A presentation by Joan Roughgarden , a Stanford University biologist , on using biblical metaphor to ease her fellow Christians into accepting evolution -LRB- a mutation is '' a mustard seed of DNA '' -RRB- was dismissed by Dr. Dawkins as '' bad poetry , '' while his own take-no-prisoners approach -LRB- religious education is '' brainwashing '' and '' child abuse '' -RRB- was condemned by the anthropologist Melvin J. Konner , who said he had '' not a flicker '' of religious faith , as simplistic and uninformed .