#513: Shmuley Boteach

Shmuel ”Shmuley” Boteach is an outspoken, Orthodox rabbi, author, TV host and public speaker. He has appeared on Oprah, and was a personal friend and spiritual advisor for Michael Jackson (I’m not sure that’s anything to put on a CV, however). He is even pretty liberal in many respects, including being a promoter of tolerance for other faiths and an outspoken champion of gay rights. He has admittedly even said some clever things about alternative medicine, and it does appear that even some reasonably people view him as, well, essentially a reasonable guy.

Boteach is, however, no such thing as reasonable. Despite his comments on alternative medicine, his credulous support of fake psychics, notably Uri Geller, is rather well known. Even more importantly, Boteach is a hardcore creationist, and uses this as a premise in arguments for the existence of God that run something like this: “There is a God because evolution is impossible, and God is the only reason people are moral. And Hitler,” usually backed up by “Hitler, Hitler, Hitler. Evolution cannot have love. All morality comes from religion. Hitler, Hitler.” Boteach is also the proud recipient of The Chopra, a Golden Woo Award (awarded for The Woo responsible for the most drivel and containing the most logical fallacies; Boteach shared it with Dinesh D’Souza) for his performance in the debates in which the previous “arguments” for God were presented.

Here’s Dawkins responding to some absurd complaints against him from Boteach: 

Diagnosis: Shrill godbot and rabid, fuming enemy of truth and reason.