User:Rmwilliamsjr

Dawkin's fleas

a term coined by richard dawkins to label books directed at refuting his own.
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2067,2-fleas-for-the-Christmas-week,RichardDawkinsnet

a search for the term on http:richarddawkins.net yields several dozen usages(40 today).
http://richarddawkins.net/mainPage.php?bodyPage=search.php&varType=post

i first saw the term in:
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-first-flea.html

tried to create entry at wiktionary but was deleted as too new a term
however it is useful, with a large group of dedicated people using it, it is only a matter of time before it gets onto the wikipedia.

there are currently 360 entries for the term at google
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMZ_enUS302US304&ei=SjgxSsi6HOCLtge45ODfBQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q="dawkins+fleas"&spell=1

afaik there is nothing else like it except generic terms like rebuttal.

the first use i found is:
http://richarddawkins.net/article,634,My-critics-are-wrong-to-call-me-dogmatic,Richard-Dawkins

Sir, Alister McGrath (Faith, Feb 10) has now published two books with my name in the title. If I seem "grumpy", could it be because a professor of theology is building a career riding on my back? It is tempting to quote Yeats ("Was there ever dog that praised his fleas?") and leave it at that. I will, however, dignify his article with a brief reply.

appears to meet inclusion requirements, first use was 2007(>1year) it's escaped dawkins.net and is being used elsewhere as a useful term just a matter of google hits i guess

http://blog.rmwilliamsjr.net/ 19:15, 11 June 2009 (UTC)