On The Map with Avi Lewis: Richard Dawkins (Full Interview)

[ThisbeandPyramus]

For years I agreed with the Dawkins narrative about the dangers of Religious belief. I've since moved on to what I believe is a more accurate understanding of the nature of the ugly face of Religion, esp. when it comes from impoverished countries.

I believe it is more a reaction against horrors created by the merger of Corporations with Governing forces throughout the world. This "unholy" alliance sucks every nickel out of every resource, leaving desperation & hopelessness in it's wake.

[petestrat07]

Long live Dawkins. I hope he lives to a ripe old age.

[CombatRocks]

I'm getting the impression that many religious people are becoming afraid of Richard Dawkins. They have no rational, logical answers to his criticisms of faith and religion. They are scared that people will open the eyes and begin to realise the truly oppressive nature of all religions. Interesting.

[tommyk77]

@benjmann2 That's a bit of a sweeping statement. Without religion, we'd have a better chance of debating issues

[Tsnore]

Avi is just a tad too obvious about his America complex.

[freedomsfart]

I wonder if Ted Haggart went on one of his meth fueled homo fuck- and suck- athons after having the audacity to call Dawkins arrogant for criticizing those who peddal sky daddy myths.

[adlerbr12]

When i said ,what are you 12 years old .

That was directed to all the religious morons in the room and around the world, but mostly to the idiot with the question ,"So Adam dropped out of the sky ?", there was NO Adam you asshole that's the point.

[Jenfucius]

lol

[Jenfucius]

chill out

It was sarcasm

[ianxxscott]

I was a full evangelical, hands in the air, wide eye'd christian once; but I had questions. When I freed my mind to really ask these questions I lost my faith. To date I have never met a religious person who has a mind free enough to ask questions and I believe if they did ask I doubt their faith would stand up to the challenge. The very nature of faith calls for questions to be ignored. I have to admit though, my faith caused me to live in love - in a way I think I was lucky in that

[Boeu13]

Every religious person here, read The God Delusion.

[MopDMTBARTL]

Evolution or not, we still had a creator. God isnt here 4 an explanation of things, thats 4 science God's here 4 LOVE. Jesus may have lived, may just a story. Its the MESSAGE that is the most important. Its up 2 US 2 put out Love-positive ENERGY. I only need God 4Love. U still need science 2 explain everything, figure out truth, continue 2 shape our beliefs & knowledge. All LOGIC. God is just a supplementLOVE. Thats it. I hate religion btw.

go here:

truthknowledge. Com

[hardkoreham]

God's here for love but if you don't believe in him and accept Christ as your savior to deserve eternal damnation and to burn in hell for an infinite period of time.

So in other words he loves you, but there's about a 75% chance he wants you in hell in terms of the world's population not being christian.

[SpamAccount009]

@hardkoreham There's a 75% that I go to hell because I am not a Christian? Well, thanks for the statistic, that certainly narrows it down then. I didn't know that being a non-believer is like a game of Russian Roulette. What makes you think it's 75% and not 76% or 13%? You've convinced me, I'm becoming a Christian. Don't want to belong to that 25%.

[hardkoreham]

@SpamAccount009

I'm not a Christian (i'm an atheist) but let me know if I'm reading your message wrong. The Bible and Christians say you have to accept Jesus Christ as your savior to get into heaven, about 75% (I would say on the low end) of the world's population will never do this, hence them "belonging" in hell.

[SpamAccount009]

@hardkoreham Oh, I thought you actually believed that. I guess I didn't detect your sarcasm. Apologies. :)

[fettkatt87]

I will allways belive in ALMIGHTY GOD. HE helps me when i really need help so i know that HE exist. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME. JESUS CHRIST is the only way to heaven. We have not evolved from monkies,that is a lie,and i will never belive in a lie. In the beginning GOD created the heaven and earth.That is the real truth. And one day all men will belive that GOD exist.

[Jenfucius]

So Adam dropped out of the sky?

[adlerbr12]

your an idiot for saying some think like that , what are you 12 years old /.

