Found the Dawkins Essay
by MikeGeneAs I mentioned before, I got lucky Friday night "“ a significant window of time opened up and Dawkins had recently finished a summary of his book entitled, Richard Dawkins explains his latest book. So I sat down, cracked open a cold drink, and began to play. A couple of hours later and my response/analysis turned out to be much too long for a blog. So I broke up the reply into several smaller bits and initiated the Dawkins Fest.
Unfortunately, a few hours after my first installment was posted, where I point out how Dawkins' views of science undercut the Dover decision, the lengthy Dawkins essay disappeared from its hosting site. How can I have a Dawkins Fest when I am now in the position of responding to an essay that has vanished? Luckily, you can read the cached version of the essay here.
September 24th, 2006 at 12:54 am
To Mike,
Thank you. It is always good to be able to read things in context.
Comment by Thought Provoker — September 24, 2006 @ 12:54 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Hi Mike,
In the last comment, that appeared at http://richarddawkins.net/main... was link to your post (and quote from the beginning of your post). I reloaded the site many times, and it was the last comment very long time: I was wondering, why any new comments were not added… and then Dawkins' article disappeared from the web site.
I think, that your essay might be the reason, why Dawkins' essay disappeared…
Comment by Analyysi — September 24, 2006 @ 11:12 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Whoa! Is this something you saw with your own eyes?
Comment by MikeGene — September 24, 2006 @ 11:15 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Hi Mike…
Again, I thank you for providing Dawkins essay. With the dawn of a new day, I read it from start to finish and immediately started re-reviewing it. Then I reread our threads.
If it wasn't obvious from yesterday's comments, I will state it clearly this morning. I agree almost entirely with what Dawkin's wrote in his essay. I am not sure I agree it was a wise idea that he wrote it, but I can't find much to fault in his logic or evidence.
Mike, you implied a need of having trustworthy people around when you are doing critical analysis.
I offer that people who honestly agree with you are the last people you should trust. Science isn't a popularity contest. Neither is critical thinking. It is way too easy to fall in the trap of believing things you want to believe.
You have pointed out that Dawkins is helping the ID movement politically. I will point out that Dawkins is helping out the ID movement scientifically.
I will agree that the cure may be worse than the disease if "Wedge II" causes everyone to get distracted. That is why I am interested in turning this into a positive where we all don't feel the need to hide inner thoughts.
ID critic - "ID is God"
ID proponent - "Yea, so what… here is my hypothesis…"
Comment by Thought Provoker — September 24, 2006 @ 11:22 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Hi TP,
I understand all this perfectly.
Comment by MikeGene — September 24, 2006 @ 11:27 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Yes.
(It was me, who posted the last comment. It was comment #222)
Comment by Analyysi — September 24, 2006 @ 11:30 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Holy Smokes. I can't imagine they would take down Dawkins' 5000-word essay without his permission.
Comment by MikeGene — September 24, 2006 @ 11:35 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Analyysi,
How long would you guess that your comment (that linked to my blog) was up before the essay was taken down?
Comment by MikeGene — September 24, 2006 @ 11:49 am
September 24th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Are you able to see the Referring URLs?
If you are, you perhaps could check visitors from richarddawkins.net and see exactly, how long was the period.
Comment by Analyysi — September 24, 2006 @ 11:59 am
September 24th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
I'm afraid I still can't see the essay. When I click on the link given by Mike in this thread, I get the following
"Your search - cache:PvadrEpnupAJ:richarddawkins.net/mainPage.php?bodyPage=article_bo dy.php&id=170 - did not match any documents.
Suggestions:
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords."
Did Dawkins' people remove the cached version as well somehow?
I would like to get hold of the essay if I can, because it will be a good way of demonstrating the spectacular internal contradictions in the anti-ID movement.
Thanks,
Omar
Comment by Omar — September 24, 2006 @ 4:15 pm
September 24th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Omar,
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=...
Comment by Analyysi — September 24, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
September 26th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I can't see this essay on any of the posted links. Anyone copied it somewhere?
Comment by Odd Digit — September 26, 2006 @ 1:21 pm
September 26th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
OD,
That'll teach you for not reading TT on a daily basis.
I'll hold off on the rest of the Dawkins Fest until (if?) the essay ever becomes available again.
Comment by MikeGene — September 26, 2006 @ 9:33 pm
September 26th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Analyysi, the second link is also gone…
Comment by todd — September 26, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
September 27th, 2006 at 2:57 am
todd:
Odd Digit:
http://id-idea.blogspot.com/20...
Comment by Analyysi — September 27, 2006 @ 2:57 am
September 27th, 2006 at 10:22 am
I'd really like to know how those cached copies disappeared so quickly.
I don't think natural laws could explain it.
Nor chance for that matter.
It sounds like a clear case of Intelligent Design by the managers of Dawkins' site: they want to clean up every trace of the offending essay, no?
Comment by Omar — September 27, 2006 @ 10:22 am
September 27th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for putting up that link Analyysi, much appreciated
Comment by Odd Digit — September 27, 2006 @ 12:27 pm
October 26th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Dawkins' essay has now been published proper, over at The Huffington Post:
"Why There Almost Certainly Is No God"
Comment by Krauze — October 26, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
October 26th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Whoa. If his book is as bad as that essay, I'd have to agree with the reviewers.
Comment by Joy — October 26, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
October 26th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I honestly don't understand why Richard Dawkins "commands" such a following among otherwise seemingly intelligent people. His ideas on religion, and incredibly often on science, are embarassingly lacking in substance.
Comment by Douglas — October 26, 2006 @ 9:32 pm