Thursday, July 3, 2008

loving the underdog

You been watching as the workd gets more and more polarised those under the cosh tend to get the sympathy vote.

Take Andy Murray for example. A total wash out against Nadal, we still him...

But is it a British thing with sport or is it more widespread than that?

Lets look at a couple of examples... as George Bush started o get more and more unpopular in the run up to his second election, it seemed more and more supporters suddenly popped out of the woodwork, presumably in defence against the frequently over the top attacks aimed at this man.

My personal hero, Prof. Richard Dawkins probably results in a sigh at the very mention of his name (I bet you did!) and he is frequently described to me by people I have conversations with (on extras work or elsewhere) as "that man who's always going on about religion" which is a shame since for twenty years he has been the best (imho) writer on evolution I ever read.

I first read his books in my first year of university - his SELFISH GENE is rightly considered a classic in wirting and content. The problem is, biological theory books can never create the interest that a single controversial book on religion did.

His writings sparked a whole pile of criticism and hopefully a bunch of new supporters too. His programmes on TV did much the same job, though they were given the headline baiting title THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? by the TV company.

But wth all new critism comes a backlash and poor old Dawkins got pigeonholed into the "shit stirrer" category. Problem is, when people are allowed to shove him into that hole, the actual arguments get lost.

His main points are too many to list, I can merely recommend his book.รณ

In this particular fight he is a major underdog, why not help him out?

A

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