Extract from Chapter One of The Greatest Show on Earth

Also see: Extract from Chapter 2: The truth dogs reveal about evolution

This is an Extract from Chapter One of The Greatest Show on Earth, to be published in September.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article6805656.ece

blankImagine that you are a teacher of Roman history and the Latin language, anxious to impart your enthusiasm for the ancient world — for the elegiacs of Ovid and the odes of Horace, the sinewy economy of Latin grammar as exhibited in the oratory of Cicero, the strategic niceties of the Punic Wars, the generalship of Julius Caesar and the voluptuous excesses of the later emperors. That’s a big undertaking and it takes time, concentration, dedication. Yet you find your precious time continually preyed upon, and your class’s attention distracted, by a baying pack of ignoramuses (as a Latin scholar you would know better than to say ignorami) who, with strong political and especially financial support, scurry about tirelessly attempting to persuade your unfortunate pupils that the Romans never existed. There never was a Roman Empire. The entire world came into existence only just beyond living memory. Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan, Romansh: all these languages and their constituent dialects sprang spontaneously and separately into being, and owe nothing to any predecessor such as Latin.

Instead of devoting your full attention to the noble vocation of classical scholar and teacher, you are forced to divert your time and energy to a rearguard defence of the proposition that the Romans existed at all: a defence against an exhibition of ignorant prejudice that would make you weep if you weren’t too busy fighting it.
...
Continue reading
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article6805656.ece

TAGGED: BOOKS, REVIEWS, RICHARD DAWKINS


RELATED CONTENT

Book Review: Freedom of Religion & The...

Bruce Everett - Rousing Departures 11 Comments

Book Review: Freedom of Religion & The Secular State

Herb Silverman champions atheism with...

Will Moredock - Charleston City Paper 10 Comments

Russel Blackford reviews Attack of the...

Russell Blackford - Metamagician and... 24 Comments

Currently reading - Attack of the Theocrats by Sean Faircloth

Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99...

Greta Christina - Kindle 88 Comments

Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless

Sean Faircloth talks about Catholicism...

Jerry Coyne - Why Evolution Is True 9 Comments

Sean Faircloth talks about Catholicism at Notre Dame

Book Review: "Faircloth lays waste...

Edward Morris - ForeWord Reviews 13 Comments


Book Review: "Faircloth lays waste to... canard" of "a Christian nation."

MORE

MORE BY RICHARD DAWKINS

The Descent of Edward Wilson

Richard Dawkins - Prospect 35 Comments

Richard Dawkins's review of The Social Conquest of Earth, by Edward O Wilson (WW Norton, £18.99, May)

No blood on the carpet. How...

Richard Dawkins - RichardDawkins.net 173 Comments

[Journalists] seem to feel let down when they discover that the real people aren't anything like the way they so relentlessly portray us; as if, since they've gone to the trouble of inventing extravagant caricatures of us, we should at least have the decency to live up to them in real life.
Also in Polish

UPDATED: Why I want all our children to...

Richard Dawkins - The Observer 179 Comments

Whatever else the Bible might be – and it really is a great work of literature – it is not a moral book and young people need to learn that important fact because they are very frequently told the opposite.

Richard Dawkins speaks on Reason Rally

Richard Dawkins - Washington Post 21 Comments

Richard Dawkins speaking to Sally Quinn about the Reason Rally

Who would rally against reason? [Also...

Richard Dawkins - Washington Post On... 49 Comments

Even if you are unaccustomed to living by reason, if you are one of those, perhaps, who actively distrust reason, why not give it a try? Cast aside the prejudices of upbringing and habit, and come along anyway. (Also translated into Polish)

IN FULL: Atheist in memory lapse and...

Richard Dawkins - New Statesman 18 Comments

Following a week of attacks, the evolutionary biologist responds to his critics – and argues Britain must not make policy by following “Census Christians” who can’t name the first book of the New Testament.

MORE

Comments

Comment RSS Feed

Please sign in or register to comment