(233) Richard Dawkins, Dr Who and 'Runaway Brides' at Christmas time

V This Guardian Blog thread caught my eye on December 18th 2006.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/dec/18/anopenletternotfromrichar 

In it, Theo Hobson Theo Hobson - Wikipedia posts the kind of round-robin letter he postulates Richard Dawkins might choose to circulate this Yuletide to his ´fellow rationalists´ as a, good natured, DISincentive to 

Nativity Nonsense, eh?

I chipped in with -

Comment No. 342986

JamesPlaskett

18 Dec 2006 20:13

0 1

Find this thread a trifle odd, theo.

What does R. Dawkins not seeing the beauty of the Nativity story have to do with any kind of criticism of the man?

Also, I am always struck by how people embrace religions as a faith thing... and then how quite a few of them then expend energy trying to prove certain aspects of their creed (not that that is the case so much with this particular blog, though.)

I mean; if something has sufficient evidence to back it up, it is hardly a matter of faith any more, is it?

jonniestewpot posts -

"GBR So take him on trash his arguments. Put up a serious case for God. Prove to Dawkins satisfaction God exists. Dawkins has said if God knocks on my door and he introduces himself to me I'll accept his existence."

With respect, arguing for God and against Darwinism are not at all the same thing.

I know those who stridently oppose Darwinism whilst embracing no religious belief.

Darwinism is utter codswallop, as may easily be demonstrated by any proper assessment of the ideas and the evidence produced to support it.

Belief in God is something else, however.

Challenging one in no way means that acceptance of the other has to be made.

And, two hours later I added this Comment -

Comment No. 343137
December 18 21:12

JamesPlaskett

18 Dec 2006 22:12

0 1

For Humanzee and johnnystewpot - I have posted against Darwinism passim, so I�ll not do so yet again.

Troll back through the more recent blogs of Hobson, Jha, Grayling, Blackmore, et al.

Darwinism is harmless codswallop. Militant, intolerant religions are extremely dangerous.

Before closing, let me note a few things from this thread.

I think that Jeremy James and I once presented BBC TV programmes together in the 1980s. (The significance of that, dear readers, being that Jeremy James had made a contribution to the thread!)

I once journeyed to the temple of Darwinism (a.k.a.) The Natural History Museum, and saw Tom Baker (who spent ten years as a monk) get off the train with me. His voice was later to be heard on a voiceover at the museum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Baker He was married to the woman who was his Dr Who assistant and is now the third wife of R. Dawkins: Lalla Ward. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalla_Ward
LordSummerisle posts -

"... as an interesting aside, it was Douglas Adams another great atheist, when he was Script Editor for Doctor Who that introduced Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward."

My wife knew Douglas Adams.

And I just noticed this, on Yahoo! -

"Doctor Who returns to TV screens on Christmas Day with its most terrifying monster yet.

Younger viewers may find the half-human, half-spider Empress of Rachnos too scary to watch.

Cutting It star Sarah Parish is unrecognisable in the role.

The festive episode is called The Runaway Bride."

Doctor returns on Christmas Day... Parish... Runaway Bride...

Mick Brown Mick Brown (journalist) - Wikipedia (171) Mick Brown (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com) told me that he had once interviewed Dawkins, heard his atheistic spiel and insistence that physical reality is all that exists. So Brown.asked of him, "Well; what do you think love is, then?"

"Just some electricity firing across neurons", came the response.
Brown told me he then found himself saying to Dawkins, "Well no wonder you´re twice divorced."

LordSummerisle posted at the above thread - 

"... as an interesting aside, it was Douglas Adams another great atheist, when he was Script Editor for Doctor Who that introduced Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward."

...   ...   ...
In her Wikipedia entry, Ward reveals that her long friendship with Douglas Adams, with whom she worked on Doctor Who, meant more to her and was "more valuable and more enduring" than her marriage to Baker.

Well, MY OWN wife told me that trusted friends remarked on their perceiving a mutual attraction between her and Douglas Adams. Yet, despite an embrace following a brief taxi ride after a long train journey, and a subsequent effort (of sorts) things had never progressed beyond a purely professional level and the two of them would only chat afterwards on the several occasions when they met at public gatherings.

In reviewing the earlier Yahoo! announcement, some details leaped out at me -

"Doctor Who returns to TV screens on Christmas Day with its most terrifying monster yet.

Younger viewers may find the half-human, half-spider Empress of Rachnos too scary to watch.

Cutting It star Sarah Parish is unrecognisable in the role. She admitted that even her own family might run for cover at the sight of her character when they sit down to watch the festive episode, called The Runaway Bride."

More info here -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runaway_Bride_%28Doctor_Who%29

Also note - http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/12/07/doctor_who_poll_feature.shtml

And - The Runaway Bride: Highlights | Doctor Who (youtube.com)

e) Also, Lalla Ward and Sarah Parish, essentially, share the same name!

Ms Ward uses the name ´Lalla´, although she was christened Sarah. Apparently she mispronounced Sarah as a child, and the moniker stuck. And "parish" and "ward" are small areas -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish and definitions 6 and 7 here http://www.yourdictionary.com/ward

Tom Baker was Dr Who. His bride left him... and married Richard Dawkins.
Richard Dawkins with Douglas Adams (youtube.com)
f) After leaving the Natural History Museum that afternoon, my family and I boarded a London bus.
At a bus stop we passed en route I spotted an ex- work colleague, Tim Vaughan-Hughes (See Entry 92) (92) Jury Service (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com)

And lastly, with this extraordinary codicil in 2008 -

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/russell-t-davies-return-of-the-tea-time-lord-805255.html

the Dr (Dawkins) introduces himself into the series!
...   ...   ...

Btw, having originally uploaded this Entry on 21/12/07 (the winter solstice, so around Christmas time) I altered and amended it a little on May 28th/29th 2024.

Then, on Friday May 31st 2024, I was playing some casual "Blitz" games at www.lichess.org when I found that I had been paired with an opponent with the most distinctive handle of

´Runawaybridesman´

His lichess rating was similar to mine. I saw he had only been a member of the site for two months. In response to my inquiries, he told me more about his choice of nom de guerre

("It´s a fitting name, don´t you think?") 

I then asked if it was a suggestion that - 

"The guy gets second thoughts at the altar?"

he said 

"Something like that, yes, the bridesman regrets his choice, and leave the party, running down the church floor"

I mentioned my blogging of coincidences and how I had just been writing quite a lot here at this Entry about The Runaway Bride and the Dr Who Christmas Special. He responded that he was aware neither of my Blog nor that for me to be paired with someone who had such a handle, only a couple of days after I had altered and amended this very Entry, could constitute a cute continuation.

When I asked -

"And you were unaware of that Dr Who Christmas Special?"

he responded that he was unaware of that too.

...   ...   ...

"Runawaygroom" seems a more natural way of conveying the same idea though. 

He said he was a European and a Grandmaster. I suspect that English was not his first language.

...   ...   ...

And those games (which are recorded at the www.lichess.org site) occurred after I had already ended this Entry with the following last line -

´In 2016, Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward were to announce they too had, amicably, separated.´

(Btw, "Theo" means "a gift of God".)

In 2020, The Honourable Lalla Ward remarried.