Richard Dawkins on "The Agenda" (Part 3of7)

[BroJeetKune]

It's interesting that the atheist's greatest strength is also their greatest weakness in that their independence makes it difficult for them to organize. I don't understand why atheists can't just vote on the policies that would come to be the backbone of their organization. This would be an excellent use of democracy!=)

[zebezd]

"Science knows it doesn't have all the answers, otherwise it would just STOP!" -Dara O'Briain

Love that quote, quite relevant here.

[freiheitsalv]

shut up and listen to the interview !!!! :ooo:

[Wgryzka]

@JezaLoki It is more effective to show an alternative then just deny someone's statements until he's not certain about how do we know what is true. That is crucial to have an idea why is it better to apply thinking when superstition and faith are common. Unfortunately most of the people seem to consider faith and reason as equal basis for judging what is or isn't true, and that is why it's nearly impossible to "convert" somebody in a discussion.

This letter limit is awful, really.

[JezaLoki]

@Wgryzka Yes, I agree that you cannot, lets say 'force' one from their belief. My wish is to increase prevention of passing down such beliefs to their offspring, or other youths. Btw, faith as judgment is an awful concept. Faith=belief without evidence. Judgement without evidence. What sensible person would support this idea? Hopefully one day kids will learn about religion in history class, and our generation will be included in the laughing stock of human lunacy.... Continued....

[JezaLoki]

@JezaLoki "But Sir, you mean they knew about physics, and medicine, electronic technology,and even sent a human to the moon and back some 40 years previously, yet they still believed that an invisible man lived in the sky and monitored their every thought and action and that people had to be killed because somebody drew a picture of his messenger? How could anybody seriously think that way after everything since the bronze age? How did the two realities co-exist?" "War, Billy. War."

[Wgryzka]

@JezaLoki and, to continue the issue of converting somebody to rationalism, it doesn't work that way. World outlook and religious beliefs are very subtle, I mean, it's not always clear why do we change them. My experienced has showed me the the best thing I can do is just to show somebody the beauty of cosmology/astrophysics/philoso­phy/logic/art or constant seeking for the truth etc. and it's enough. Religion, in 70-85%, is a habit passed on by the family and society.

[Wgryzka]

JezaLoki, of course people change without violence. Internet came to use and changed a lot without violence, I've became an atheist without a single act of violence, (you, I hope, also), books improve our intelligence without violence, please don't think about believers, they are just people with everyday problems and doubts like everybody. Unless, you meant the absolute fundamentalists, but it's not your duty or sth to convert them. Rational thinking doesn't have convert anybody, it just works.

[JezaLoki]

@Wgryzka ahhh ok, this was a while ago, but I think I meant that significant change in people often became because of violence. You can take that from natural selection, all the way to more specific events like WW2. Internet is a good point, coz it originated from military use, the military is a kind of potential violence, you see. As for conversion to rationalism "if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people". I very much agree with that phrase. Please Reply.

[Wgryzka]

@JezaLoki well, I can't disagree that "significant change in people often became of violence", but that doesn't mean we can consider violence as a way of changing anyone, there's no doubt about that. And, however you can point out some positive consequences of WW2, it still remains impossible for me to think about this huge act of violence (war) as it was some kind of a solution - war really is a disaster, although it unfortunately happens.

[JezaLoki]

Seraphima, i do agree. I wish for a forward thinking global community. But the thing about the human race is that nothing changes without a violent confrontation. Ghandi took beatings in order to make a point. How do you propose we alter the thinking of millions of religious morons without becoming violent? Let me say that i do not wish for violence, I only wish for someone smarter than me to tell me how to convert people to rational thinking. Humans are fearful, atheism provides no fear. FAIL.

[seraphimra]

@JezaLoki In future addresses, adding @Seraphimra, will submit to me a notice that a comment has been received. Transformation of the world begins with the self, and when you know that timeless and interwoven reality that all are one, in substance, that we have been given all we know and know, instinctively, what needs to be done; then we can all stand up and create a foundation where abuses and degradations are not beneficial/profitable. One option I've researched over 2 years is ~Desteni~.

[JezaLoki]

@seraphimra yes I get how youtube works, thank you. I can transform myself as much as I like, but how can I help the young lady about to have her clitoris hacked off by her father and uncles? Do you have pearls of wisdom to guide me towards a peaceful outcome for both father and daughter?

[seraphimra]

@JezaLoki We are living in the accumulated manifestations of how the human existed and continues to exist. So much ignor(e)ance, which has left some desolate and without even food or shelter. You can no more assist them than you can those who've passed, right now. Your station would be, I assume, to harness your own particular prowess and do something that benefits everyone. Building a world in which all will live a life of dignity and possibility.

