Richard Dawkins is an evil, slave-owning bastard

[Guy_Montag]

Well it turns out his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was in the 18thC.

Bollocks article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... state.html

Repost here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/ ... e-ancestor

Unusually for the Torygraph the comments are closed, on most subjects they are open. (I wonder why.) But it's still one of the editor's picks for today. It's rather depressing that this is considered journalism, in fact, it's rather depressing that there is so little journalism at the best of times.

[Bella Fortuna]

Read that earlier and thought the same!

[Ian]

So according to the bible, is he still comdemned to hell?

No wait, that only applies to seven generations after a bastard, IIRC.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My ancestors kept slaves back in the 10th C. BC.

[Audley Strange]

How horrible! I should have known! He sits there in his fancy estate while we all are sitting in mud huts with our starving goats and diseased children because everyone else's ancestors always had the decency never to exploit anyone, not once, never.

In other news an ancestor of leading atheist Sam Harris probably ate meat using the wrong knife!!!!

[Ian]

My family not only owned slaves but helped establish the slave trade in Jamaica centuries ago.

[Jesus_of_Nazareth]

I still own Slaves.

FACT.

[Rum]

Of course slave owning was part of the social fabric. Everyone, more or less, who could afford it had them until it was outlawed (here in the UK first as it happens).

I find it odd, as an aside, that we read so little about it in history books on this country until we get to its abolition.

[Mallardz]

The majority of people sharing my last name are black.
So I must be too
I never would have guessed!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hey, it's okay, it's in the Bible!

[Jesus_of_Nazareth]

"Esther Stanford-Xosei, of Lewisham, south London, the co-vice chairman of the Pan-African Reparations Coalition in Europe, said: "There is no statute of limitations on crimes against humanity.

"The words of the apology need to be backed by action. The most appropriate course would be for the family to fund an educational initiative telling the history of slavery and how it impacts on communities today, in terms of racism and fractured relationships."


If I was Dawkins I would tell her to fuck off

And threaten to sue anyone who claimed he was doing a TESCO

[Mallardz]

And threaten to sue anyone who claimed he was doing a TESCO

I wouldn't have thought you could sue someone for having sex with a store over 18 years old....

[DaveD]

Unusually for the Torygraph the comments are closed, on most subjects they are open.

Don't worry, there have been enough comments on Twitter for the Torygraph to feel the backlash.

[klr]

Meh. Anyone living in Britain during that time (and later) probably benefited from the slave trade, even if they owned none themselves.

If you go back enough in any family, I'm sure you can find a murderer or three as well.

[klr]

... and a certain proportion of Asian men got their Y-chromosome from Genghis Khan, or one of his sons.