She led a tragically short life, made even worse by being overlooked\u00a0for the Nobel Prize that she certainly deserved. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some atheists \u2014 including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins \u2014 have adopted the term Brights<\/em> to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny it, the unspoken implication seems to be that theists are dims<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well . . .<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Addressing Professor Dawkins, John Cornwell writes,<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
You start by quoting Bertrand Russell again: \u00a0\u201d . . . intellectually eminent men disbelieve in Christian religion,\u201d you quote him as saying, \u201cbut they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes..\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nQuite apart from the provincialism of this (what of eminent Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh men), I wondered about bringing in Russell from the outset, as if he were a self-evident expert on the matter. \u00a0Russell was surely an important figure in philosophy or mathematics, but didn\u2019t he also say some pernicious things outside his area of expertise, especially on the subject of intelligence? \u00a0For example: \u00a0\u201cWomen are on the average stupider than men.\u201d \u00a0Just because Bertrand Russell says something doesn\u2019t mean to say that it\u2019s true.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cornwell acknowledges the possibility that, on the whole, intellectually gifted people may have intellectualized themselves out of faith more than less gifted people may have done. \u00a0But he\u2019s not as impressed with that possibility as Dr. Dawkins might have expected.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then you claim that religious believers are in short supply among Britain\u2019s top scientists \u2014 the Fellows of the Royal Society \u2014 and among members of the Mensa society, the British-founded club for people with high IQ scores. \u00a0But are not scientists, and self-selecting groups such as Mensa members, apt to display particular kinds of intelligence quite distinct from, say, philosophers, artists, musicians, writers, bankers, actuaries, medical practitioners, novelists, poets, concert pianists, historians, theologians, and anthropologists? \u00a0I don\u2019t want to dismiss your argument out of hand, but why should anybody take scientists, or the Mensa society, as representing the cream of intellect and imagination, any more than bond-traders, chess-players, pawnbrokers, or cardinals in the Vatican? \u00a0Each of these callings in life quite obviously represents a specific range of aptitudes. \u00a0Hence the argument is reduced instantly by applying it in a parallel category: the Jesuits, for example. \u00a0Jesuits are widely deemed smart and well-educated, quite independently of the Catholic Church. \u00a0But very few Jesuits, if any, turn out to be scientists; fewer still are atheists, and there are no Jesuit women. \u00a0Should we therefore\u00a0take it that atheists, scientists, and women are unlikely to be intellectually eminent?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides, Cornwell wonders, isn\u2019t it possible that scientists are themselves a self-selected group that isn\u2019t exactly representative of humankind, or even of gifted<\/em> humankind, generally?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
One should not be surprised that individuals who spend their lives in laboratories pursuing highly focused research programmes in the natural sciences would have little time, appetite, or scope for religiosity.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally,\u00a0a\u00a0concluding note:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s look more widely at the inferences we could draw. \u00a0By the year 1920 more than 50 per cent of all Nobel Prize-winners in the natural sciences were Germans. \u00a0Does this mean that the Germans through this period were cleverer than all other nationalities? \u00a0By the same token, women have consistently been overlooked by the Nobel panel: again, does this mean that women are less capable of genius in science? \u00a0Well, we happen to know all too many scandalous cases of women being deprived of their just deserts by the Nobel panel. \u00a0They include the German-Jewish physicist Lisa Meitner, who should have shared the prize with Otto Hahn for the discovery of fission, and Rosalind Franklin, who should have shared the Watson-Crick prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
See John Cornwell,\u00a0Darwin\u2019s Angel: An Angelic Riposte to\u00a0<\/em>The God Delusion (London: Profile Books, 2008), 117-118, 121-123.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Some atheists \u2014 including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins \u2014 have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny it, the unspoken implication seems to be that theists are dims. \u00a0 Well . . . \u00a0 Addressing Professor Dawkins, John Cornwell writes, \u00a0 You start by quoting Bertrand Russell again: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
"Brights" and . . . Dims?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Brights" and . . . Dims?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/09\/ROSALIND_FRANKLIN_1920-1958_Pioneer_of_the_study_of_molecular_structures_including_DNA_lived_here_1951-1958.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Brights\\\" and . . . Dims?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Brights” and . . . Dims?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Brights\" and . . . Dims?","description":" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Brights\" and . . . Dims?","og_description":" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/09\/ROSALIND_FRANKLIN_1920-1958_Pioneer_of_the_study_of_molecular_structures_including_DNA_lived_here_1951-1958.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html","name":"\"Brights\" and . . . Dims?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-09T21:46:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" Some atheists -- including Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins -- have adopted the term Brights to describe themselves. \u00a0Although a few deny","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/brights-and-dims.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Brights” and . . . Dims?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"English](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/09\/ROSALIND_FRANKLIN_1920-1958_Pioneer_of_the_study_of_molecular_structures_including_DNA_lived_here_1951-1958.jpg\")
<\/a>