Check out equalmoney(.)net desteni(.)co(.)za

[seraphimra]

Each one of us is responsible for what we accept and allow in this world and in ourselves. If there are shadows inside, exiled and inaccessible parts of self which we deny, then there is a tacit compliance, and even worse, a vindication from those who exhuberantly participate is unsavory activities, as it benifits them--even at the cost of others. This deformity of mind is a systemic error driven by feedback loop in the neural pathways. Just like all circuits they can be re-wired...but by whom?

[sebc2s]

Steve Paikin is my favourite interviewer, he knows the best questions to ask, the way to ask them and after watching this I can't tell what his beliefs are... a true interviewer!

[sflash7]

This Steve Paikin guy is fucking useless, poor Dawkins was obviously annoyed by his stupid comments

[dhi2swm]

Poor Richard must be so bored with repeatedly answering the same questions...

[MeBeMat]

I reakon a sizable amount of atheists are 'incidental atheists' , people who don't identify with any religion mainly because they don't think about it and trying to organise them into a political stance would be hard. For my money, the debate fascinates me and I'm fortunate enough to live in the UK where the religious-reich, if you will, isn't particularly a problem. I imagine it'd be far harder to counter the vehement religious politics in the US.

[53dumey]

Not only is Dawkins not conviencing , but theres no way he would turn a Religous person .

Dickys desperate attempt to explain his non-belief is insufferable.

[theacsmcs]

@53dumey Dawkins not convincing, were you listening? Every point that he or the interviewer raised was, I would say, answered.

I guess if you differ, you and I hear different things when the same person speaks.

[LowleyUK]

@53dumey 1. He HAS turned many theists, go to his website. 2. you must have -100 IQ. 3. you are totally brainwashed, go back to jesus camp and praise the sky.

[53dumey]

@LowleyUK

There are a lot of Stupid people out there then.

His rantings only make me laugh.

Also, he gives up religion to rag aginst religion, thats being a hypocrite !

Who's going to believe a Hypocrite ?

YUP ! Stupid people !

[LowleyUK]

@53dumey wtf are you talking about, just be honest with yourself, you know theres nothing there really, you no there is no evidence that he exists, dont worry, you wont go to hell, theres not one to go to, break free of religion, its been imposed on you since childhood, break free! its so much better, you will feel free!

[53dumey]

@LowleyUK

THATS JUST SAD !!!

Look if you want to take the word of a Hypocrite, fine. Its your Soul and Your damnation.

Theres always time to repent !

[LowleyUK]

@53dumey i dont want to repent, heaven sounds like hell to me, lets praise the evil dictator for eternity, id rather go to hell. The same dictator that lets children suffer and die from parasites that he created? man you are deluded beyond hope, you believe in a book of scribbles by bronze age idiots. thats sad!

[theacsmcs]

I find it almost incevable that anybody could watch this and walk away wth their faith intact. I cannot believe that the interviewer had the same faith in his god after this interview.

[TheEruditepolymath]

the reason that they maintain their faith is because it is a delusion

delusion=a fixed false belief

[faithisfiction]

...based on nothing but faith.

Its bizarre idiocy.

[PCrePs]

Religion teaches that any evidence or reasoning to the contrary is wrong, and not believing is a punishable sin (punished in the worst imaginable way). Many people of faith have a pathological intolerance of arguments to the contrary.

Unfortunately people like Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, are arguing to the intellectuals or reasonable people that haven't quite managed to drop their religious chains, and not the people who really don't want to believe anything else.

[seraphimra]

"You can shake me with evidence any day you like." -Richard Dawkins

This guy is just simply marvelous! This is the new age type of philosophy that, I believe shall rule to era to come. A palatable knowingness but not a fervent and arduous relationship to infalliability as in religion. Morality is in our very nature, as a step in the evolutionary process, that we achieved in order to survive. Discourse anyone?

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra Did anyone take you up on the offer of discourse?

[seraphimra]

@jahbabylon 2 years later, you have been the only response, to this particular comment. I suppose generational development of evolutionary morality isn't a "HOT" YouTube topic....for now. Did you wish to offer forth some bit of personal interpretation or observation?

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra Hi. Your comment stood out and I just wondered if anyone had taken up your offer. I find myself in agreement with your sentiments, and I also love the line of Richard's that you highlight. A big thing that I find talking with people of a religious mindset is the unwillingness to change in the light of new evidence that challenges their beliefs. All the best.