[Jenfucius]

Certainly not a Christian. ^_^

[peengwen12]

Apparently god can't help you to spell.

[fjpkwanj]

To fettkatt87:

You are delusional and I do not care for your beliefs.

[sads404]

"I will allways belive in ALMIGHTY GOD."

Yes, Yes Praise Allah!

Oh wait.... you like the other guy!

When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

- Stephen Roberts

[shashintokyo]

3 out of 10 Republican candidates don't believe in evolution? Wow, shouldn't that be 0 in an educated country?

[ViperRob42]

on Bush, 'he can't be as stupid as he looks...' LOL

[heethen1]

yeah, I laughed on that one too :-)

[whole27]

stupid man..is bush....lmao....that was funny!

[theseanze]

I love how razor sharp and clear this interview is! Here in the U.S., everyone has to pussyfoot around the gorilla in the room, or in the White House.

[dhsubhadra]

The idea of God is no more irrational than scientists' assertion that they can 'explain' the universe.Materialism is so crass, it ignores so much. Religion is an intuitive response to the unfathomable mystery of Life.

[vikramkrishnan]

just replace 'intuitive' with ignorant

[illuzion30]

Can you give an example of something legitimate that materialism ignores?

Religion is an intuitive response to those who find life mysterious and unfathomable. It is indeed the perfect answer to those who are either not capable of understanding the world around them or simply too intellectually lazy.

[dhsubhadra]

Life is an unfathomable mystery because there's so much we don't understand. Why does the universe exist?  Whats it for? You could just as well have...Nothing. Life seems to have a purpose: surely it cant be accidental. Science is mute about meaning and purpose. Dawkins throws out the baby with the bathwater. We have to grow in awareness in order to understand what lifes about. In Buddhist terms, the path to get there is spiritual growth and development, to refine ones consciousness.

[illuzion30]

The basic operation of life is not particularly mysterious or unfathomable. There are complexities which currently hold mystery (due to lack of technology, etc), but I wouldn't say they are unfathomable.

Why does the universe need a *reason* to exist? I would offer that it has no meaning in the sense I believe you are suggesting.

All life generally has at least one common purpose: to replicate.

It would seem to me that materialism has realistic answers to these so-called ignored concepts.

[BulletMagnetOWI]

I think rather it is you who imagine there to be babies where there are none. There is no particular reason to believe that there is any purpose at all. In fact, it is positively unreasonable to try to impose such anthropocentric concepts on to the universe. "The Universe" requiring purpose is very different from "people" requiring purpose, which seems to be a more apt estimation of the origins of this peculiar objection.

[AlethiaLight]

Surely philosophy is a better response.

[BipedalHumanoid]

lots of ignorant, simplistic assumptions are intuitive.

[p1729]

Human's understanding of the universe is by making models of the 'real world'. Models come from evidence (i.e. real world experience). Logically speaking, this methodology doesn't guarantee any sort of truth value of our models. In that sense only you are right about God being no more irrational than science. However, we have no other method of establishing 'truth' than the scientific method. So far, we have no evidence for God, so it's very reasonable to say that God doesn't exist.

[ByronC900]

Avi seemed out of place, his question(*) about hypocrisy, comparing bush and religion was very far out there.

Its hard to get Dawkins to talk in detail politics, so atleast his goofy question got Dawkins to go into it a little bit.

[436214]

The clip where a dude said : du you beieve in evolution and mccain says yes,, can someone send me the whole clip pls :)

[donaltc]

that's avi lewis? THAT's the dude naomi klein married?? Why do girls always flock to these goofballs?

[crazykb]

Donaltc, how is Avi a 'goofball'?

[donaltc]

He looks like Kilroy.

[theGoatandtheBear]

rofl

[donaltc]

I'm glad someone appreciates my humor:)

[1rle]

i wanna read his book first but now i think he's full of crap coz he says ideas in Religion can be wrong and ideas in science are always changing, does that mean untill time stops u are always wrong??

[bigtiggerpaws]

Haha. A scientific theory is compiled to fit data and direct observation, therefore it will change overtime. Religion is faith that does not change, cannot be observed and never be proven.

