Richard Dawkins at The Conservative Party Conference - Pt. 3

[justicepartyuk]

Bring down coalition government, it had been disaster. Arshad Khan will help to get you re-elected with working majority. click Justice party UK.

[HULLOHULLO15]

What I find odd about Dawkins is that he, when speaking in a debate, doesn't rule out the possible existence of a deity, yet when he does his own documentaries he speaks and behaves with a irritable mockery. I respect Hitchens a lot more.

[JanusChristIsRisen]

I am a liberal myself but I applaud Dawkins for this speech. There is nothing inherently conservative or liberal about atheism.

[smudge6699]

The God Delusion.

Why does Dawkims write books about things he doesn't understand?

He might as well have called it, "I haven't had a religious experience and anyone who says they have is mad because what I say in my ignorant lack of experience goes."

After all he has to keep the income coming in.from his books and lecture tours.

He says they can't all be right, apart from Catholicism, the odd one out, the rest are in concord.

Sadly only the divinely aware can see this, he can't because he isn't.

[OfAllOblivion]

@smudge6699 Dawkins does understand what he's writing about. He understands that people are subject to delusion and their minds can easily associate it with a particular god. Catholics see the mother mary in random areas. A lot of christians in general hear the voice of their god while muslims hear the voice of theirs. Just because he hasn't had one of those delusions & associated it with a specific god he was raised to believe in, doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's talking about.

[smudge6699]

@OfAllOblivion

He has no idea what the divine is.

He looks at stuff not for what moves it all.

Evolution is a surface issue.

What's moving it all?

That's THE question.

[OfAllOblivion]

@smudge6699 He never claimed to understand the divine. It's actually noble to admit that none of us on this planet have the ultimate answer to existence. He admits that & I think we all should. But it's insane to think that just because we don't know the answer we should cling to an ancient myth that has just as much credibility as any other. The idea of 'God' was created thousands of years ago as an attempt to describe what we do not yet understand about Life. It's just an empty abstract idea.

[smudge6699]

@OfAllOblivion

Then ditch God and head East!

:-)

[Soberkin]

I'm just astonished by the question at the end. A self proclaimed atheist who things that atheism might not be good for morality. Talk about self-loathing drivel, not to mention that the opposite is the case. I dispair. Perhaps he thinks of himself as so intelligent that he can be a moral atheist but the masses require some superstitious crap to keep their morality in check. I'm quite upset by that arrogance largely because it is so common throughout the ruling class. It's really no good.

[MrMZaccone]

You know the soud sucks when the applause is louder than Dawkins.

[separatethread]

What is it with people like "DickieDumbkins" and thier persistent whining about "intellectual snobbery"? Isn't that the same as saying "I just don't understand you smart folks, so rather than educate myself, I'm gonna call you names to make me feel better! Yup!"

[eloquenteducator]

Watch the whole video you naive, Creationist turd of a man.

[separatethread]

@eloquenteducator I DID watch the whole video, I'm an atheist, NOT a Creationist (obviously) and as far as my being a "turd of a man", well, I certainly hope your more of an "educator" than you are "eloquent".

Thank you for wasting my time with your entirely ill-conceived comment.

[eloquenteducator]

You insult Richard Dawkins and you're going to get whacked, sunshine. There was nothing 'obvious' in your statement about being an atheist.

[separatethread]

@eloquenteducator My statement was completely obvious if you... A. read the whole thing, and...B are intellectually superior to a cabbage. I didn't insult Richard Dawkins. I AM however insulting YOU, when I say you're a moron. What are you going to do about it? Nothing.

Now, as an agnostic atheist, a progressive, and a FAN of Richard Dawkins, I'm going to speak on his behalf: Get off of our side. Go hang out with the Young Earth Creationists. You'll have much more in common with them.

[eloquenteducator]

I sincerely apologise 'separatethread'. I obviously mis-interpreted your statement and jumped to the wrong conclusion when you named Richard Dawkins "DickieDumbkins". It was obviosuly a bit of harmless banter on your part. I'm pleased to hear your an atheist and fan of RD who is one of the finest men on the planet. Good on you. Once again, I apologise for my words which, as you correctly pointed out earlier, were not eloquent.

[separatethread]

@eloquenteducator Okay, now I feel like a jerk. I don't think I've ever heard anyone on Youtube express that kind of grace and humility before. It's rare these days, and very impressive!

I want to apologize too, because I certainly followed suit with the name calling.

You've certainly lived up to your name.

[eloquenteducator]

Thanks, man.

[DickieDumbkins]

Science as Religion - scaremongering (global warming, swine flu), unquestioning faith in science, scientistic as gods and followers as sheep, supression of thought and belief, facism, racism, intellectual snobbery, iintellectual arrogance and contempt ~( see video) . Control, manipulation but without a moral code. What is Politics is a "belief"? A belief that your way of thinking is right. What makes Dawkins so arrogant? Why so many unquestioning sheep?

