How a gentleman debates with a boor

More specifically, watch the ever cool-headed, genial and intelligent Richard Dawkins be “interviewed” by Bill O’Reilly, who is the diametric opposite of such characteristics.

Good ol’ predictable Bill-O brings up those fallacies we all cherish: that there are more Christians than atheists (ad populum), that science doesn’t know all the answers (no-one claims it does), that he chooses to believe in Jesus (as opposed to following the evidence, which thoroughly discounts most of the “historical accounts” concerning Christ), that Intelligent Design is a valid scientific alternative to the Theory of Evolution (it ain’t) and should be taught in science classrooms (it shouldn’t), and – of course – that Dawkins is a fascist for wanting to keep ID/Creationism out of classrooms (ad hominem). It’s as though the guy were taking all of his questions directly from a How to Cram As Many Fallacies Into Your Arguments As Possible Manual or something.

My personal favorite line is, of course, Dawkins’ response to Bill-O trying to shout him down:

Dawkins: Will you listen to me and stop shouting at me?
O’Reilly: [Babbles] That’s the way I usually talk.
Dawkins: I know it is, I’ve been warned about it.

This is why I personally don’t think it was fair to Dawkins to go through an interview with a boor like Bill-O. Dawkins is used to debating with people with a modicum of intellect and honesty. For people like O’Reilly, Beck and the likes, I’d send someone like Matt Dillahunty (The Atheist Experience), who would be wiping the studio floor with Bill-O’s fat face in no time.

(via Pharyngula)
Technorati tags: Bill O’Reilly · Richard Dawkins · atheism · religion · Christianity · science · evolution