Richard Dawkins Zitate: 22 Zitate über natürliche Selektion, Glauben, alternative Medizin, Atheismus und das Wesen des Lebens

Richard Dawkins: 344 Zitate 50 Gefällt mir

Richard Dawkins Berühmte Zitate

„Blasphemie ist ein opferloses Verbrechen.“

Richard Dawkins

„Welch Größenwahn ist es zu denken, ein Gott den hundert Millionen Galaxien beschäftigen, würde auch nur im geringsten interessieren, mit wem Sie schlafen oder ob Sie überhaupt an ihn glauben.“

Richard Dawkins

„[Gott ist] ein rachsüchtiger blutrünstiger ethnischer Säuberer, ein frauenfeindlicher, homophober Rassist, ein Kinder-und Völkermörder, ein Philisterschlächter, ein verderblicher, größenwahnsinniger, sadomasochistischer, kapriziöser Tyrann.“

Richard Dawkins

„Die sogenannte Alternativmedizin wurde entweder nicht getestet oder hat ihre Tests nicht bestanden.“

Richard Dawkins

„Atheismus ist fast immer ein Zeichen für eine gesunde geistige Unabhängigkeit und sogar für einen gesunden Geist.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 15
"atheism nearly always indicates a healthy independence of mind and, indeed, a healthy mind" - S. 26,
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Der Gotteswahn (The God Delusion, 2006)

„Ich bin ein Gegner der Religion. Sie lehrt uns, damit zufrieden zu sein, dass wir die Welt nicht verstehen.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. Vorderseite Schutzumschlag
("As a scientist, I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known." - S. 321
"More generally, as I shall repeat in Chapter 8, one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding." - S. 151 ')
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Der Gotteswahn (The God Delusion, 2006)

Zitate über Gott von Richard Dawkins

„So schwierig es auch sein mag, diese einfachen Ursprünge zu akzeptieren, so sind sie dennoch viel leichter annehmbar als komplizierte Anfänge. Komplizierte Dinge entwickeln sich spät im Universum, als Folge langsamer, allmählicher, inkrementeller Schritte. Gott, sofern er existiert, müsste in der Tat eine sehr, sehr, sehr komplizierte Instanz sein. Einen Gott als Anfang, als Antwort auf das Rätsel der ersten Ursache des Universums zu postulieren, heißt, sich selbst konzeptuell ins eigene Knie zu schießen, weil Sie damit sofort etwas postulieren, das weitaus komplizierter ist als das, was Sie zu erklären versuchen.“

Richard Dawkins

„Wir sind alle Atheisten bezüglich der meisten Götter, an die Gesellschaften jemals geglaubt haben. Einige von uns gehen nur einen Gott weiter.“

Richard Dawkins

„Entscheidend ist nicht, ob Gottes Existenz widerlegbar ist (das ist sie nicht), sondern ob sie wahrscheinlich ist.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 77
"What matters is not whether God is disprovable (he isn't) but whether his existence is probable." - S. 77,
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Der Gotteswahn (The God Delusion, 2006)

Zitate über Glauben von Richard Dawkins

„Es ist absolut vertretbar zu sagen, wenn Sie jemanden treffen, der behauptet, nicht an die Evolution zu glauben, dass diese Person unwissend, dumm oder verrückt ist (oder niederträchtig, aber ich würde das lieber nicht in Betracht ziehen).“

Richard Dawkins

„Dass ich von der Evolution überzeugt bin, hat nichts mit Fundamentalismus oder religiösem Glauben zu tun, denn ich weiß ganz genau, welche Voraussetzungen erfüllt sein müssen, damit ich meine Ansichten ändere, und ich würde es sofort tun, wenn die erforderlichen Belege auf dem Tisch lägen.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 393
"But my belief in evolution is not fundamentalism, and it is not faith, because I know what it would take to change my mind, and I would gladly do so if the necessary evidence were forthcoming." - S. 320,
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Der Gotteswahn (The God Delusion, 2006)

