Rational Animal

Why is it that every time I see a clip of an American interviewing Richard Dawkins, the American always looks like (is) a closed minded, rude, illogical individual who will inevitably feel he’s won the argument without ever having listened to what Dawkins had to say?  I haven’t yet read much of Dawkins’ literature, but from what I have read I find that he’s incredibly intelligent and brings up some excellent, well articulated arguments.  I’d like to think that if I were to interview him, I could acknowledge this, learn from his ideas, and still disagree with his position without maintaining a combative tone that says, “I know I invited you here to speak to me today, but I don’t actually want to hear what you have to say, see, because I’m right.  Not only are you wrong, but you’re probably a terrible person ‘cause, ya know, you’re an atheist, Stalin was an atheist…are you following my logic here, or am I moving to quickly for you?”  Impressive. 

Luckily, I won’t be interviewing Rich any time soon.  Though I feel justified in disagreeing with him, I fear my 21-year-old-significantly-less-educated logic arsenal would fail me in a battle of wits with this man.  I wouldn’t be closed-off and pretentious like those Americans I’m criticizing, but I’d probably still come out looking like an idiot because my answers to his questions would come to me years later after much study instead of the expected 5 seconds after he asked the question.  However, I’d really like to hear an interview between Richard Dawkins and an educated theological scholar who could hold his own logically; and also possibly act a little more Christ-like in the actual interview, you know, by not acting like an arrogant prick.