Dawkins sued for libel

Post by **Gawdzilla Sama** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:44 pm

Dawkins being sued for libel.

Guy sounds like a professional suer.

Post by **HomerJay** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 1:12 pm

Zombie Gawdzilla wrote:Dawkins being sued for libel.

Guy sounds like a professional suer.

Related to this, presumably

http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2011/0 ... a-scrooby/

Post by **HomerJay** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:36 am

When you asked for the split on the suit I thought someone had been critising Dawkins' satorial sense.

Post by **lordpasternack** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 3:57 am

I hope this litigant loses and the court laughs in his face - and Richard laughs in his sofa when he gets the news. This looks like a pathetic, deluded, self-aggrandising twat who wouldn't actually be able to fool Richard if he tried - and that point's at least worth something.

Post by **FBM** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:20 am

HomerJay wrote:
Zombie Gawdzilla wrote:Dawkins being sued for libel.

Guy sounds like a professional suer.
Related to this, presumably

http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2011/0 ... a-scrooby/

From that link:

It is also worth noting that, despite having marketed his book for somewhere close to nine months as a genuine contribution to the anti-Dawkins genre, McGrath quickly responded to minor shitstorm that ensued after he spammed the Amazon entry for Hawking and Mlodinow’s book, by switching tack and claiming that his book was, in fact, a deliberate parody/satire of the ongoing science vs religion debate, offering a refund to anyone who purchased the book before this apparent deception had been revealed. Absurdly, given this self-admitted deception, part of McGrath’s claim is based on the assertion that statements made before he perform this abrupt U-turn, which suggested that he might be a creationist/religious fundamentalist, should be considered to be defamatory.

Seriously – if we take McGrath’s claim that the book is a satire at face value, then he set out to deliberately create a Poe, pulled it off with a degree of success and is now suing Vaughan for defamation based on the fact that he was taken in by it.

Opportunistic twat, sounds like.

Post by **Atheist-Lite** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:06 am

So he's employing a kind of anti-streisand effect to get publicity and sales for his book? Ingenious, interesting to see if his experiment works?

Post by **Svartalf** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 6:07 am

I think I may buy a Dawk book, just out of principle.

Post by **Atheist-Lite** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 6:26 am

Svartalf wrote:I think I may buy a Dawk book, just out of principle.

That's the wrong motive for buying a book.

Post by **Svartalf** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 6:30 am

Well, I need an excuse to satisfy my prurient curiosity.

Post by **JimC** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:46 am

Svartalf wrote:Well, I need an excuse to satisfy my prurient curiosity.

Do you fancy a serious biological one, or an atheistical one?

Post by **Svartalf** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:57 am

not sure... though I'm a lot more interested in looking at the god delusion than at the selfish gene... the latter, from what i've heard, would tend to make you believe in ID.

Post by **Hermit** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:33 am

Svartalf wrote:not sure... though I'm a lot more interested in looking at the god delusion than at the selfish gene... the latter, from what i've heard, would tend to make you believe in ID.

From my reading The Selfish Gene is of no comfort to ID, but social Darwinists and sociobiologists probably like it.

Post by **borealis** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:45 am

So why is he suing Dawkins? Did Dawkins call him twat or something?

Post by **Robert_S** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:51 am

So if he loses the suit, does Dawkins have to libel McGrath or can McGrath choose someone else for him to libel. Can he bring criminal charges and make RD do community service libel too?

Post by **Exi5tentialist** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:53 am

Nobody should be allowed to sue anybody just for what they say. The default position should be that people talk crap. The ability to sue means the default position is that the default position is that what people say has credence.

rationalia.com