„Viele von uns sahen Religion als harmlosen Unsinn an. Glaubensbekenntnisse mögen keine stichhaltigen Beweise enthalten, aber wir dachten, wenn die Menschen eine Krücke zum Trost brauchen, wo ist der Schaden? Der 11. September hat all das geändert. Offenbarter Glaube ist kein harmloser Unsinn, er kann tödlich gefährlicher Unsinn sein. Gefährlich, weil es den Menschen unerschütterliches Vertrauen in ihre eigene Gerechtigkeit gibt. Gefährlich, weil es ihnen den falschen Mut gibt, sich selbst zu töten, wodurch normale Hindernisse für das Töten anderer automatisch beseitigt werden. Gefährlich, weil es anderen Feindschaft lehrt, die nur durch einen Unterschied der ererbten Tradition gekennzeichnet ist. Und gefährlich, weil wir uns alle auf einen seltsamen Respekt eingelassen haben, der die Religion auf einzigartige Weise vor normaler Kritik schützt. Hören wir jetzt auf, so verdammt respektvoll zu sein!“

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins Zitate und Sprüche

„DIE MEHRHEIT der Kinder, die in diese Welt geboren wurden, neigen dazu, die Überzeugungen ihrer Eltern zu erben, und das ist für mich unter allen eine der bedauerlichsten Tatsachen.“

Richard Dawkins

Über Kinder , Über die Welt

„Wenn Medizin auf Wissenschaft beruht, heilt man Menschen. Wenn das Design von Flugzeugen auf Wissenschaft beruht, fliegen sie. Wenn das Design von Raketen auf Wissenschaft beruht, erreichen sie den Mond. Es funktioniert … Bitches.“

Richard Dawkins

Während der Think Week im Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford vom 15. Februar 2013. YouTube #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OtFSDKrq88, YouTube #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvkbiElAOqU&t=1h11m23s
"If you base medicine on science, you cure people. If you base the design of planes on science, they fly. If you base the design of rockets on science, they reach the moon. It works ... bitches."
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Sonstiges

Über Menschen , Wissenschaft

„Das Universum, das wir beobachten, hat genau die Eigenschaften, mit denen man rechnet, wenn dahinter kein Plan, keine Absicht, kein Gut oder Böse steht, nichts außer blinder, erbarmungsloser Gleichgültigkeit.“

Richard Dawkins buch Und es entsprang ein Fluß in Eden

Und es entsprang ein Fluß in Eden. Goldmann Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-442-12784-x. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 151
"The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995)

Über Universum , Böse , Gleichgültigkeit

„Seien wir auf jeden Fall offen, aber nicht so offen, dass unser Gehirn herausfällt.“

Richard Dawkins

„Das Leiden hat in der Natur jedes Jahr ein Ausmaß, das alle erträglichen Vorstellungen übersteigt. In der Minute, in der ich diesen Satz niederschreibe, werden Tausende von Tieren bei lebendigem Leibe gefressen; andere laufen bebend vor Angst um ihr Leben; wieder andere werden langsam und von innen heraus durch gefräßige Parasiten zugrunde gerichtet.“

Richard Dawkins buch Und es entsprang ein Fluß in Eden

Und es entsprang ein Fluß in Eden. Goldmann Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-442-12784-x. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 150
"The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, […]"
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995)

Über Angst , Über Leben , Tiere , Über natur

„Die darwinistische Erklärung dafür, warum Lebewesen das, was sie tun, so gut können, ist sehr einfach. Sie sind gut durch die angehäufte Klugheit ihrer Vorfahren.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der entzauberte Regenbogen

Der entzauberte Regenbogen: Wissenschaft, Aberglaube und die Kraft der Phantasie, Rowohlt Verlag, 2. Auflage, Januar 2002, ISBN 3499613379. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel.
"The Darwinian explanation for why living things are so good at doing what they do is very simple. They are good because of the accumulated wisdom of their ancestors."
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998)

„Unser Leben ist so sinnvoll, so ausgefüllt und großartig, wie wir selbst es gestalten. Und wir können es wirklich großartig gestalten.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 500
"[The truly adult view, by contrast, is that] our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it. And we can make it very wonderful indeed." - S. 404,
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998), Der Gotteswahn (The God Delusion, 2006)

Über Leben

„Die Evidenz für die Evolution ist mindestens so stark wie die Evidenz für den Holocaust, sogar unter Berücksichtigung von Augenzeugen für den Holocaust.“

Richard Dawkins

Stark

„Jede Generation hat ihre darwinistischen Versager, aber jedes Individuum stammt nur von den erfolgreichen Minderheiten der vorangegangenen Generation ab.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der entzauberte Regenbogen

