Richard Dawkins is facing backlash after tweeting that "date rape is bad, stranger rape at knifepoint is worse," and drawing a distinction between "mild" and "violent" paedophilia.

Dawkins, who is best known for his outspoken views on religion, finished the controversial tweets by declaring he was not endorsing date rape or "mild paedophilia".

Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse. If you think that's an endorsement of date rape, go away and learn how to think. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 29, 2014

The comments quickly generated a storm on Twitter, with many users criticising Dawkins' point of view.

This is what sexual violence still is to men like Dawkins: an abstract academic issue, something only silly women get emotional about. — Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) July 29, 2014

Woke up today thinking, "I wonder what Richard Dawkins thinks about date rape? Not like "SUPER" date rape but like "eh whatever" date rape — Rebecca Watson (@rebeccawatson) July 29, 2014

Thank goodness Richard Dawkins has finally mansplained rape http://t.co/jMh5cHVmWs — Jezebel (@Jezebel) July 29, 2014

But some came out in defence of The God Delusion author, arguing he was making a valid point.

Dawkins tried to make logical point:Saying x worse than y does not entail my approval of y. Gender police go nuts. http://t.co/RY7yPT80nN — Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) July 29, 2014

@RichardDawkins People seem to be too caught up in the example used to see the logic behind them. It is simple and truthful logic. — Matt (@MUFC_MATT_95) July 29, 2014

The amount of people who fail to understand simple, logical points made by @RichardDawkins is pretty saddening. — Zoë Campbell (@Zoe_C86) July 29, 2014

In light of the controversy, Dawkins came out defiant, emphasising in later tweets that he was not endorsing any criminal acts.

Whether X or Y is worse is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of LOGIC that to express that opinion doesn't mean you approve of either. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 29, 2014

What I have learned today is that there are people on Twitter who think in absolutist terms, to an extent I wouldn't have believed possible. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 29, 2014

He later issued a statement titled 'Response to a bizarre Twitter storm,' in which he addressed the "tsunami of hate" he had received following the comments"

"I wasn’t even saying it is RIGHT to rank one kind of rape as worse than another (that caused an immense amount of agony and a scarcely creditable level of vitriolic abuse in the Twittosphere)," he said.

"You may be one of those who thinks all forms of rape are EQUALLY bad, and should not, in principle be ranked at all, ever.

"In that case my logical point won’t be relevant to you and you don’t need to take offence (although you might have trouble being a judge who is expected to give heavier sentences for worse versions of the same crime).

"All I was saying is that IF you are one of those who is prepared to say that one kind of rape is worse than another (whichever particular kinds those might be), this doesn’t imply that you approve of the less bad one. It is still bad. Just not AS bad."