PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins in conversation

[dawtchins]

I think intelligent life doesn't seem common here because we would have had to wipe them out if they were intelligent enough to jeopordize our existence which is perhaps why there's nothing that touches us, I don't know if this is stupid or not.

[the3dmodelstore]

@dawtchins

That's probably true with the various species of hominid- neanderthals for example. But I don't think you can extend it much further than that. Humans have only been around a tiny fraction of the earth's history and we don't seem to have any evidence of any species in the past reaching this level of intelligence. I think it's genuinely quite rare- and if you try and think about what type of environment would "force" the evolution of a big brain,it is quite hard to imagine

[sulljoh1]

18:55 this is actually a very interesting point. I see where they are going but this makes them agnostics. Not just the soft agnostic definition, as in being agnostic about fairies and tea cups, but the strong Michael Shermer type of agnostic who believes there is no evidence that could verify the supernatural. AKA: God would be outside science.

[missvectorassassin]

@sulljoh1 everyone should be an agnostic. that doesn't mean they aren't atheists as well. Agnostic/Gnostic ---> Knowledge Atheist/Theist ----> Belief. You are both, not either or.

[jlowe424]

Wait a second...PZ Myers isn't British! Call security!

[CharmingLordSausage]

A Dawkins book on exo-biology. Now that would be a beautiful product.

[Denixen]

"why did only noahs ark float? why didn't all the other boat float?" haha, I laughed so hard at that, best one I've heard in a long time.

[Superphilipp]

@Denixen I guess the others did float, but Noah was the only one who brought enough food for a year.

Tasty tasty dinosaur steak ...

[Ryosuke1208]

When does the student protesters kick in?

[freiheitsalv]

PZ: "religion is a total admission of failure", :megusta: XD

[macgeek2004]

@feanando

(And one of several which also included poor quote mining, which caught Hitchens and won Craig the debate but which Harris CAUGHT Craig doing and utterly EMBARASSED him for.)

[macgeek2004]

@feanando

Plus, he's not debating HONESTLY. Watch...if Dawkins were to actually elevate him by showing up, Dr. Craig would likely use a lot of ignorant but plausible astrophysical claims to claim there is a god or some shit, basically purposely stepping outside of Dawkins' expertise into an area he cannot necessarily refute live off the top of his head -- a debaters trick. (And one of several which also included poor quote mining, which caught Hitchens and won Craig the debate but which Harris

[macgeek2004]

@feanando

"Dr." Craig is nothing but a professional debater. Nothing more. A..."Lord Monockton" of Christianity, if you will. (Google him if you don't get the reference.) His arguments are not valid...he's just good in a debate. Like Margaret Thatcher.

Plus, he's not debating HONESTLY. Watch...if Dawkins were to elevate him by actually showing up, Dr. Craig would likely use a lot of ignorant but plausible astrophysical claims to claim there is a god or some shit, basically purposely stepping

[macgeek2004]

@feanando

You never saw "Dr." Craig's debate w/Dr. Sam Harris, did you? He exposed "Dr." Craig for being the exact same thing ALL before him were. Nothing but professional debaters and apologists. Nothing more. Even (or rather, especially) that debate he won against Hitchens, Dr. Craig only won because he was a better live debater...Aron Ra, C0nc0rdance, Thunderf00t, the Amazing Atheist, or anyone, really, could tear Craig's arguments to shreds here on YouTube...

"Dr." Craig is nothing but a

[zencat999]

hay..one more "dislike" and we got us a trinity!

[freiheitsalv]

lol @ the sunday school thing XD hahahaha!!!!!

[Bobweiserbudman]

A creationist is someone that acknowledges that there is someone more advanced than us out there that makes our knowledge look primitive. You reject the notion, therefore rejecting common sense. Infinite time and space would evolve things you've never dreamed about. It's YOUR evolution. Don't limit what it can do. This is YOUR theory.

[TurboDally]

@Bobweiserbudman

"Creationism..."

Is commonly understood as a position that involves belief that god created man outta clay, humans all coming from Adam and Eve, etc.

"rejecting common sense"

Which is limited, if we always used "common sense", we'd reject things like the quantum theory.

"dragons, giants, fairies, unicorns, goblins, all exist"

Oh and gods! This proves that there' are gods, take that you evil atheist!

[Niflheim13]

@Bobweiserbudman An atheist can freely admit that there could well be intelligences more advanced than us elsewhere; but creationism is *far* more than that, it is the belief that such a being created us, which evolution does not imply at all.

[Bobweiserbudman]

If you believe in evolution with or without God, in infinite time in deep space it would have evolved everything imaginable, which would mean you must believe somewhere in time and reality dragons, giants, fairies, unicorns, goblins, all exist.

[dujl]

@Bobweiserbudman What are you talking about? The universe hasn't existed forever, and will probably die a cold death due to inflation.

[Alexdurrant7]

@Bobweiserbudman Infinite space doesn't mean infinite matter, though.