[NeoDeterminist]

These clips are not from 'the god delusion' they are from 'the root of all evil'

[cherryberry360]

maybe it was called 'the god delusion' in north america?

[hurley1]

These clips are from a two part series called The God Delusion.

The first part was called the root of all evil the second was the virus of faith. Both are available here on youtube.

[JunkieJay3000]

Just to add to that, you can watch the episodes in full on Google video too. Peace :-)

[BipedalHumanoid]

"The first part was called the root of all evil the second was the virus of faith"

Actually the series as a whole was called "The route of all evil?".  The first part was called "The god delusion" and the second "The virus of faith".

[commanderplank]

While watching this I just realized how creepy looking Ted Haggard.

[robotaholic]

science & religion cannot coexist - there is no -peace- they fight each other always - but I prefer science

[job1201204]

They can coexist, they have for years. Science began to explain how things work, some would say how god works in his universe, and somehow that got shifted away from religion because it was condemned. if only science was embraced as the physical way of learning about god i believe it would not be such a major issue. how sad we humans must be divided as we are. I am a catholic, who believes i cant understand God without understanding science.believing in God should further science studies.

[donaltc]

suuuuuuch an ignorant statement

[astat1]

Ukraine will last forever and so will the faith in God.

[donaltc]

or about as long as Georgia:)

[munkybrain]

there aren't rules of nature.

[y2rock]

WHAT????

How can you study science if there are no rules? What do you call the LAWS of PHYSICS?

[munkybrain]

see what you're doing is confusing words and poetry for reality. 'laws' of nature and 'laws' of physics are peotic phrases. the course of nature is subject to circumstance, relying upon it's contributing factors and not it's own laws, of which there are none. the concept of laws is metaphysical. all i am saying is that nature does not rely upon laws, but is only subject to what influences it.

[y2rock]

True! I agree Nature is nothing in of itself; it's the process of evolution!

However, to believe in evolution of the atheist, is to BELIEVE that the laws which the processes of evolution or nature are driven by came about by itself, ludicrous! And a blind faith!

[munkybrain]

like i said, there aren't laws at all, and you'll never think particularly deeply unless you love truth like any artist loves their art. if you truly loved truth than you'd have taken the bible apart by now. human beings create laws because, as beings, we can only understand things to a degree of abundance. to understand things in their full abundance is impossible. artists like Goethe and Mozart went further than most, however.

argue against me if you like hehe that's ok :-)

[DrZenith]

The "laws" are patterns of behaviour of matter and electro-magnetic phenomena- like light which we, humans, are investigating and trying to understand. Science is a work in progress and is far from finished. Does this answer your question?

[ElJefer]

"He probably is quite a stupid man" :D I love his bluntness.

[andrewf128]

Quote ' rarely is the question asked - Is our children learning?'

'we're going to have the best educated american people in the world'

'one word sums up the responsibility of any governor and that one word is "to be prepared" '

awesome

[tommyk77]

Yay to Dawkins! Support stem cell research! abolish swearing on the Bible.

[jazzx251]

I swear every time I hear about the bloody Bible! You're not going to stop me doing that are you?

[tommyk77]

haha. I mean it shouldn't be sworn on in court etc.

[tommyk77]

Sorry, let me correct myself. Abolish the law to swear on the Bible. I personally think it's a load of bollocks

[NapoleonI1805]

There isn't a law. If you don't want to, you can take an oath.

[andrewf128]

o.k. listen up.

The light (photons) from the stars, takes a loooong time to get here. many many years at the speed of light. So when we look up we are seeing light from millions of years ago.  BUT if the universe were only 6000 years old like the bible bashers claim then god would have had to place not just the stars but also the light from them in space so we could see it now. otherwise we wouldn't be able to see any stars yet (since the light from them wouldn't be here yet)

[tommyk77]

exactly, andrewf128. Christianity contradicts itself so much that we don't even need to beat it down with scientific evidence. it's almost as ridiculous as scientology.