[Atharkas]

@DickieDumbkins

Quite a bit of problem in what you said. Faith means to believe without evidence while science means to learn from testing again and again and to learn from it.

Now, the whole control thing, manipulation... it is what religion did since it was invented. People follow like sheep, never questioning what is said or it is hellfire, in some religion if you question or want to leave it, death awaits you.Why would religious people be so arrogant? Why so many unquestioning sheeps?

[holdenbane]

@DickieDumbkins you should watch the video and come up with your own conclusions instead of just parroting a bunch of fabricated garbage from a creationist website.

[whydid666]

I know but science projects would never be funded for mere sake of beauty it gets funding for how useful the discovery will be, the beauty we find simply tells us the we are human.

[ArcoFlagellant]

I'm glad to see a conservative humanist group in the UK. I'm an American who is both a conservative and an atheist and I would love to see a group like this in the USA. I feel out of place in the Republican party where religiosity is often presented as the main point of conservatism - which I couldn't disagree with more.

I have been reluctant to call myself a humanist, as virtually every time I have heard the word its seemed to carry a strong left wing connotation. Perhaps its only in the US?

[aweiss]

Amen!

[whydid666]

Same i strongly believe in democracy and am a Liberal, the idea of democracy is that it takes a strong opposition to make your own party strong.....sadly my opposition as you say is right wing christian fanatics.....I'd be so happy to find a true intelligent Right Wing government that is Secular to improve the overall health of our Democracy.

[gamesmaster35]

True it's would be alot easier to deal with the right politically if they could be reasoned with intellectually.But if one side approaches things from a religious point of view and the other side approaches from the point of reason you're not going to get anywhere.

[qaplatlhinganmaH]

Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

[DissCuss]

Haha. Great ending.

[eksortso]

"It's the only life we've got. Let's make the most of it."

So true, so absolutely true.

[nodvick]

link to study documentation pls...

[ConservativeHumanist]

Hi nodvick

I've written to Prof. Dawkins for more info on the study and will post a link a soon as possible - just thought I'd let you know your request hasn't been ignored :)

[mushymcsquishy]

these people reek of their own bias. yes, a point is made here and there, but ultimately their arguments are horribly archaic and narrow!! for example this study? the students are broken down by a greater or lesser degree of religiosity or aethiests...give me a break! i ,like many people, am neither an atheist or religious. uuuggggh--critical thinking? i think not!

[jamesmagmar126]

At 6:54 when Richard tells the audience to think of the central belief of religion, you can hear a camera man mumble "torture" under his breath. I though that was brilliant. Be sure to turn the sound up though.

[ConservativeHumanist]

Hi 0m0a0x0i0b0n0,

It wasn't a study to see if atheist kids were smarter than the religious ones. It was a study of controlled cheating to see if any group was more or less likely to cheat. The people conducting the study merely commented that the reason the athiest kids didn't cheat could have been because they didn't need to.

I hope you enjoyed the video.

[0m0a0x0i0b0n0]

That was hardly a fair study if the atheist kids were smarter than the religious ones. Doesn't prove much.

[martiangrundy]

You don't think so????

Do you suppose that they chose the atheist kids, from an older, or more advanced stream than the religious kids, just to skew the results.

I shouldn't imagine so, would you?

I'd imagine the rational kids, took science and evidence more seriously than the religious kids, after all if one holds no value in evidence, and that the questions are already answered by god, one is not going to tend to dig.

And religious kids definately are taught along these lines.

[0m0a0x0i0b0n0]

Sorry if I didn't make it clear but my point was that Dawkins suggested that atheist kids are 'brighter' than religious ones due to the fact that they didn't cheat when given the opportunity. I don't think intelligence or 'brightness' as they say in the video, has anything to do with the likeliness of cheating, you could have a stupid kid who has a strong moral conscience and does not cheat.

[SwiftSport2007]

I'm glad he clarified that he's never voted tory!

[NorthlandSports]

Religions Nut Job Ratings System

watch?v=02X_TeRZgmg

[PR0GRAMMING]

Go Richard!

[Gazzar]

"It is the birthright of every child in every age, to experience the cosmos anew." - Carl Sagan

[AlwaysReadTheLabel]

It must be as hard for a humanist to come out as a Tory as it is for a Tory to come out as a humanist.

I think I spot a believer in belief at 6 mins: "I'm an atheist but..."

[artistsandbox]

Yep, definitely a believer in belief

PS I love your account name

[jazzx251]

Hehe - loved the bit about cheating at the end!

[tieInterceptor]

I agree :)