Richard Dawkins’ comment that “the Jewish lobby” controls American foreign policy certainly cause discomfort. I don’t imagine for a minute that he’s actually an anti-Semite; he’s just (like many scientists, alas) deplorably ignorant when it comes to politics. Dawkins’ hostility to the Bush Administration, for example, is laughably childish: he has often reiterated the “Bush stole the election!” silliness that you’d expect only from people far less intellectually sophisticated than Dawkins, whom I respect and admire greatly for his work in fields other than politics. And his views on religion have led him to conclude that the invasion of Iraq was done in the service of President Bush’s religious views. Now, I don’t doubt that Bush religious views factored into the decision, as they factor into all decisions of a devout religious person, but the idea that American activities in the Middle East are undertaken in service to religious ideas is simply ludicrous. There certainly are those who think our alliance with Israel is good because God has decided to give that land to the Jews, but in fact our alliance with Israel is based on the fact that it is (aside from Iraq) the only democracy in the region, and a valuable ally against the heinous theocracies that have devoted themselves to the destruction of all secular values. In other words, this would not be the first time that Dawkins’ well-justified hostility to religion had led him to go overboard and say embarrassingly ignorant things about politics.
Dawkins’ writings on religion and on science are marvelous—Unweaving The Rainbow is one of my top ten books of all time. But as with perhaps all people, he has a blindspot of irrationality.
Comments policy