[andrewf128]

praise be to Xenu

[iconoclast01979]

He actually called Bush stupid... Awesome! I hadn't seen this one before.

[UbiquitousChe]

I watched one video where he was asked about politicians who lie - specifically in the case of Bill Clinton.

He was the only one who pointed out that politicians have a duty to tell the truth about things that are of relevance to their duties as a politician, but that anything about their private life that doesn't fall under this category are nobody's business but their own - so they have a downright duty to lie to protect their private lives.

Dawkin's says things I wish I'd thought of first.

[jazzx251]

lol.

[bryanrules0000]

prove it

[mfunke]

I think it's because he sees the problems CAUSED by religion, such as the delay on scientific discoveries, the militant religious who try to enforce their way of life on others by changing the LAW, among others. Plus, the fact that he is not doing stuff which YOU would label as "enjoying himself" only suggests your opinion on subject differs from his. How can you tell he is not enjoying himself? Do you have suggestions for what would make him enjoy it more, other than helping mankind evolve?

[tommyk77]

Isn't that what Jesus did though? Build up followers? Look, Dawkins doesn't need to worry about his belief. the facts take care of that. It's the religous people who should worry because they have nothing to support their cases.

[jazzx251]

Why did God give Dawkins such a brilliant mind that, aged 66, is still incredibly sharp?

Whereas most true believers have no brain worth speaking of.

One for the theists to ponder.

Or does The Lord move in mysterious ways - or what?

Or is He simply elitist himself?

(which in no way Dawkins is - having seen much of his work)

[RebelVoDKa]

They'd come up with some bullshit theory about him being an emissary of Satan out to test peoples faith.

[jazzx251]

Lol - these people test my faith alright - my faith in the human race.

[twattertwitter]

Just like idiots who say dinosaur fossils were put there by god to test our faith? 

:)

[andrewf128]

not just that but he put all those photons from far away stars close to earth so we could see them now despite them being thousands of lightyears away

[hinkyponky]

'Anoying Little Git' seems to just about cover Lewis - another interview for his C.V. -He wasn't the slightest bit interested in in what Prof. Dawkins had to say - just like that idiot Ted Haggard. You cannot talk openly with closed minds.

[30hawkins]

Avi Lewis is the most annoying little git.

[itstartedinmud]

we dont lose shit, that guy that lets that turn his attention looses. he looses himself cause he cant face it and so what? there is no god? its about excepting the question not having the answer, dig?

[epik15]

Richard Dawkins tells the truth. Evolution is fact. There is not the slightest evidence of a god. But where I believe he loses many moderates is when he says "there is no god".

Of course he knows there is always a possibility but Dawkins is a man of science and with our current understanding of the universe, the odds of there being a creative being at the core is unlikely. But that doesn't mean you can't agree with what he says while believing in some sort of higher power.

[dimo4550]

well he says in other an another interview, that he uses the word atheist loosely, truly meaning agnostic because the probability still exists. His point being that it is so improbable that it's preposterous and against rational thinking to just believe because of faith.

Often using things like fairies and goblins to explain what he means; we can't really disprove these creatures, yet we don't believe in them.

[soulsdontburn]

@ razorman450:

Actually they were showing "Hasidic Jews". Are you that sheltered?

[Subutubiata]

The problem is that Dawkins' is also a class conscious member of England's Oxbridge elite. Listening to him talk about Bush's 'sincerity' in Iraq is truly sickening. All this puts me in mind of William Blake, who argued against the 'serpent reasonings' of the polite culture, while being equally dismissive of the advocates of State religion and their Gospel of orthodoxy, power, punishment and privilege. A plague on both their houses.

[MCGENARIC]

razorman450, Amish people are the bombshit, and would most likely knock your ass out. I've seen 1 (SMALL) Amish dude put up a two story deck in one afternoon by himself. Ate his sandwich for lunch in 5 minutes, maybe less. I wouldn't fuck with guys that work like that and don't break a sweat. but that's me

[RodrigueMoore]

Avi Lewis,, once again,, trying to play like he's an intelectual, put again in his place by Richard Dawkins. I am a theist myself, but I would prefer intelectual disagreements with Dawkins over pseudo-intelectual agreement with that fraud Avi Lewis.

