Posts by tenyearsafter

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

Adamah...I agree with much of your last comment. We could probably do a long string posts just on the insanity of our (U.S.) sentencing laws. The fact that a person can do more prison time for certain types of white collar crimes than murder makes me shake my head. I think we can all agree that the issue of child absue, of any type, is a volatile topic, and constitutes abhorrent behaviour. Adamah, although we may not always agree on every point, I do appreciate your well thought out responses to discussions.

Steve2...I think RD has every right to comment on this or any subject. I also think that we should take his comments, as with any other opinion, with a balanced approach and not accept it as gospel just because we respect the source. I don't think anyone would argue that sexual torture is not more outrageous and severe than fondling. I am not a psychologist, so I can't speak to the harm the "lesser" of these acts causes the victim...I will assume that it varies from person to person. Unfortunately, RD is not a psychologist either, so what he speaks is strictly personal opinion. My concern is that some would take what he says as having more validity because of his expertise in a completely different field, thus confusing some people as to how they should react to this sensitive and serious subject.

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

Adamah and HB...

I think what bothers me, is that it would appear that we run a double standard when it comes to comparing secularists and religious people. I absoulutely find ANY type of molestation abhorrent, but I think we would be quick to tar and feather the WTS and individual JW's (or any other religious denomination) as condoning pedophilia even if it just involved "minor" groping. It just seems to me that some are more willing to be apologists for the "other side" by finding justification for their positions or statements.

I get what RD says about times being different, but certain types of behavior are inappropriate and likely harmful no matter what the era or time might be. I doubt highly that he is saying it is ok to molest children, but I still don't understand why it is even necessary or relevant for him to open a discussion on the relativism of sexual abuse.

Adamah, my mention of the judge differentiating on "types" of rape was more a reference to the "slippery slope" of assigning degrees to the crime rather than trying to make a direct comparison of rape versus molestation.

I would hope that people who support RD are just as balanced and open as they expect opponents of him to be.

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

Does anyone subscribe to The Times that could post the full article? Curious if the quotes were in context...thanks.

35

There she goes with that "thank Jehovah" again

by ShirleyW in

jw
friends

just once after serena williams says "thanks to jehovah god" i would love to hear the commentator ask her "when's the last time you've been out in field service or attended a meeting"?.

.

tenyearsafter

I almost feel sorry for Michael Jackson...he got a lot more grief during the Thriller days than the current crop of JW superstars. I would say the $$ the WTS gets is more important than the type of "witness" is being given to the world.

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

Here is the full article from The Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article3858647.ece

I don't have a subscription, but for someone who does, please share to confirm that the story was completely reported in the Huffungton Post and The Washington Post.

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

Zound...I saw this article in the Huffington Post, which is traditionally a very liberal mainstream news service in the U.S.. Religion News Service is the "desk" of HP that the article appeared in.

I am a disturbed that he classifies activity like pedophilia as "major" or "minor". I remember a situation in the U.S. a few years back where a judge referred to a rape case as being minor because the victim "asked for" the assault by her actions. He eventually had to resign in disgrace.

What really bothers me is that his attitude is not all that different than the WTS about this subject...I would guess the majority of child molestation that occurs among JW's would fall under Dawkin's definition of minor. Very disturbing...

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

From The Huffington Post

Religion News Service | By Trevor Grundy Posted: 09/09/2013 3:31 pm EDT | Updated: 09/09/2013 4:23 pm EDT

Richard Dawkins Pedophilia Remarks Provoke Outrage

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) Richard Dawkins, one of the world's best-known and outspoken atheists, has provoked outrage among child protection agencies and experts after suggesting that recent child abuse scandals have been overblown.

In an interview in The Times magazine on Saturday (Sept. 7), Dawkins, 72, he said he was unable to condemn what he called "the mild pedophilia" he experienced at an English school when he was a child in the 1950s.

Referring to his early days at a boarding school in Salisbury, he recalled how one of the (unnamed) masters "pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts."

He said other children in his school peer group had been molested by the same teacher but concluded: "I don't think he did any of us lasting harm."

"I am very conscious that you can't condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours. Just as we don't look back at the 18th and 19th centuries and condemn people for racism in the same way as we would condemn a modern person for racism, I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can't find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today," he said.

He said the most notorious cases of pedophilia involve rape and even murder and should not be bracketed with what he called "just mild touching up."

Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and the interview was released on the eve of the publication of his autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder, on Thursday.

Peter Watt, director of child protection at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, called Dawkins' remarks "a terrible slight" on those who have been abused and suffered the effects for decades.

"Mr. Dawkins seems to think that because a crime was committed a long time ago we should judge it in a different way," Watt said. "But we know that the victims of sexual abuse suffer the same effects whether it was 50 years ago or yesterday."

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood and himself a victim of abuse, told The Times that Dawkins' comments were worrying and unhelpful, adding: "Abuse in all its forms has always been wrong. Evil is evil and we have to challenge it whenever and wherever it occurs."

43

Richard Dawkins Fail...

by tenyearsafter in

wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667.

tenyearsafter

Wow...hard to believe anyone would openly make this kind of comment...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/richard-dawkins-pedophilia_n_3895514.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=989667

71

Are You Upset My Miley Cyrus' Performance On MTV Awards?

by minimus in

i'm not, even a little bit and i don't understand what the outrage is all about..

tenyearsafter

I thought something looked familiar about Miley Cyrus the other night...

17

Voting

by zound in

jw
friends

elections are coming up in australia in a couple of weeks.

do most of you after leaving the 'truth' vote?.

i've never been enrolled so as long as i don't enrol now i can get away with out doing it.

tenyearsafter

I agree with Designs...local issues are important, and voting in these elections can be important for determining spending, local representatives and local issues. In the U.S., national elections are not as cut and dried. If you live in a state like CA or NY, you will not sway a presidential election with a non-democrat vote...same holds true in Texas if you vote non-republican. The system is set up that way, but I still vote for the local issues and candidates.