Der entzauberte Regenbogen: Wissenschaft, Aberglaube und die Kraft der Phantasie, Rowohlt Verlag, 2. Auflage, Januar 2002, ISBN 3499613379. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel.
"Every generation has its Darwinian failures but every individual is descended only from previous generations’ successful minorities."
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998)

Vogel , Phantasie , Wissenschaft

„Vererbung ist nicht das Gleiche wie Fortpflanzung. Es kann auch Fortpflanzung ohne Vererbung geben: Ein Waldbrand pflanzt sich fort, aber er vererbt nichts.“

Richard Dawkins buch Der entzauberte Regenbogen

Der entzauberte Regenbogen: Wissenschaft, Aberglaube und die Kraft der Phantasie, Rowohlt Verlag, 2. Auflage, Januar 2002, ISBN 3499613379. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel.
"Heredity is not the same thing as reproduction. You can have reproduction without heredity. Bush fires reproduce but without heredity."
Und es entsprang ein Fluss in Eden (River out of Eden, 1995), Der entzauberte Regenbogen (Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998)

Richard Dawkins: Zitate auf Englisch

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.”

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Richard Dawkins buch Der entzauberte Regenbogen

Dawkins has stated on many occasions that this passage will be read at his funeral.
Unweaving the Rainbow (1998)
Kontext: We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?

“No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch.”

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Richard Dawkins buch The Selfish Gene

Quelle: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 3. Immortal Coils
Kontext: Genes do indirectly control the manufacture of bodies, and the influence is strictly one way: acquired characteristics are not inherited. No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch.

“The first cause cannot have been an intelligence, let alone an intelligence that answers prayers and enjoys being worshiped.”

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Richard Dawkins

Intelligent, creative, complex, statistically improbable things come late into the universe, as the product of evolution or some other process of gradual escalation from simple beginnings. They come late into the universe and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it.
The Huffington Post, 23/10/2006 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dawkins/why-there-almost-certainl_b_32164.html
Why There Almost Certainly Is No God (2006)

“The universe does not owe you a sense of hope.”

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Richard Dawkins

The Big Questions (2008)
Kontext: "The universe does not owe you a sense of hope. It could be that the world, the universe, is a totally hopeless place. I don't as a matter of fact think it is, but even if it were - that would not be a good reason for believing in God. You cannot say "I believe in X", whatever X is - God or anything else - "because that gives me hope". You have to say "I believe in X because there is some evidence for X". In the case of God - there is not a tiny shred of evidence for the existence of any kind of god.” … “There's plenty of reason for hope in a Godless world. The universe is a beautiful place. The world is a beautiful place. To understand it in a clear-eyed, open-eyed way; to look out at the world and to really understand why we exist, what it's all about - that is a hugely uplifting feeling; That really does give a sense of worth to life, even if life itself is finite, as I believe it is. Nevertheless, it is not a hopeless life without a god, and to re-divert to my earlier point, even if it were - then it's just illogical to say that that gives you evidence for the belief in God." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of-8Q3HySjE&t=44m08s

“However difficult those simple beginnings may be to accept, they are a whole lot easier to accept than complicated beginnings. Complicated things come into the universe late, as a consequence of slow, gradual, incremental steps. God, if he exists, would have to be a very, very, very complicated thing indeed. So to postulate a God as the beginning of the universe, as the answer to the riddle of the first cause, is to shoot yourself in the conceptual foot because you are immediately postulating something far far more complicated than that which you are trying to explain.”

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Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

