Your country's "Richard Dawkins"?

[IpseDixit]

I think professor Dawkins is the most famous atheist in the world, and I find him brilliant and his theories about religion quite interesting.

I was wondering whether your country has a figure like him, who has gained popularity for his/her criticism of religions and staunch support for rationalism and the scientific method.

[Yasna]

Christopher Hitchens.

[Marah]

Michel Onfray, however he gets a lot of criticism. He's the French Dan Brown of Philosophy.

[IpseDixit]

Christopher Hitchens.

Anyone else? Possibly born in the USA? Not that I do not consider Hitchens American, but he was born and raised in Britain therefore his cultural background was very British I guess, and this might have affected his view on religion.

[IpseDixit]

He's the French Dan Brown of Philosophy.

Should it be a compliment?

Dan Brown is a fraudster...

[Marah]

If you think Dan Brown is literature then Michel Onfray is philosophy.

[IpseDixit]

If you think Dan Brown is literature then Michel Onfray is philosophy.

What does this have to do with Richard Dawkins?

[Marah]

Because Michel Onfray wrote some books about atheism. His "Traité d'athéologie" is comparable to "The God Delusion" and he is quite famous in France.

[IpseDixit]

Because Michel Onfray wrote some books about atheism. His "Traité d'athéologie" is comparable to "The God Delusion" and he is quite famous in France.

But if you say that he is the Dan Brown of Philosophy, to me it doesn't sound very flattering.

Maybe we have very different opinions about Dan Brown.

[Marah]

That's exactly my point.

[IpseDixit]

That's exactly my point.

I really don't get it. If you compare that guy and consequently Dawkins to Dan Brown, the only conclusion I can draw is that you are a religious person.

[Marah]

Dan Brown is a successful writer, so is Michel Onfray, they both sell lots of books, now that doesn't mean their work is great, it's all about marketing and hype. That's why I compared both.

[IpseDixit]

Dan Brown is a successful writer, so is Michel Onfray, they both sell lots of books, now that doesn't mean their work is great, it's all about marketing and hype. That's why I compared both.

Well I do not think that Dawkins' work is about marketing.

[Marah]

Dan Brown's is. That's why I compared him with Onfray.

I'm not criticizing Richard Dawkins.

[IpseDixit]

Dan Brown's is. That's why I compared him with Onfray.

I'm not criticizing Richard Dawkins.

Ok but my point is: you can be either like Dan Brown or Richard Dawkins. To me it seems impossible that a person can be both like Richard Dawkins, a respectable scientist who always backs up his theories with facts and evidence and who is moved by the love for science and evolution in particular, and Dan Brown, a writer that came up with a quaint and fake theory about a painting, just to make money.

[Marah]

Ok but my point is: you can be either like Dan Brown or Richard Dawkins. To me it seems impossible that a person can be both like Richard Dawkins, a respectable scientist who always backs up his theories with facts and evidence and who is moved by the love for science and evolution in particular, and Dan Brown, a writer that came up with a quaint and fake theory about a painting, just to make money.

Well, maybe it's not all black and white, maybe Onfray truly believes what he writes but he also wants to make a buck with it and get famous?

[IpseDixit]

Well, maybe it's not all black and white, maybe Onfray truly believes what he writes but he also wants to make a buck with it and get famous?

Well then you shouldn't have brought up Dan Brown .

[mōdgethanc]

I always thought of Hitch as being British, but that's not up to me to decide. It does seem a bit like saying Bobby Fischer was Iceland's best-known chess player and anti-Semite though.

If he doesn't count as American, then maybe Carl Sagan does. Not for militant atheism, but for popularizing science as a method of inquiry.

[IpseDixit]

I always thought of Hitch as being British

Me too. Even though he had the American citizenship too, I would have preferred someone born in the USA and hence raised in an American background.

It does seem a bit like saying Bobby Fischer was Iceland's best-known chess player and anti-Semite though.

Could you expand on that? You cannot expect everybody to be interested in chess but I'm very curious to know how a person with the surname Fischer can be an anti-Semite.

[linguoboy]

Dan Brown is a successful writer, so is Michel Onfray, they both sell lots of books, now that doesn't mean their work is great, it's all about marketing and hype. That's why I compared both.

Well I do not think that Dawkins' work is about marketing.

Really? It's not by accident that he's arguably the most famous atheist in the world right now. Sure, his writing is well-researched and well-argued, but so is that of dozens of others (many of whom are, quite frankly, less of a jerk than Dawkins).

Penn Jillettee comes to mind. He made his fame as an entertainer rather than a scientist, but has used that as a platform to talk about scepticism, atheism, and libertarianism. Just like Dawkins, he can also be kind of a prick, particularly if you disagree with him.