From The "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department-
Early this morning, the Sunday Telegraph reported on an "awkward revelation" for the well-known atheist and author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins: his eighteenth century ancestors owned upwards of 1,000 slaves and the Dawkins family estate was purchased in part with (slave) blood money. Dawkins has responded, calling the story a "smear tactic" and "surreal," and implying it's payback for a "week of successfully rattling cages," including that of a well-known Anglican leader.
While it seems entirely beside the point who Dawkins' ancestors were—some were leading abolitionists, after all—at least one group has already intimated that he should make reparations for his family's "crimes against humanity." Reparations is not a subject to be laughed away, to be sure, but what particularly stood out in this story was evidence of an agenda behind the Telegraph story, going by a Guardian report that came out several hours later.
Dawkins said a reporter had called him and named a number of his ancestors who he said were slave owners. After the reporter quoted the biblical verse about the Lord "visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation" Dawkins said he ended the conversation. However, he said the reporter rang back and suggested Dawkins may have inherited a "slave supporting" gene from his distant relative.
More here-
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/well-known-atheist-sees-slavery-story-as-attack.html
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