[seraphimra]

@jahbabylon This 'unwillingness to change' is within us all. We must equalize ourselves, as this enables us to recognize the infinite similarities and inseparability of one 'thing' and another. Looking at our own hesitance to change, that which we find rejuvenating and assuring, grants instinctual insight into the introspective operations of the omniverse; micro and macro. Individual perspective is elusively fickle, obstreporously judgemental, and constrictingly relative. We all require 'care'

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra Its probably my lack of something, but I do not understand your reply. Can you just use ordinary English?I don't mean to sound rude but this 'new-age' way of speaking is too dense for me. No offence!

[seraphimra]

@jahbabylon Be helpful not disdainful. Assist people to see what you know to be true. Not to confuse individual truth with universal truth, however. For example, sitting on a hot stove for 5 seconds is not the same to you as sitting with a pretty/handsome man/woman. Whereas, 1+1 will always make 2, no matter who does the counting. It's one thing to see where someone has 'faults/inefficiencies', but it is another to assist them to stand up for themself, in truth that does what's best for all.

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra Individual truth vs universal truth? Explain this, please. Sitting on a hot stove vs sitting with a pretty woman? Explain this, please. 1+1 will always make 2 is not true, however. it could be 10. I KNEW you were full of shit!!! check-mate : )

[seraphimra]

@jahbabylon Individual truth: putting on a pair of green tinted contact lenses, the world appears green. While it is not the truth of someone without them, as they see a multicolored world. This is different from concepts such as gravity or electro-magnetism. Which are empirically verifiable, although you can manipulate them, the results are no reliant upon an individual's personal perspective. Meaning that no one can choose to levitate, it must be scientifically achieved.

[seraphimra]

@jahbabylon The saying, "Time flies when you are having fun." is a great barometer for measuring whether something is altered by the person/subjective perspective or if it is a universal constant. I am attempting to simplify the verbage, but these are very abstract subjects that you are expecting 'answers' about. If you 'knew' I was full of shit, then why not suggest a colonic or enema? This personality type is ineffectual in it's ability to assist people. Instead, it's judgemental. 1+1=10? How?

[seraphimra]

Hmph, hilarious that you thought we are playing Chess...we are engaged in a drastically different gaming mechanic. With the mind, and especially beLIEfS, the rules are subject to change. If only the human mind was as simplistically complex and predictable as Chess. Nice thought though.

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra I didn't, it was metaphor.

[jahbabylon]

@seraphimra And yes, I am being disdainful. But in a friendly.jokey sort of way. Take it in the spirit that it is meant, And speak normally, you come across as sooo stuck-up, dude : ) Peace.

[pete3great]

hitchins and dawkins both lose their moral high ground when they step down from athiesm into blatant anti-thiesm (a fact of which they are both proud). it is nothing short of fancy hate speach.

[crabbit101]

Fancy hate speech? Haha! Is that what you call articulate and intelligent, evidence-based conversation? Hilarious!!!

[puzokutya]

Can God see the internet?

AND MY EMAILS???

ooo-ooo

[pup101]

dawkins is putting many words in the other mans mouth damn....thats cheap...hes a smart man come on use evidence and stuff

[pestmanpat]

i love the way you put that

"come on use evidence and stuff " lol

[pup101]

yeah he could have said smarter things than that STUFF... lol

[roycesboy]

thats not the purpose of evolution in my eyes, i think its just a natural way to explain change in species not an orgin for them.

[CatDMacLeod]

Dawkins says it well. Carl Sagan said it better.

[Robodisco]

Religion is for the insecure and weak they like the thought of having a daddy figure for the rest of their lives and enjoy the idea of when they die they can suckle on his breast.

[bleuscorpio]

@Robodisco or HER breast

[yamammiwammi]

@Robodisco LOLLLL

[anaesthetic70]

Does the other part of you want to buy the book to have a furtive read - just to see if there's something in it? And how can you be "religious by nature" - what does that mean?

[RPFS2008]

I love it when religious people try and somehow undermine those who aren't religious by portraying them as , yea, you guessed it...... religious!.

[kderules]

Dawkins is such a twat, way not as smart as he thinks.

[andron333]

a lot smarter than you, and 99.9% of population

[bastardrob]

DEFINE GOD

[LordMalice6d9]

Even though I don't necessarily agree with Atheism in general I still kinda like Dawkins, and I agree with a few of the things he said.

[DefaultPosition]

Dawkins is awesome.

I love hearing him speak. He is sharp, accurate, precise and highly eloquent, just like his writing.

[starvinmarvin90]

Aye, he rules.

[jadegreenall]

You gotta love Dawkins man.