Avi Lewis is an idiot.

[beano189]

wow, as if religion is ever going to die out in the world before it ends. what a vision

[razorman450]

anyone else notice, when he says in his documentary, "the 21 century should be an age of reason, yet irrational, militant faith is back on the march," he is showing the Amish? Man, what militant radicals...

[Phaedros242]

Where does it say that god is good outside religiuos literature. You cannot proof the existencs of a good god (or a bad one) by qouting from say the bible. That's called circular reasoning.

Why do theist always respond with these kinds of arguments?

[thekure42]

...nevertheless, he probably is quite a stupid man...

As they say, lmao.

[loldotalol379]

I agree with theebaker. I believe in the theory of evolution, but I don't want to contradict the existence of God. If he truly was a forgiving being, then He should not punish us for pursuing our own beliefs and studies. People like Richard Dawkins is an important man who helps humanity tries to understand our existence, our purpose and our creation. Stating that he will "suffer for his blasphemy" in plain ignorant.

[TheeBaker]

I thought god was a forgiving loving being, why wud he burn Dawkins in hell for using his free will, which he gave to all man kind, and he gave us free will for a reason.

God is good god is love, god died for our sins because he knows, as humans we make mistakes, thats why we are here, when we die, if god excists he will ask us to explain our selves.

I think he is going to be pissed with all the war and fighting in his name dont you.

Peace to All

[TheeBaker]

sorry for the double post i hope i dont burn in hell now!!! why is it that relgious people enjoy spreading hate and being as nasty as they can to people when they beleive in this supernatural being who is supposed to love us and forgive us thats why he died on the cross for us. do you still beleive in the gods that were around before the bible was written? no you dont in another 1000 years there may be new stories of new gods.

peace to all.

[TheeBaker]

DRMABUSA are you free from sin?

I thought god was a forgiving loving man, why wud he burn dawkins in hell for using his free will which he gave to all man kind, and he gave us free will for a reason.

God died for our sins because he knows, as humans we make mistakes, thats why we are here, when we die, if god excists he will ask us to explain our selves.

I think he going to be pissed with all the war and fighting in his name dont you.

Peace to All

[WNxShisno]

Consider the alternative -

Everyone uses their own version of "logic" to make judgements on who may live, and who may die. To enourrage logic only, is to encourrage chaos.

[whatever55555555]

Along with 80% of Europa? Religion has been proven wrong, over and over again, yet people are feared into swallowing the nonsence.

[EasyEs]

What is Avi Lewis's obsession with the bombing of abortion clinics? I noticed that he didn't mention another religion that say Canadians very recently had a brush with in a very tragic way.

[whatever55555555]

Richard Dawkins is not a fraud, he's a living legend, just wait and see.

[albpeter]

1. Dawkins is a genius and a rational thinker.

2. Nostradamus was made up and continues to be made up as proven in recent articles.

3. Religion is evil, people's faith in the supernatural are mocked by their disbelief in other supernatural things such as fairies, Zeus etc.

[lordbyrne]

lol NOSTRADAMUS is a fraud!

[4ourthofjuly]

How could you understand Cosmology? Youd have to study it first, and you havent finished english grammar.

zing.

[lordbyrne]

SO true aye, maybe they should finish kindie before they try science

[Swindlerman1]

I like the interviewer.

[scudder99]

Not too familiar with Avi,who seems himself a little dull. Love Mr. Dawkins. I don't think his statements are brilliant, but rather refreshing and clarifying. Thank you for posting.

[averagehomosapien]

I can't believe how unremittingly bias Avi Lewis is to the US. He insists on bringing up Bush as if religion was the ONLY thing that motivated him wage war. It was largely political, and NOT religious motivation. On the other hand, who's to deny that the main motivation for Osama Bin Laden is religious? But Avi has never once criticized Islam, and in fact gave Ayaan a hard time when she tried to do it! It's people like Avi who make me hesitant to call myself liberal!

