Not Richard Dawkins

Stolen identity is not uncommon in the online world. With most social channel based on identity, there is a high probability that at some point a person posing as a famous someone will appear and interact. The microblogging darling Twitter was not immune, with people spoofing tweets for everyone from Bill Gates to George Bush.

A few days ago, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster—a detailed pseudo-religion created in 2005 to the illogic of Intelligent Design—posted this tweet through their Twitter account:

FSM welcomes “Richard Dawkins” to Twitter

Richard Dawkins is an atheist, secular humanist, and a bunch of other labels that place him squarely in the Evolution camp. His nickname is “Darwin’s Rottweiler,” and Dawkins’ 2006 book—The God Delusion—argues the certainty that a supernatural creator does not exist, claiming religious faith is a delusion. FSM and about 1700 others were were excited about his presence on Twitter and followed him.

It took less than a week before the Richard Dawkins account changed its name to Not Richard Dawkins, with an 8-tweet critique of the real deal published this morning:.

While I still have 1700 of you paying attention, I just wanted to say: Whatever you believe, respect others beliefs. It’s not wrong to be kind to people who don’t believe the same as you. You don’t have to be militant atheists. People who claim to be Christians can be hypocrites, but they’re just people, and all people make mistakes. Try to be good to one another. That is my message of peace to all of you. Love one another. It’s ok. Consider that being hostile towards others has never won any followers. Richard Dawkins is just an old man trying to leave behind a legacy. Just like I, a Chrisitan do not follow Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, don’t be mislead by someone just because they share your belief system. It’s easy to be against people who are different than you, but try not to be like that. Take the high road, unlike RD. Thanks for listening and following along. Have a nice day.

This is not a change coming from Twitter. Unlike Not Steven Wright, who operated initially as Steven Wright and paid tribute to the great short-form comedian by posting his jokes as tweets, this appears to be a self-disclosed revelation in the bio. Two hours later, a placeholder for the real Richard Dawkins was claimed.

Richard Dawkins is not on Twitter