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In reply to the discussion: Richard Dawkins under fire for ‘mild pedophilia’ remarks [View all]cbayer
(146,218 posts)13. This is what he wrote in The God Delusion
Priestly abuse of children is nowadays taken to mean sexual abuse, and I feel obliged, at the outset, to get the whole matter of sexual abuse into proportion and out of the way. Others have noted that we live in a time of hysteria about paedophilia, a mob psychology that calls to mind the Salem witch-hunts of 1692
All three of the boarding schools I attended employed teachers whose affections for small boys overstepped the bounds of propriety. That was indeed reprehensible. Nevertheless, if, fifty years on, they had been hounded by vigilantes or lawyers as no better than child murderers, I should have felt obliged to come to their defence, even as the victim of one of them (an embarrassing but otherwise harmless experience).
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The title makes it seem like Dawkins did it instead of forgiving those that do
coldmountain
Sep 2013
#4
As far as I know, sexual fondling of children by adults has never been acceptable
Crunchy Frog
Sep 2013
#50
Incorrect. He says he knows this particular person did it to others and he doesn't
cbayer
Sep 2013
#10
Oh dear Dicky, Dicky, Dicky! Looks like you came a real cropper this time.
Starboard Tack
Sep 2013
#30
It is beyond creepy. He has also made excuses for the heinous crimes of the RCC.
cbayer
Sep 2013
#38