Richard Dawkins supports school Bible plan

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18224114

Richard Dawkins supports school Bible plan

Leading atheist Richard Dawkins says he supports the plan to put a Bible in every English school.

The privately funded distribution of King James Bibles began this month to mark its 400th anniversary.

Prof Dawkins, writing in the Observer, said: "It is not a moral book and young people need to learn that important fact because they are very frequently told the opposite".

Critics have said it is unlikely that schools do not already have a Bible.

Education Secretary Michael Gove supported the plan, saying the text had had "an immense influence" on the English-speaking world.

He said pupils should learn about its role in the nation's history, language, literacy and culture.

Prof Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford, said: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."

(continued)

[Hermit]

Dawkins: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."



Going by that statement the retired Oxford Don seems to be increasingly caught up in an environment of ever more insular circle jerkers.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Dawkins: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."



Going by that statement the retired Oxford Don seems to be increasingly caught up in an environment of ever more insular circle jerkers.

"Increasingly caught up"? He was born into that environment. As I put it on the RatSkep thread on this topic,

I think Dawkins' class background is showing when he waxes lyrical about the KJV. Frankly he's a bit of a sodding bore over all this 'cultural christian' stuff, presumably because alot of it forms such a big part of life at public boarding schools.

[Robert_S]

The "verging on the barbarian" part is over the top a little, but finding the little bits in there like the genocides carried out by the sons of Abraham, the adultery and murderousness of King David, the Jedi mind tricks that Jehovah played on Pharaoh so that he'd have an excuse to visit plagues on the ordinary Egyptians... Those can only help the decline of Christianity.

[Tero]

He'll be bishop soon.

[hackenslash]

Dawkins: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."



Going by that statement the retired Oxford Don seems to be increasingly caught up in an environment of ever more insular circle jerkers.

"Increasingly caught up"? He was born into that environment. As I put it on the RatSkep thread on this topic,

I think Dawkins' class background is showing when he waxes lyrical about the KJV. Frankly he's a bit of a sodding bore over all this 'cultural christian' stuff, presumably because alot of it forms such a big part of life at public boarding schools.

It should be noted that what he's talking about here is not the 'cultural christian' guff, but the value of the KJV in shaping our language. It's easily as important as Shakespeare in that regard. Wurzel Gummidge would be proud to call your argument his kin.

[Atheist-Lite]

He's a cultural christian, how often as the revolution been betrayed from the top? You need to realise he's a 6.9 on his own scale and a 6.9 might has well be zero compared with a seven.

[Drewish]

Shakespeare sucks and this is just some more Dawkins pretentious ivory tower BS. I'm really glad that I can enjoy his work on genetics without giving a damn about his opinion on culture.

[FBM]

Shakespeare sucks and this is just some more Dawkins pretentious ivory tower BS. I'm really glad that I can enjoy his work on genetics without giving a damn about his opinion on culture.

[Svartalf]

Dawkins: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."



Going by that statement the retired Oxford Don seems to be increasingly caught up in an environment of ever more insular circle jerkers.

A speaker of modern English who finds the KJV to be illegible swill is fairly normal, sayeth the lover of beautiful language and archaic sayings.
Anyway, if I want archaic 1500s English, there's Shakespeare, Marlowe and some others that are quite more interesting.

[Svartalf]

He'll be bishop soon.

Given that the soon to be retired Archbishop of Canterbury is largely suspected of being a closet atheist...

[hackenslash]

Shakespeare sucks

[rachelbean]