Dennett on caging
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Misquoted Person
Source
- Behe, Michael J., 1996. Darwin's Black Box, New York: The Free Press, 1996, p. 250.
- Rea, Michael C., 2003. Dennett's Bright Idea, New York Times.
- Jones, Stephen E., n.d. Problems of Evolution [1]
- Sarfati, Jonathan, Answering angry anti-Christianity, Answers in Genesis [2]
- Numbers, Ronald, The Creationists
- Denyse O'Leary, Gonzalez case - Prof, do you know what time it is?, Uncommon Descent [3]
Original Source
- Dennett, Daniel C., 1995. Darwin's Dangerous Idea, New York, Simon & Schuster, p. 515-516.
Misquote
- "In his recent book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, philosopher Daniel Dennett compares religious believers - 90 percent of the population - to wild animals who may have to be caged" (Behe)
- "Dennett has gone on record in his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea as thinking that this sort of religious view ought simply to be confined to a "cultural zoo". "Save the Baptists!" he says; "but not by all means. Not if it means tolerating the deliberate misinforming of children about the natural world."" (Rea)
- "Likewise, another evolutionist zealot Daniel Dennett has publicly advocated placing in a "zoo cage" as a "quarantine" measure, those who "insist on teaching" what Dennett considers "falsehoods," for example "that `Man' is not a product of evolution by natural selection"" (Jones; this is a mixture with Dennett on quarantining)
- "Daniel Dennett said that religions should be caged like dangerous wild animals in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, a book much loved by the scientific establishment. I’d challenge you to find statements by creationists on the lines of [..] ‘Evolutionists should be caged like wild animals’." (Sarfati)
Original Quote
- "[after talking about caging dangerous carnivores] Safety demand that religions be put into cages, too - when absolutely necessary. We just can't have forced female circumcision..."
Why is this a misquote?
Dennett does not compare believers to wild animals, but beliefs. He talks about caging beliefs, not believers. Dennett, as he makes clear in his book, is a proponent of memetics. Whatever you may think of that, it means he is concerned about ideas (memes) and talks about them as entities.
On the pages following the caging quote he explains what he means by caging beliefs - it means giving the believers information. The beliefs in question are dangerous only if the children are not exposed to the scientific information creationists want to withhold from them.
At no point does he mention caging believers.
The misquoters choose the most uncharitable - and, if you consider the context, obviously wrong - interpretation of Dennett's words and reword them as if it were not an interpretation but what Dennett really said.
External Links
- "Brights": An Exchange Between Daniel C. Dennett and Michael C. Rea. [4]
