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I want to return now to the charge that science is just a faith. The more extreme version of that
charge -- and one that I often encounter as both a scientist and a rationalist -- is an accusation of
zealotry and bigotry in scientists themselves as great as that found in religious people. Sometimes
there may be a little bit of justice in this accusation; but as zealous bigots, we scientists are mere
amateurs at the game. We're content to argue with those who disagree with us. We don't kill them.
But I would want to deny even the lesser charge of purely verbal zealotry. There is a very, very
important difference between feeling strongly, even passionately, about something because we
have thought about and examined the evidence for it on the one hand, and feeling strongly about
something because it has been internally revealed to us, or internally revealed to somebody else in
history and subsequently hallowed by tradition. There's all the difference in the world between a
belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic and a belief that is supported by
nothing more than tradition, authority, or revelation.
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Richard Dawkins is Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford
University. His books include The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, and,
most recently, Climbing Mount Improbable. This article is adapted from his speech in acceptance of
the 1996 Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association.
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