[4ourthofjuly]

i think religion is almost always overplayed in politics. Kissing said you cant really be an idealist when youre running the world. or in OBL's case, trying to change the way the world is run.

[4ourthofjuly]

i may deny thats OBL's motivation, in that, why attack the pentagon, u.s. cole, military housing, etc? if its all religion, attack another country, or the freakin vatican, or the western wall? the u.s. is involved politically with the mideast, get it?

[killerbandit]

Avi is awesome, thank you for interviewing Dawkins, he is a dose of reality in these troubled times

[Konform2zoidberg]

that is terrible Canada is a lovely country

[ojkilledthemfolk]

If there was a god he would destroy Canada............No GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[overmind25]

Nevertheless he is probably quite a stupid man! LOL! Awesome.

[TinfishUK]

George Bush's main religions are oil, power and money

[Hottides]

Better to worship reality, even in its basest forms, than fantasy.

[TinfishUK]

A lot of folks clearly follow the Messiah Dawkins sermons, and he no doubt makes a lot of money from his preaching.

[KarlFeuerbach]

You're an idiot.

[c0ns3rv4t1v3]

Fundamentalist Christians aren't being manipulated, you people who aren't fundamentalist Christians don't understand. You're being manipulated by atheistic hogwash spewers like Dawkins who claim Christianity is a danger. You don't see the truth, everything shown about evangelicals from file footage on the news to anti-Christian movies from Hollywood depicts us as bigoted barbarians who don't know William the Conqueror from a prime cut of steak.

[KarlFeuerbach]

If the shoe fits.

[tommyk77]

Paul Hill, a christian, killed an abortion doctor in the name of christianity. if only people were all atheists then we would have alot more sense.

[c0ns3rv4t1v3]

Dawkins is delusional. As if Christianity is any danger... Radical Islam is what we need to fear but moronic left wingers like this guy distort and advert the truth about the danger of true extremism by pretending that Christianity is somehow more dangerous than radical Jihadists. They are afraid of looking intolerant so they pick on the true religion of peace, which is Christianity.

[IsaacB5679]

Just because Christians aren't strapping bombs to themselves and killing people that think differently than they do doesn't mean Christianity isn't dangerous. Anything that teaches these man made fairy tale stories of an all powerful supernatural father figure that lives up in the sky and watches everything you do and needs some of your money every week or he sends you to hell is without question a dangerous thing to have.

[FhtagnCthulhu]

Its not just about killing people, Christian fundamentalists are largely being manipulated into having extreme opinions on topics such as evolution, abortion and the barrier between church and state. People with little to no knowledge in these fields are having their decisions made for them by people with vested interests as opposed to actually going out there and finding out the truth. Absolutist reasoning is intellectual murder.

[gatorbuilt]

Christians spawned Islam through crusading...without the Christians converting at spear and sword points, Islam would not exist, most were Zoroastrianists, etc...Islam was created around 600 CE...pay back's a bitch, eh?

[KarlFeuerbach]

You're also an idiot.

[averagehomosapien]

This is exactly the trouble. Dawkins would ordinarily criticize Islam with just as much veracity as he would Christianity (if not more, for the reasons you pointed out). It's just that Avi steered the conversation so that it focused only on Christianity and its effects in the US. To me, it was a sloppy interview.

[theovdhurk]

yea the question about bush's hypocrisy was meant to lead him.

[tommyk77]

religion of peace, c0ns3rv4t1v3? I believe the bible teaches that women are not equal to men (the story of the man offering his wife and son to a mob instead of himself) and that a true christian should kill those who try to sway his faith. is that peaceful?

[bachyutt]

Avi Lewis is an asshole

[StopTerrorism1]

He asks DUMB questions and says dumb things.

[aikomellow]

Wooooyahhhh  bush it a stupid man its been said by one of the greatest minds no contests ;) Owned!

[johnclavis]

Dawkins is the man. Thanks for the clip!

[alternativeinfo]

Thanks for this interview. Dawkins is brilliant, as usual.