richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

68 T H E G O D D E L U S I O N
but unlike the 'Chamberlain school', they will have no truck with
NOMA and its separate magisteria. Far from respecting the
separateness of science's turf, creationists like nothing better than to
trample their dirty hobnails all over it. And they fight dirty, too.
Lawyers for creationists, in court cases around the American
boondocks, seek out evolutionists who are openly atheists. I know
- to my chagrin - that my name has been used in this way. It is an
effective tactic because juries selected at random are likely to
include individuals brought up to believe that atheists are demons
incarnate, on a par with pedophiles or 'terrorists' (today's
equivalent of Salem's witches and McCarthy's Commies). Any
creationist lawyer who got me on the stand could instantly win over
the jury simply by asking me: 'Has your knowledge of evolution
influenced you in the direction of becoming an atheist?' I would
have to answer yes and, at one stroke, I would have lost the jury.
By contrast, the judicially correct answer from the secularist side
would be: 'My religious beliefs, or lack of them, are a private
matter, neither the business of this court nor connected in any way
with my science.' I couldn't honestly say this, for reasons I shall
explain in Chapter 4.
The Guardian journalist Madeleine Bunting wrote an article
entitled 'Why the intelligent design lobby thanks God for Richard
Dawkins'. 41 There's no indication that she consulted anybody
except Michael Ruse, and her article might as well have been ghostwritten
by him.* Dan Dennett replied, aptly quoting Uncle Remus:
I find it amusing that two Brits - Madeleine Bunting and
Michael Ruse - have fallen for a version of one of the
most famous scams in American folklore (Why the
intelligent design lobby thanks God for Richard Dawkins,
March 27). When Brer Rabbit gets caught by the fox, he
pleads with him: 'Oh, please, please, Brer Fox, whatever
you do, don't throw me in that awful briar patch!' -
where he ends up safe and sound after the fox does just
that. When the American propagandist William Dembski
writes tauntingly to Richard Dawkins, telling him to keep
* The same could be said of an article, 'When cosmologies collide', in the New
York Times, 22 Jan. 2006, by the respected (and usually much better briefed) journalist
Judith Shulevitz. General Montgomery's First Rule of War was 'Don't march
on Moscow.' Perhaps there should be a First Rule of Science Journalism: 'Interview
at least one person other than Michael Ruse.'