Another kind of nonbeliever in the popular imagination is the arrogant professor, exemplified Richard Dawkins. Too smart for his own good, this kind of atheist talks down you, and nobody likes a smarty pants.
-- MoHoHawaii
I don't want to pick on my friend MoHoHawaii for writing the above -- he wasn't giving his personal judgment of Richard Dawkins, he was merely reporting on a popular view of Prof. Dawkins.
But what did Dawkins ever do to get this reputation?
Well, I've developed a new crazy theory about it!
It came to me while watching these Symphony of Science videos with my kids:
See that part around 2:44? Where he says "Science replaces private prejudice with public verifiable evidence"? That's a great quote, but (is this just my imagination?) it looks like he's sneering when he says it.
You should be jumping for joy when you say that!! Evaluating your own biases is one of the most difficult problems that humans face on a daily basis. That we have an effective tool to help us work on that problem -- that's fantastic!
Of course, maybe I'm just being too hard on Richard Dawkins. After all, Jill Tarter also had a great quote in that song ("The story of humans is the story of ideas that shine light into dark corners"), and she didn't smile either.
But now compare to my favorite of the Symphony of Science songs:
Of course I'm huge fan of David Attenborough. How could anybody not like that guy?
The kids say their favorite song in the series is still the first one, the "galaxy rise" song:
That one is my second-favorite. :D