "God" cannot be considered intelligent, regardless of his/her scientific qualification or acumen. I love this guy Dawkins!

Christianity needs a polemicist like him warring against it. If the Christian faith can demand the sustained attention of someone who thinks so highly of himself then there may just be something to it after all. Here is a reportedly and self-professed smart person who nevertheless "believes" that he has a duty to crusade against the demise of a non-existent God and yet be taken seriously. Every Christian should love this guy!

Dawkins says Christianity has too much clout, particularly in the U.S.A and, apparently, he has been sent by, whomever it is that sends atheist to "pull down the mighty from their seats" and to exalt the supposedly intelligent people who have no need - at the moment or in the forseeable future, for any friends in "high places". The world should like this guy!

Dawkins is a perfect example of what the ancient Greek called hubris. In fact, that could almost be his middle name. Never in the history of mankind has one individual sought to bring religion to its knees while actually believing it was possible. If one were seeking lifetime work that would be it. Truthfully, Dawkins reminds me of another Greek saying: "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad".

Trust me, you can't help but love this guy if you are a believer of any kind since he is the epitome of faith. Every religion should love this guy!
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2. clay_k 06:55 PM 7/7/10

While I certainly can't argue that Dawkin's work won't incite a backlash, I can certainly understand where he's coming from. Thinking people the world over are understandibly getting fed up with continually having to defend rationality against superstition passed down from the Bronze Age.
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3. GentlemanX 11:09 AM 1/13/13

Pardon, but when did Dr. Collins receive a Nobel prize? I think you are mistaken.
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