British evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins lashed out at modern leftist concepts on gender and the woke “bullying” of women such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her feminist critique of the transgender movement in the West.
Appearing on Piers Morgan’s programme on TalkTV on Monday evening, University of Oxford emeritus fellow Richard Dawkins decried the state of modern discourse, particularly surrounding issues of transgederism and on college campuses in general.
“It’s bullying. We’ve seen the way JK Rowling has been bullied, Kathleen Stock has been bullied. They’ve stood up to it, but it’s very upsetting the way this tiny minority of people has managed to capture the discourse to talk errant nonsense,” Dawkins said.
The God Delusion author went on to plant himself on the side of “science” in the debate, saying: “There are two sexes. You could talk about gender if you wish and that’s a subjective [statement].
When pressed by Morgan on his response to people who say that there are “100 genders”, Dawkins replied: “I’m not interested in that. As a biologist, there are two sexes and that’s all there is to it.”
For challenging woke orthodoxy surrounding gender, J.K. Rowling has revealed that she has been subjected to “many death threats” and has had her family home doxed by leftist activists.
Continuing her strident stance against what she claims is an anti-woman movement, Rowling said last week: “I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement, and it must be challenged.”
In response to the statements from Dawkins, Christian author Larry Taunton said: “I’ve crossed swords with Richard Dawkins many times and disagree with him on much—the existence of God most of all—but I appreciate him not bowing to the woke mob on male-female biology. Bravo, Richard.”
However, the left has begun to strike back at Dawkins for his wrong-think, with fellow atheist activist Hemant Mehta writing: “It’s so damn sad that Dawkins, who wrote some wonderful books explaining evolution, chose this particular hill to die on.”
Commenting on the shift in his world of academia on open debates, Richard Dawkins went on to say: “I think it’s very sad. Universities are places where you should be free to speak your mind, and listen, even to something that you don’t like, and it’s very tragic they have bought into the idea that if you don’t like what you think you’re going to hear from someone, you should shut them up.”
“They want to feel safe and [the] university is the one place you should not feel safe. You want to be physically safe but intellectually, you should be challenged.”
“There are people for whom the word discuss doesn’t mean discuss, it means you’ve taken a position,” he concluded.
Demonstrating the validity of the comments from Dawkins, House of Lords Peer, Baroness Claire Fox revealed this week that she was barred from appearing at a debate at Royal Holloway, University of London for retweeting a supposedly transgender joke from comedian Ricky Gervais.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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