Rzeppa Vs Dawkins?? Childrens book?
Posted on: April 16, 2008 - 12:24am
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Rzeppa Vs Dawkins?? Childrens book?
Hey all, I recently recieved this message through my website and was wondering if any of you had heard of this? Here is what the email said.
Hello. My name is Gerry Rzeppa and I've written a short children's book in answer to the works of Richard Dawkins. Unlike his ponderous tomes, however, mine has lots of pictures, rhymes, and can be read, cover to cover, in ten minutes. I'm offering the doctor $64,000 of my very own money if he will join me before a live audience to answer a single question about my little poem. I'll read the story aloud and pose the mystery query. He'll answer and walk away with the loot. Simple as that. You can view the official challenge here:
http://www.rzeppa-vs-dawkins.com/
http://www.someofthepartsbook.com/
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I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the book is jam-packed full of god o' the gaps.
Dawkins "These questions have have not and cannot yet be answered by science yet, but there are some hypoth..." Rzeppa "HA! you cant answer! God exists! im going to get my bible gold plated with my $64,000"
And when Dawkins' answer (though truthful and correct) doesn't satisfy him for whatever reason, he won't pony up the cash.
Reads too much like Hovind's "challenge". I'd check for a whole lot of fine print.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
it rather disturbing when he says he wrote a "childrens book" in order to refute Dawkins book. Why not write a book on the same intellectual level? Most children aren't reading Dawkins, so it would seem the goal of this book is a further attempt to teach children how to blindly ignore logic.
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed with no evidence." Christopher Hitchens
Did anybody look at the site? It's a scary-ass book (and I read Edward Gorey when I was a wee lad).
Yeah, and you're right, it's scary. It appeals on emotions. There are three levels of brain activity, in this hierarchy:
1. intuitive
2. cognitive
3. emotional
Cognitive activity is superior to the emotional. Nobody can answer cognitive issues by emotional response. If I disagree with Dawkins, it is because of something I know and observe, not feel emotionally. There were some bits which would Dawkins really deserve, but these weren't the scary or religion-resembling parts, and I'm not sure if I understood some aspects of the book. I don't think the book is significantly harmful (I have had nightmares in childhood of much simplier poetry than this), I'd be afraid of things like Teletubbies more. But he wants to reply to Dawkins, he should write something to Dawkins. The problem here is, that Rzeppa can't, it would seem incoherent to the majority just like it is in my posts on this forum.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.