Richard Dawkins... a complete asshole?

In some respects, I like Richard Dawkins. He's a great scientist for one with a rational, thought-provoking, atheistic perspective that is needed for a counterbalance to religious fundamentalism. But on the other hand he is an abrasive jerk.

After reading The God Delusion, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he had to say, but at the same time was very turned off by his arrogant know-it-all attitude. His pompous certainty that there was no God was just as bad as an Islamic or Christian fundamentalist who believes that their God is the only God, and that anyone who does not follow their God are hedonistic blasphemers.

Anyway, Mr. Dawkins is back in the news decrying the Harry Potter series despite never having read the books:

Prof Dawkins said: "The book I write next year will be a children's book on how to think about the world, science thinking contrasted with mythical thinking. "I haven't read Harry Potter, I have read Pullman who is the other leading children's author that one might mention and I love his books. I don't know what to think about magic and fairy tales."

Prof Dawkins said he wanted to look at the effects of "bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards". "I think it is anti-scientific – whether that has a pernicious effect, I don't know," he told More4 News. "I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research."

Dawkins seems to think that there is a possibility that by reading these stories, a person is likely to become anti-science. I don't know, this all seems horribly stupid and misguided. If there is any correlation between reading Harry Potter books and becoming anti-scientific, there is almost no way to prove that this is the case. So why even bother? You're a great scientist Mr. Dawkins. Why not focus your energies elsewhere.