Richard Dawkins: Not the Guy You Want Setting Moral Standards

Hey, you know how one of the arguments of atheists, when you say that goodness and morality come from God, is that people can be good people without being religious? Well, this:

“I am very conscious that you can’t condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours. Just as we don’t look back at the 18th and 19th centuries and condemn people for racism in the same way as we would condemn a modern person for racism, I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can’t find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today,” he said. 

Plus, he added, though his other classmates also experienced abuse at the hands of this teacher, “I don’t think he did any of us lasting harm.” 

Child welfare experts responded to Dawkins’ remarks with outrage — and concern over their effect on survivors of abuse.

No kidding. And thanks to Mr. Dawkins for introducing the phrase "mild pedophilia" to the language.