The God Delusion (2006)
Kontext: If the alternative that's being offered to what physicists now talk about - a big bang, a spontaneous singularity which gave rise to the origin of the universe - if the alternative to that is a divine intelligence, a creator, which would have to have been complicated, statistically improbable, the very kind of thing which scientific theories such as Darwin's exists to explain, then immediately we see that however difficult and apparently inadequate the theory of the physicists is, the theory of the theologians - that the first course was a complicated intelligence - is even more difficult to accept. They're both difficult but the theory of the cosmic intelligence is even worse. What Darwinism does is to raise our consciousness to the power of science to explain the existence of complex things and intelligences, and creative intelligences are above all complex things, they're statistically improbable. Darwinism raises our consciousness to the power of science to explain how such entities - and the human brain is one - can come into existence from simple beginnings. However difficult those simple beginnings may be to accept, they are a whole lot easier to accept than complicated beginnings. Complicated things come into the universe late, as a consequence of slow, gradual, incremental steps. God, if he exists, would have to be a very, very, very complicated thing indeed. So to postulate a God as the beginning of the universe, as the answer to the riddle of the first cause, is to shoot yourself in the conceptual foot because you are immediately postulating something far far more complicated than that which you are trying to explain. Now, physicists cope with this problem in various ways, which may seem somewhat unconvincing. For example, they suggest that our universe is but one bubble in foam of universes, the multiverse, and each bubble in the foam has a different set of laws and constants. And by the anthropic principle we have to be - since we're here talking about it - in the kind of bubble, with the kind of laws and constants, which are capable of giving rise to the evolutionary process and therefore to creatures like us. That is one current physicists' explanation for how we exist in the kind of universe that we do. It doesn't sound so shatteringly convincing as say Darwin's own theory, which is self-evidently very convincing. Nevertheless, however unconvincing that may sound, it is many, many, many orders of magnitude more convincing than any theory that says complex intelligence was there right from the outset. If you have problems seeing how matter could just come into existence - try thinking about how complex intelligent matter, or complex intelligent entities of any kind, could suddenly spring into existence, it's many many orders of magnitude harder to understand.

Lynchburg, Virginia, 23/10/2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_z85O0P2M&t=42m41s

“Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.”

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Richard Dawkins

“… when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong.”

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Richard Dawkins

“I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.”

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Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Quelle: The God Delusion

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

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Richard Dawkins

When asked how the world had changed following the September 11, 2001 attacks
Has the world changed? http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersreflections/story/0,1367,567546,00.html, The Guardian (October 11, 2001)

“Evolution could so easily be disproved if just a single fossil turned up in the wrong date order. Evolution has passed this test with flying colours.”

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Richard Dawkins buch The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Quelle: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

“It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).”

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Richard Dawkins

Quelle: Reviewing Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution (1989) by Maitland A. Edey and Donald C. Johanson

Quelle: Last sentence expanded upon in "Ignorance is No Crime" (2001) (see below)
Kontext: So to the book's provocation, the statement that nearly half the people in the United States don't believe in evolution. Not just any people but powerful people, people who should know better, people with too much influence over educational policy. We are not talking about Darwin's particular theory of natural selection. It is still (just) possible for a biologist to doubt its importance, and a few claim to. No, we are here talking about the fact of evolution itself, a fact that is proved utterly beyond reasonable doubt. To claim equal time for creation science in biology classes is about as sensible as to claim equal time for the flat-earth theory in astronomy classes. Or, as someone has pointed out, you might as well claim equal time in sex education classes for the stork theory. It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).

If that gives you offence, I'm sorry. You are probably not stupid, insane or wicked; and ignorance is no crime in a country with strong local traditions of interference in the freedom of biology educators to teach the central theorem of their subject.

“Why would an all-powerful creator decide to plant his carefully crafted species on islands and continents in exactly the appropriate pattern to suggest, irresistibly, that they had evolved and dispersed from the site of their evolution?”

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Richard Dawkins buch The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Quelle: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

“We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes. Our common ancestor with the chimpanzees and gorillas is much more recent than their common ancestor with the Asian apes — the gibbons and orangutans. There is no natural category that includes chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans but excludes humans.”

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Richard Dawkins buch A Devil's Chaplain

"Gaps in the Mind"
A Devil's Chaplain (2003)
Quelle: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

“I mean it as a compliment when I say that you could almost define a philosopher as someone who won't take common sense for an answer.”

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Richard Dawkins buch Der Gotteswahn

Quelle: The God Delusion

“By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”

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Richard Dawkins

The Enemies of Reason, "The Irrational Health Service" [1.02], 20 August 2007, timecode 00:13:05"ff"
The Enemies of Reason (August 2007)
Variante: We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out.

“[I]sn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?”

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Richard Dawkins

Quelle: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

“Science replaces private prejudice with publicly verifiable evidence.”

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Richard Dawkins

The Enemies of Reason, "The Irrational Health Service"
The Enemies of Reason (August 2007)

“American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.”

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Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins on militant atheism http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html, (February 2002)
Kontext: We've reached a truly remarkable situation: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligencia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe which is held by the vast majority of top American scientists, and probably the majority of the intelligencia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I'm right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it: the intelligencia, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs. To put it bluntly American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.