[virtuallyunbound]

If only god existed, revoice this video into Bible or Quran!!

[ExamineTheHorizon]

1 dislike is from god

[nujivaa]

@ExamineTheHorizon nono, rebecca watson. :)

[kevandeg]

0 people are idiots... oh, wait...

[thedeeliciousplum]

Thank you BHA so very much for sharing this discussion.

[harmonykrieg]

what happened to the "and profit making!" guy?

[oneznzeroz]

Why didn't all the other boats float LOL, never thought of that.

[WhatWouldBukowskiDo]

I wonder if intelligence evolved simply because humans started going down the path of persistence hunting. As I understand other animals don't do that. You really need to outsmart your pray to succeed at that (tracking, predicting, calculating), to a degree you don't with other types of hunting.

[rini6]

@WhatWouldBukowskiDo Interesting...

[weavehole]

PZ 'chewed out' out a rabbi.

Let us hope this video never surfaces.

...

oh it doesnt mean that?

[grands1am]

PZ Myers should probably go as Charles Fort for Halloween

[F1NGER]

19:04

I EXIST!

[katetbetrue]

A bit awkward and forced, but fascinating no less.

[perrin6]

On the linguistic evolutionary tree, what's the common ancestor of 'zed' & 'zee', I wonder. Is 'zee' a mutated 'zed', vice versa, or did they evolve from a different spelling/pronunciation ?

[GodlessMorality]

I hope PZ is right, that intelligence is incredibly rare in the universe. Seeing what we've done with it, I can't help feeling intelligence is detrimental and creates more suffering on all living things and the earth.

[EntinludeX]

@GodlessMorality " I can't help feeling intelligence is detrimental and creates more suffering on all living things and the earth"

Hmm, I don't think intelligence causes the suffering of earthquakes all over the earth. Blissful ignorance is a rather callous form of indifference, don't you think? Intelligent compassion means accepting the reality of suffering and loss. Isn't that the heart of empathy? Why give that up? Why not rather control it?

[eshed888]

thanks richard dawkins!! i was waiting for another video thanks so much!!! i thought you'd never made another one.

paul zachary myers thank you as well.

[ajaOne]

AWWWWWWWWWW YEAH!

[BlackSabbath86]

19:10 - pooped my pants.

[willardftw]

evolving intelligence is inefficient in the short term sense. why spend 10 millions years evolving the ability to use tools if 10000 years of evolving claws would do the trick?

[InterbredRollmops]

@willardftw You seem to think evolution have some kind of goal. It does not. It just happens and the things that works best survives.

[willardftw]

@InterbredRollmops no of course it doesn't but an organism will be selected against if it's gene has no imediate advantage. so if evolving better claws is more imediate than evolving intellegence, then the species with evolved claws are more likely to survive. when you look at a populations, those with genes that have imediate advantages tend to be the ones who survive

[sharpiedyourwhat]

@willardftw Because evolution is a response. There's no external stimulus defining what's best except for natural selection.

[willardftw]

@sharpiedyourwhat organisms are under environmental pressure, individuals without the appropriate genes to adapt to this pressure will die, that's basic natural selection. what i was saying is that since it would take so long to evolve the type of intelligence to adapt to the environment, individuals with such genes would not survive, but individuals with the genes for better suited structures like claws would, that's why structural evolution is common but intelligence isn't.

[fishnchimps]

Last comment: "Why did only Noah's Ark float? Why didn't any of the other boats float?"

[KentN383]

There is in fact a test for god. It is called death. I guess am just not that curious.

[TurboDally]

@KentN383 That's not a test for god, that's the test for afterlives/reincarnation, as there may be a deistic god who doesn't care even a bit about human affairs...

[AdmireAndDeride]

@TurboDally That would still make it a test for gods, as dying is the only way to answer whether a god exists at all, let alone whether that potential god would be deistic or theistic.

[TurboDally]

@AdmireAndDeride

"as dying is the only way to answer whether a god exists at all"

No it isn't , and I explained why: what if there's a god(s) who doesn't care about humans- we die and we still die not knowing if there's a god(s) or not. Either way it's a nice way to push something beyond testing in an ordinary sense, there could be a pixie queen, you'll only find out when you die! It's useless, and is exploited against the gullible to "keep them open".

[AdmireAndDeride]

@TurboDally Ah, I misunderstood your comment. I agree.

[perrin6]

@TurboDally I think if consciousness survives death, even if you don't find out whether a god exists, you'll certainly realise there is a lot more to the universe and life etc, especially as there is no evidence for mind-survival this side of mortality.

[PixelSlayer247]

Ah, I adore both Richard Dawkins and PZ, and them together in jovial conversation makes my day.

[ritchloui]

God demands of me that I deny His existence. He prefers it that way. So I’m happy to conclude that God does not exist.

[timrice666]

Behold, the creationists nightmare!