Richard Dawkins Just Claimed Some Rape Is “Worse” Than Others
The prominent atheist also claimed that you can say some types of paedophilia are worse than others.
Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and author of The God Delusion, claimed on Twitter today that some types of rape and paedophilia as “worse” than others.
Allison Shelley / Getty Images
He began his Twitter tirade to his 980,000 followers by saying that you can compare and rank the severity of a crime, but still endorse neither. He added that if you disagree with this, you’re not “logically” thinking.
Next, Dawkins used paedophilia as an example to prove his point. Dawkins did not clarify what he considers “mild” or “violent”.
He then went on to use rape as an example, saying that “stranger rape” is worse than “date rape”, but adds that he is not endorsing either.
At this point, Twitter users began requesting that Dawkins “provide a list categorising the severity of rapes”.
Please, stop talking about rape.
Yes, I can imagine circumstances where rape by a friend is worse than by a stranger. The logic remains. It doesn't imply approval of either.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins)
Dawkins emphasised that what he is doing is merely ranking the severity of a crime on a scale.
Yes yes, you rank X and Y differently. Fine. Whichever you rank as worse, it is still illogical to interpret that as approval of the other.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins)
He ended the tirade by saying that it is just a “matter of opinion.”
Whether X or Y is worse is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of LOGIC that to express that opinion doesn't mean you approve of either.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins)
Dawkins then began retweeting tweets from people who agreed with his thinking, although this summary received almost 1,000 re-tweets:
Rossalyn Warren is a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.
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