It was more than an hour before the biology professor walked onstage at Nova Southeastern University, but dozens of fans had already lined up Thursday night in hopes of getting in to hear his much-anticipated speech.
Universities are naturally magnets for academics to talk about their study, but this was no average scientist.
A sold-out crowd was already inside.
If it were possible to conceive of a god of the world of atheism and evolutionary biology, Richard Dawkins would be hard to beat for the title.
One of the most prolific atheists and secular humanists living today, he spoke on "The Fact of Evolution" and his stance against creationism in an hourlong chat that spanned topics from philosophy and theology to biology and gene mutation.
South Florida is no stranger to visits from "rock stars" of the religion and spirituality world — in the past year alone, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu have both visited NSU — but rarely do skeptics here get a chance to see a celebrity of their own kind.
"Before Darwin, people thought it completely obvious that if a thing looks designed, it must have been designed," the British scientist said in a talk that made plenty of references to animals — camels, baby cuckoos, cheetahs — one of his first loves as a trained zoologist.
"What Darwin disposed of was something that everybody before him thought was true," he said to a largely receptive crowd that cheered his remarks.
Pop culture has deemed Dawkins a figurehead of atheism since the release of his anti-religion best-seller "The God Delusion" in 2006, but he came into broad prominence much earlier. His 1976 book, "The Selfish Gene," promoted the gene-centered view of evolution, in which evolution occurs through the survival of competing genes instead of individual organisms. The book also coined the term "meme."
Yet, for the modern nonbeliever, Dawkins is a hero in his arguments for atheism alone.
"Of all the writers on atheism, he is the one that helps the most," said Ken Loukinen, a Broward firefighter who, along with many other atheists and skeptics, attended the speech.
"Before the last 10 years, when you thought of atheists it was limited to Robert Ingersoll and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, but more and more now you hear about celebrities and other figures coming out as atheists. They speak out more and they discuss their views more and we partially have Dawkins to thank."
To the modern theist, he is grossly offensive and arrogant.
"Why should the atheist believe his thoughts are more rational than a theist?" Paul Copan, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University asked him at the start of a question-and-answer session. Copan is speaking next week at the university in a talk titled "The Fact of God" that is meant as a pro-religion response to Dawkins.
"You would ask the same question about any opinion. Why would Republicans and Democrats think they each are right" Dawkins retorted, later adding that "scientific rationalism makes sense" to laughter.
NSU has become known for the high-profile speakers that it invites to campus, but none since right-to-die champion Jack Kevorkian, who spoke in 2009, has been as controversial as Dawkins. Outside the speech venue, members of a Christian campus organization were passing out fliers promoting next week's pro-religion, pro-creationism event.
"We respect him, but he's not respectful of my beliefs. I don't like his manner. We believe in what the Bible says," said Krista Owens, a 22-year-old who studies business management and is a member of Ablaze, the Christian organization.
A school official who invited Dawkins to speak said such disagreements were par for the course at the event, which is part of a series the school is doing this year on human identity.
"There are students, faculty and staff who may agree or disagree with Dawkins on some issues," said Don Rosenblum, dean of the schools Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. "But my sincere hope is that those who may disagree come to his lecture not to change their minds but to reflect on the complexity of the issue to perhaps strengthen their basis in belief or faith or strengthen their belief in evolution and faith or other principles that guide their thinking."
Polls show that more and more Americans are coming to share Dawkins' atheism.
According to the American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released in mid-2009, 15 percent of Americans claim no religion, making them the only group to grow in every state since 1990, when the "nones" made up 8 percent of the U.S. population. Atheists make up a smaller portion — 2 percent — but they've almost doubled their numbers in the past two decades.
In an interview, Dawkins, who is often characterized as arrogant for his blunt statements against religion, said that he makes a distinction between "putting down illogical beliefs and putting down individuals."
He also said that despite speaking frequently to audiences about evolution and atheism, he seldom meets animosity and is very encouraged by the number of supporters he meets as he travels in the U.S., "particularly in the so-called Bible Belt."
People often ask him why he lacks belief in God, he said, but he thinks that is poor phrasing.
"One wouldn't say that one lacks a belief in fairies and leprechauns," he said. "I prefer to describe myself more positively as a scientist who struggles to understand the world as it is."
Author: Jaweed Kaleem | Source: The Miami Herald [February 18, 2011]