Some time ago, the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a humanist organization I was taken with and wrote for, merged with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Alas, if only Dawkins himself stood for reason and science. Quite the opposite. It is astonishing, the words that manage to negotiate their way around Dawkins’s foot and spew from his mouth. It began with an incident that was eventually dubbed “Elevatorgate.” After a woman quite reasonably suggested that men could do better than to corner a lone woman in an elevator in the wee hours and invite her to his room for coffee, Dawkins wrote: Dear Muslima, In the guanostorm of side-taking that followed, what appeared to be lost on many was the irrationality and callousness of Dawkins’s remark. Mind you, the man has an international audience. What he says, profound or stupid, finds its way around the world in record time. Dawkins would eventually bury something of a not-apology in a later blog post. But in succeeding years, he managed to make things worse. The Atlantic reported that Dawkins actually defended what he called “mild pedophilia”: Referring to his early days at a boarding school in Salisbury, he recalled how one of the (unnamed) masters “pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts.” More recently, Dawkins and CFI CEO Robyn Blumner have been beating anti-trans and anti-woke drums. This is the antithesis of humanism. The American Humanist Association recognized as much in 2021, officially rescinding the Humanist of the Year award that it had bestowed upon Dawkins in 1996. This is from AHA’s official statement: Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values. His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient. His subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity. Dawkins’s and Blumner’s response has been to double-down on their anti-trans and anti-woke rhetoric.
To be sure, Dawkins is a renowned biologist who has accomplished much good. His books are for the most part brilliant (though at times rambling). The problems arise when he strays out of his area of expertise. The Center for Inquiry operates a number of worthy humanist programs. Lest those programs suffer further loss of support, CFI’s Board would do well to find the wherewithal to dismiss Dawkins and Blumner, apologize to the world, and correct its course.
7 Comments
Chip Cherry
10/21/2024 01:45:03 pm
I have to agree. The Elevatorgate issue came from out of nowhere to shock many of us who otherwise adored the man. He just seems to sink further into his self-assured statements of ignorance.
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That guy
10/21/2024 02:21:30 pm
Agreed, but it won't happen. CFI isn't democratic and he essentially owns it... in most practical senses.
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Alice Speak
10/21/2024 04:04:01 pm
I have read your article and appreciate the thought that you put to it but disagree. I have had the pleasure of meeting this man of science and have read everything I believe he has published. Richard Dawkins is not what your article proports him to be. He is a humanist if any of us are.
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Cathy Whiting
10/21/2024 05:43:51 pm
"He is a humanist if any of us are" flies in the face of what Steve Cuno has said in the article and begs the question of what a humanist is. I've long admired Richard Dawkins for his contributions to our thinking about "the god delusion," science, and evolutionary biology. But his statements and behavior as described in the article is inconsistent with the respect for human dignity that one expects of a humanist. Can you support your last two statements with specific reference to what Steve has said?
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10/21/2024 06:13:48 pm
Alice, I would agree that Dawkins is a brilliant scientist, WITHIN HIS FIELD. This does NOT make him an authority on EVERYTHING, although sadly he seems to have fallen victim to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where being an authority on one thing makes you THINK you are an authority on everything.
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Autumn
10/22/2024 10:35:43 am
As a columnist for SI for several years, someone who has deeply believed in the mission statement of CFI and happens to be trans, every time Robyn publishes something new, I’ll-informed, and hateful it’s like a slap in the face
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Amelia Elizabeth Downey
10/25/2024 01:40:34 pm
The continued fawning over this man is disturbing. He regularly says very stupid shit on a number of topics. The nonsense he spews about transgendered people is part of a well established pattern and yet he remains one of the darlings of the skeptic community.
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