Rabbi Shmuley Overreacts

There is some incredibly interesting dialogue being put out in cyberspace between Richard Dawkins and his friend the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Boteach is very known. I think he is on Oprah some times. Dawkins compared his oratory style to Hitler and Boteach "blew a gasket" on that one. Dawkins, who I find intellectually honest and right to the point, was saying that the Rabbi does have to scream to make his point. He wasn't saying Schmuley was butcher like Hitler. He may have been a little harsh, but he was giving advice to the good Rabbi about not having to holler and rant to make a point(much like Jeremiah Wright does.) I think it is a fantastic idea that people don't have to get loud and dramatic but can make points in calm and rational ways. He's right on the mark....but Boteach is attemping to nail Dawkins on a point of political correctness. Here is Dawkin's most intelligent response:


I did not say you think like Hitler, or hold the same opinions as Hitler, or do terrible things to people like Hitler. Obviously and most emphatically you don't. I said you shriek like Hitler. That is the only point of resemblance, and it is true. You shriek and yell and rant like Hitler. Not all the time, of course. You also tell very good jokes, and tell them brilliantly. You deservedly get lots of laughs, as a good comedian should. But throughout your speeches you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler. Incidentally, Dinesh D'Souza yells and shrieks in just the same way. I suppose it impresses some people, although it is hard to believe.Anybody who has something sensible or worthwhile to say should be able to say it calmly and soberly, relying on the words themselves to convey his meaning, without resorting to yelling. Hitler had nothing but nonsense to say. He spoke nonsense about race, nonsense about history, nonsense about Jews. If one speaks nonsense in a calm and sober voice nobody listens, so Hitler yelled his nonsense at the top of his voice and, unfortunately, people listened -- stupid, ignorant people. You have sensible things to say about sex and love, and you have no need to yell when you are talking sense. Unfortunately, when you turn to the subject of evolution, you don't know what you are talking about, so you yell and shriek to make up for it. Maybe yelling and shrieking works with an ignorant audience. It apparently worked for Hitler, but that is not a happy precedent. You should know better. Go and read some books about evolution, learn something about biology, and you'll then find that you can talk about it in a calm and civilised voice. You'll find that you won't need to yell and shriek like a madman, and you'll be all the more persuasive for it.


One more point. Make sure you read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. It is the most brilliant book I have read in my life time(so far).

This reviewer agrees with me:

"As a scientist," Richard Dawkins writes, "I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect" (p. 284). In other words, the greatest crime of fundamental Christianity is to think without asking scientific questions. For those readers already familiar with Dawkins' work, it will come as no surprise that this book is nothing less than brilliant. Pity those readers, however, who either won't read this book (they should) or who will find nothing positive to say about it, because this is the work of one the greatest thinkers of our time.


And to my dear friend Craig. I don't believe you read the book I sent to you. Please look at it again. Thanks.