[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[Case]

Ian
PS BTW Case, when you say Pirsig was "talking nonsense" which bits of
the MoQ do you not buy ?

[Case]
I have pointed out a couple of times Pirsig's statement that a Metaphysics
of Quality would be like a metaphysics of randomness. He dismisses this as
absurb. I think the MoQ should embrace it.

Another example would be this from chapter 11:

"If we leave a chemistry professor out on a rock in the sun long enough the
forces of nature will convert him into simple compounds of carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen and nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and small amounts of other
minerals. It's a one-way reaction."

A few sentences later he refers back to this example to conclude:

"What on earth causes the inorganic compounds to go the other way? It isn't
the sun's energy. We just saw what the sun's energy did. It has to be
something else. What is it?"

This is preposterous. If you put a chemistry professor into to a dark room
for long enough he will revert to simple compounds in about the same amount
of time. If you put him in a walk-in cooler it will take less time. It seems
chemistry professors left unattended revert to their constituent parts.
Circumstance seems only to influence their rate of decay.

On the other hand a chemistry professor put on a rock in the sun might be
supplied with food and water and be kept alive indefinitely. Provide him
with a mate and more supplies and he might breed junior scientists.

To use this argument to discount the role of sunlight in the origin and
development of life on earth rather deflates the value of whatever
conclusions are drawn from the savings.