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But is it true? (Let’s hear it for reality)

Richard Dawkins · 9 Oct 2025

The piece opens with

A historian who presents legends as facts forfeits credibility

Their wordsMy point is that this historian forfeits all credibility by his habit of wantonly muddling legends with facts.

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Richard Dawkins did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    A historian who presents legends as facts forfeits credibility

    Their wordsMy point is that this historian forfeits all credibility by his habit of wantonly muddling legends with facts.

  2. Our reading

    Belief is not something a person can choose

    Their wordsI don’t think believing is something you can choose to do.

  3. Our reading

    Myths and symbols have value, but must be kept clearly apart from factual truth

    Their wordsI’m not denigrating myths, legends, parables, metaphors, symbols, allegories, fiction, human comfort. All have value. All I’m asking is that we should make a clear distinction between those good things and factual truth.

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