2009-07-12-B An annoyed query

2009-07-12 PZ Myers Pharyngula \Unscientific America\The God Delusion http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/an_annoyed_query.php An annoyed query An annoyed query  Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum are discussing their book on Daily Kos. The subject of my review has come up a few times, and one commenter cited this sentence from me:

"Following this, he proceeds to damn the 'New Atheists' for 'collapsing the distinction' between methodological and philosophical naturalism, and argues that Dawkins is taking a philosophical position and misusing science to claim it 'entirely precludes God's existence.'"

Then the commenter asks, "My question is, did you in fact say that Dawkins uses science to 'entirely preclude God's existence?'"

Here is Chris Mooney's dumbfounding reply.

we use that phrase .. although it is not attributed to dawkins.

i've read dawkins book in some detail, and our objection is to his making god's existence a scientific question. i realize he does not ascribe full certainty to his atheistic conclusion--but he claims he can reason scientifically about god's existence. we're saying that a lot of theologians, philosophers, etc, would say that's a category error.

i really have to ask that you read our book, rather than its misrepresentation in skewed reviews. Myers then quotes the relevant section in its entirety, in which Mooney clearly links Dawkins with the idea of "say[ing] they entirely preclude God's existence", implicitly claiming that Dawkins takes this view.

&ldquo;Then the commenter asks, "My question is, did you in fact say that Dawkins uses science to 'entirely preclude God's existence?'"&rdquo;   