Richard Dawkins is a gratuitously unpleasant man

I thank rross for presenting her arguments. Now, I many refute my opponent's argument and state my contentions. I would like to note that I don't actually agree with Dawkins, but I wanted to see if I could come up with a good argument. My Refutations Dawkins Wanting everyone to convert to atheism Promoting atheism isn't what makes Richard Dawkins an unpleasant man. Richard Dawkins promotes atheism, because that's what he believes in. This is similar to how Johavah Witnesses knock at your door,(had one at my door this morning) as well as Christians and etc. As my opponent quoted, Richard Dawkins doesn't want to indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion.[1] Basically, he wants children to find out for themselves, and to be "critical" and "open-minded". Dawkins was inspired by a gay rights movement and established The Out Campaign to encourage atheists to declare their stance publicly.[2] This action isn't gratuituous, as it's been done for a good reason for a good cause. Atheists themselves, are discriminated against around the world, and are subject to capital punishment in some countries. [3] What Dawkins is trying to do, is to encourage atheists that face discrimination to stand up for themselves. Gratuitous unpleasantries Caroline Sparks incident Dawkins himself, admitted the incident was tragic. He claimed that the family was stupid for giving a 5 year old a gun. As tragic as it was, Richard Dawkins comment could be interpreted as true. A family giving a kid .22-caliber rifle for his birthday, seriously! In a way, it was kind of stupid for a parent to give a kid a .22-caliber rifle. The parent was irresponsible to first of all, by the gun for a 5 year old kid, and secondly to not monitor him while he was "playing" with the gun. In summary, it's understandable that he made those remarks. It was kind of blunt, but understandable and not gratuitous or unpleasant. He never said that he didn't care, he admited it wa tragic and he was sorry for the girl.My ArgumentsUnpleasant is very subjectiveIt's true. Richard Dawkins may be unpleasant in some people's minds, and not to others. At the end of the day, he has more than 700 000 followers [4] than don't find him unpleasant, and see him as a role model. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, has been granted charitable status in the U.S. and the U.K. Is a charity unpleasant? No, I don't think so. Richard Dawkins can create contreversy but his remarks aren't unpleasant in everyones minds. Dawkins advocacy of atheism isn't unpleasant to atheists, and his reasons for disapproving religion are well-supported. This reason leads to my next argument.Dawkins against Religion“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” R13; Richard Dawkins The God Delusion [5]Indeed, the Old Testament did include some of these aspects, especially mysogyny. "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet." (1 Timothy 2:12) [6] The Old Testament did include some of these things and is part of the reason why Dawkins is against religion.In Deuteronomy 13, believers are instructed to kill family members or friends for worshipping another god. [7]In numbers 31, Moses instructs the commanders to kill every man, woman and child, except for the female virgins. [8]In the documentary, The God Delusion, Darwin reffered to this as genocide. Also in this film, Darwin discusses how religion acts like a disease. He interviews psychologist, Jill Mytton about the psychological impact of harsh ideals forced on children. "Mytton explains how, for a child, images of hell fire are in no sense metaphorical, but instead inspire real terror. She portrays her own childhood as one "dominated by fear". When pressed by Dawkins to describe the realities of Hell, Mytton hesitates, explaining that the images of eternal damnation which she absorbed as a child still have the power to affect her now"[9] We can see that Dawkins is against unpleasant teachings to children, along with the quotes from numerous scriptures. When asked about the sexual abuse scandal with Catholic Priests in Ireland, Dawkins stated that the pyschological damage from sexual abuse was less than being brought up than a Catholic in first place. When he stated this, he received a round of applause from an Irish audience, who majority were from Dublin. Months later, Dawkins received a letter from and American woman in her 40's agreeing with him. She claimed she was sexually abused by a Catholic Priest at a young age, which was tragic. However, she stated it was nothing like the tragedy of the death of her schoolfriend who was supposedly told by her church, that he died because he was Protestant. [10] If anything, this makes Dawkins a caring man, as he's concerned with children's harsh religious upbringing. Dawkins is against religious leaders abusing their power, and can relate to this since he was sexually abused himself by a school teacher. [10] Dawkins is against unpleasant, gratuitous people.Dawkins isn't necessarily unpleasant or gratuitousDawkins praised Jimmy Carter for leaving his church because of discrimination against women. [11] This proves that Dawkins is against discrimination against women, and is another reason why he's not unpleasant or gratuitous. His comments can sometimes be blunt, but he's necessarily a bad man. He's against religion for a good reason, therefore not making him gratuitous. He's against homophobia, misogyny and racism as represented in the book: The God Delusion. He also has a non-profit organization that has been granted charitable status in the U.S. and U.K. as I mentioned before. Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org... http://web.archive.org... [2] http://www.reuters.com... [3]https://twitter.com...;[4] http://www.goodreads.com...;[5] http://www.boston.com...;[6]http://www.biblegateway.com...;[7]http://www.biblegateway.com...;[8]http://en.wikipedia.org...;[9] http://www.richarddawkins.net...;[10]https://twitter.com...;[11]