RSS Feed
February 15th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
Steve Doughty
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 15th February 2012
He is a militant atheist and the country’s foremost champion of Darwinist evolution – and he was on the radio to accuse Christians of being ignorant of the Bible.
When the tables were turned, however, an embarrassed Richard Dawkins was momentarily unable to name the full title of his scientific hero’s most famous work.
In his frustration, he even invoked the name of the deity in which he does not believe, resorting to a helpless: ‘Oh God.’
Embarrassing: Despite championing Charles Darwin, left, Dawkins, right, was unable to remember the name of his most popular work
Dawkins, the former Oxford Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, is a dedicated admirer of Charles Darwin, regarding the Victorian pioneer of evolution as the man who explained ‘everything we know about life’.
So his memory lapse on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme was deeply embarrassing.
Notwithstanding that the full title runs to 21 words, Dawkins confidently promised listeners he could reel it off – before flailing through a series of ‘ums’ and ‘ers’.
The dithering undermined his latest attack on Christianity – a poll produced by his think-tank which claimed that the great majority of people who call themselves Christian do not read the Bible and rarely pray.
In the broadcast, the 70-year-old geneticist said the survey showed that two out of three Christians could not name the first book of the New Testament as the Gospel According to St Matthew.
The controversial radio appearance comes at a time of fierce arguments over the proper role of religion.
Forgetful: Dawkins struggled with the full title of Darwin’s book ‘The Origin of Species’ published in 1859
Last week a High Court judge forbade local councils to say prayers as part of the agenda for town hall meetings.
Another judge ruled that a Christian couple who run a hotel must not refuse rooms to unmarried couples.
The survey of those who describe themselves as Christian was carried out by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. It was designed to demonstrate that few people are truly Christian and so their beliefs should have no part in schools or the state machine.
It claimed that one in six Christians have never read the Bible, and only 28 per cent believe in Christian teachings.
On the Today programme, Dawkins said: ‘Many of them don’t go to church, don’t read the Bible, and an astonishing number couldn’t identify the first book in the New Testament.’
He said the survey had ‘pulled the rug out’ from under the claim, based on official census figures, that 70 per cent of the population is Christian.
The scientist’s downfall came with the assistance of the Reverend Giles Fraser, the cleric who quit as Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral during the ‘Occupy’ demonstration row.
Mr Fraser, a BBC regular, slyly asked Dawkins to give the full title of Origin of Species, afterwards saying: ‘You are the high pope of Darwinism.
‘If you ask people who believe in evolution that question, and you came back and said 2 per cent got it right, it would be terribly easy for me to say they don’t believe it after all.’
Last night Dawkins’s failure was being widely mocked on Twitter as ‘an embarrassment to atheists’. One writer even suggested that the humiliation was proof of the existence of God.
But Dawkins said after the interview: ‘It was a dirty trick. Our survey wasn’t a trick at all. We gave people who said they were Christians a choice from Matthew, Genesis, the Acts of the Apostles and Psalms. They didn’t even have to remember Matthew, and it was just one word.
‘Giles Fraser’s trick would have been justifiable if the two cases were parallel. But the full title of Origin of Species has 21 words. I knew it perfectly well, and I got it in the end, but memory can fail, especially in a broadcast studio.’
* ANSWER: On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in The Struggle for Life
Share this article:
Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.
The comments below have not been moderated.
-
Newest -
Oldest -
Best rated -
Worst rated
OOps the Dawkins’ brigade are out in force here.
What a pompous old sod! THE RICHARD DAWKINS Foundation for Reason and Science ?
Why not just the Foundation for Reason and Science?
Ego maniac at work.
Report abuse
DM you are sometimes like a petty little tattle-tale, embellishing and skewing ridiculously to suit and this article is a good example.
Report abuse
A typically intellectually vacuous liberal!
Report abuse
Hang on: we’re supposed to believe that because Richard Dawkins couldn’t remember the exact wording of an archaic 21-word title, he therefore doesn’t understand the contents of the book itself?
I just read it at the foot of the article, and I certainly can’t remember it word for word even now with it fresh in my head. I still have a reasonably solid grasp of the principles of evolution by natural selection though: admittedly not as solid a grasp as Richard Dawkins!!!!!
The difference with the bible situation is that the vast majority of people who claim to be CoE in censuses really have no idea what’s in the bible. Frankly, having read it, I think if they DID they’d probably regard it as either very weird or outright offensive. Women not allowed to talk in church, slaves supposed to be thankful to their masters (even if they’re beaten and mistreated), crazy animal abuse experiments: and that’s just the ‘nice’ New Testament!!!!!
Report abuse
Just goes to show how insidious religious indoctrination is that exclamations and declarations of this kind become subconcious acts – even for prof Dawkins – ingrained in us from an innocent and early age. I often say it along with many other expletives like, “Oh Hell!” and “For heaven’s sake!” and “Christ!”, but it does not follow that I believe in them or are in some way being hypocritical. That would be too foolish by far – they are merely figures of speech. For example “I’d give my right arm for a piece of pizza.” Well, would you really!
Report abuse
The E U is based on the Soviet system and like the Soviets Dawkins intends to destroy Christianity. I don’t believe for an instant that this is a coincidence.
Report abuse
5/6 Christian’s having read the Bible isn’t so bad is it? Never mind the name, how many people have actually read ‘Origin of the Whatever-it’s-Called’? Or were they just told by a Priest of Materialism that if they don’t believe it they will be damned (stupid).
And why do Atheists appropriate perfectly good theories such as Evolution for themselves. Evolution is not an exclusive Atheist-only club. They say you are either Atheist or Creationist, can’t you be neither?
I say theory, as it is easy to forget that we have yet to dig up any empirical evidence of man’s evolution from a different (separate) species, nor prove that one species can branch off into another species which is unable to produce offspring with its ancestors. Dawkins et al. would have us believe it is fact.
If you really want to see Dawkins embarrass himself, watch the insidiously evangelistic program ‘Inside Nature’s Giants’ and judge for yourself whether Dawkin’s “irrefutable proof” really does stand up.
Report abuse
I’ve always believed that if in some sort of preposterous fantasy universe there was a god who lives in the heavens, this planet is the toilet.
Report abuse
Wow. Having a memory lapse over a 21 word book title – that is massive news and must prove all Christians (and other religions) right – NOT……………………..Is this the best the DM can do? No wonder more and more people have contempt for some of the media.
Report abuse
“…deeply embarrassing…” I don’t think so!
he is 70 and I am much younger and very often have memory problems. I think DM are once again trying in their feeble way to embellish and sensationalise a weak story.
Report abuse
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
Related posts:
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
