Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have commissioned barrister Geoffrey Robertson to slap the pope with the Pinochet solution. Dawkins alone captured the headline; the whys of that circumstance being unclear since Hitchens is anything but publicity shy. The accompanying "Atheist Campaigner" photo of Dawkins is half-way poetic in its presentation of an unsmiling heathen. One may admire the restraint shown by the Times by not including scary photos of Hitchens and the Pope, which are surely close at hand in its files. One may not admire the Times' penchant for fabrication of a quote with its headline of 'I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI'. Dawkins said no such thing and he can do no such thing.
The other two horsemen, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris, appear not to be a part of this caper. The Four Horsemen - Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens - were so named at the taped conclusion of what seemed to have been their individual nine-eleven aftermath tours. They aimed steadily at the religious zealotry of the Muslim hijackers, brushing past those aspects of the hijackers' behavior which didn't square with "religious" - like the strip club and the careless treatment of their holy book(s). Dawkins angles from the Darwinian perspective; Dennett from his philosophical studies of consciousness; Harris from that of young, eager brilliance; and Hitchens from the opposing corner of any religion. Since the video was filmed in 2007, Harris earned his PhD in neuroscience and seems headed for a journalistic career, which is Hitchens' forte. Dawkins and Dennett are authors as well but remain solidly anchored to their academic positions; Dawkins at Oxford and Dennett at Tufts.
Depending on how much money they are willing to invest, the two horsemen may be able to illuminate some of the diplomatic loopholes in the Vatican city-state structure and papal immunity constraints. Should this legal maneuver escalate beyond the feather-ruffling stage, a fresh look at ancient prophecies will be in order.
The other two horsemen, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris, appear not to be a part of this caper. The Four Horsemen - Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens - were so named at the taped conclusion of what seemed to have been their individual nine-eleven aftermath tours. They aimed steadily at the religious zealotry of the Muslim hijackers, brushing past those aspects of the hijackers' behavior which didn't square with "religious" - like the strip club and the careless treatment of their holy book(s). Dawkins angles from the Darwinian perspective; Dennett from his philosophical studies of consciousness; Harris from that of young, eager brilliance; and Hitchens from the opposing corner of any religion. Since the video was filmed in 2007, Harris earned his PhD in neuroscience and seems headed for a journalistic career, which is Hitchens' forte. Dawkins and Dennett are authors as well but remain solidly anchored to their academic positions; Dawkins at Oxford and Dennett at Tufts.
Depending on how much money they are willing to invest, the two horsemen may be able to illuminate some of the diplomatic loopholes in the Vatican city-state structure and papal immunity constraints. Should this legal maneuver escalate beyond the feather-ruffling stage, a fresh look at ancient prophecies will be in order.
