Richard Dawkins:Lecture1. Waking up in the universe (3 of 7)

[cveich]

makes you feel beautifully small :)

[gary031183]

Dawkins is the best!!! I like Hitchens too but Dawkins' polite attitude is so much more attractive to my ear.

[entehrend]

that looked like a cow

[Baddboy187]

jesus what a lucky baby

[8644371]

BIJOVIAN CREATURES, MOTHAFUCKA!!!!

[atheistfriends]

"The God Debate" is on my channel.

[velation]

What with Dawkins being an atheist I'm surprised he didn't eat that baby.

[aryonas]

You are a freak.

[Upryse]

Haha. Excellent.

[wowowowye3]

You're a moron, you have no place in this conversation. Go away, leave us alone.

[MovieClipUploads]

Prick.

[sigprodigy]

oh how intelligent and open minded of you. i assume your are of christian faith as it is the most wide spread religion, so how about you practice your religious figures benevolence and be ab it more open minded hmm?? that's a good fellow.

[f0revern0ty0urs2]

@velation

haha good point

[Kimbahley]

At strange as it may be, I was only originally watching this because Dawkins' lectures help me focus on transcribing information at work by blocking out distractions, but although his presentation is more on an elementary understanding of biology, I'll admit this is pretty cool and impressive. I've never seen anyone give a demonstration or lecture with so many physical examples and analogies. He shipped in a baby, for goodness sake!

[patonburns]

misguided. but someone has to do it

[DrMontague]

On your bike you religious crank!

[wellingtonburns]

my dear honourable doctor, im not religious in the least, and yet i find your remarks mildly offensive. perhaps my comment was on the caustic, provocative side, but thats no need to resort to dogma. as for getting the hell out of this sorry excuse for science, fortunately, i need merely to press a button, good day!

[markgg1]

haha, brilliant

[RajahBrooke]

Misguided? What is misguided?

[Deflectioneer]

Science is the most facinating thing in the world.

[Lavabug]

"and if you don't agree, you can fuck off!" :)

[Deflectioneer]

Hahahaha. Love that one.

[gorypleasure]

Science is really the only thing in the world

[Twicebakedtaters]

Worth while? Science does not support such silly notions.

Science does not ask what life is for. It examines how it works. Asking what life is for is subjective.

[goldensleeves]

Excellent, Twicebakedtaters. haha nice name too

[andrewjohngordon]

8:45 looks like roland rat!

[nabel1971]

this scientist is always great!

[sandform]

That baby was soooo cute.

[Matt7895]

I love the early 90s haircuts and dress styles!

[BoozyBeggar]

Anyone who thinks or spouts off "life cannot come from non life" needs to go to Google, type the phrase 'synthetic polio virus,' hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky,' and read the article.

[indian8217]

i agree with you...life can come from non living things. some researchers recreated conditions like early earth and after just 2 wks they found complex organic compounds. just think wat they mite have found if they could have checked their experiment in a few thousand or million years...but wat u said is incorrect bc vriuses arent considered living things bc all they can do is reproduce none of the other requitrements to be considered living

[BoozyBeggar]

Virus' arent life. I've always thought that on a fundamental level that's complete bullshit. Not insulting you, mind you, but they are self-replicating molecules. Where did they come from? If they arrived in their current form through a natural selection/evolutionary process, if they mutate, if they retain heredity, how can anyone NOT call them life? I think it is anthropocentrism.

[indian8217]

yea i always thot that was odd that a self replicating molecule was not considered a life form...i think that by definition they arent living things but they are life forms in a way...and yea they did evolve bc otherwise they would have been wiped out when other life forms evolved bc viruses can only infect certain things so if they prey evolved then they would have to evolve too. wat is anthrocentrism

[smbb149]

I love the way dawkins puts Toilet cleaners and Lawyers in the same sentence

[calvin8hobbs]

Slightly disrespectful to toilet cleaners though

[BBMix]

"The anaesthetic of familiarity" what a brilliant phrase.

[higgism]

Does anyone know the baby used in this video? She would be about my age currently.

[riciard55]

the questions exist when you ask them THe (I) becomes alive when it sees itself THE I sees the I and then thae I realises it is the one thinking and asking the question

[DrMontague]

This double edged sword has led humans to become sensation seekers bringing some of the above pros and cons that come with the baggage.

[DrMontague]

This concious of being concious - self awareness means where not prisoners of our instincts as r (arguably) most other creatures. being the strongest male does not necessarly mean getting sexual (female)dominance.This double edged sword has turned humans into extremely complex creatures as the universe might never have encountered. This give rise to philosophy, social sciences, sociology, psychology and many other diciplines that try to explain why humans behave the way they do

[DrMontague]

This double edged sword in one sense is excellent for survival we can predict future events e.g. (arguably) globle warming and try to prevent it. Its down side is some humans can lead to murder, rape, bring about fantasy and in its wake (arguably)perversions of all kinds. and gave rise to science i.e. as soon as we could ask the question 'what if'

[DrMontague]

many adult humans have still not grown up in the universe. they still believe in hot goblins, tooth fairies, and gods or a god. some of us r reaching pubity so to speak-asking questions- not satisfied with ancient scribblings from deluded humans who had silly dreams or nightmares and went around telling everyone to follow them in their deluded beliefs. And yes they found people who couldn't think for themseves to follow them

[DrMontague]

As Dawkins argues. This awareness of existing. concious of being concious,this being self aware in the universe is in itself like double edged sword ie. we can delude ourselves.

[Framdamdidily]

Science is not able to answer questions like What is life? and What is life for? in any ultimate sense that people are looking for. I would strongly suggest the Bible or at the very least philosophy. That's not a slam on science, but we need to recognize its limitations and not force it to be more than it is.

[DrMontague]

my opinion. Life on earth has no purpose it's there because it can be. a certain species (humans) became self aware of itself in the universe in order to continue/survive. The universe i'e. became self aware. This rise of concious thought needed for survival brings with its baggage the thinking of the notion why r we here ?is there a purpose?is there or isn't there a god?

[htoromjr]

For the record, philosophy is great fun and a good exercise for the grey matter, but relies on the software of the mind to arrive at conclusions. Science tries to extend the software of the brain by creating tools that let us peer into the hidden nature of the world.

[DrMontague]

Philosophy has several definitions, these definitions taken as a whole agree that philosophy is reasoned argument. All the scientific disciplines sprang out from philosophy that eventually led to the use of the 'experimental method' as its method of investigation.

[Framdamdidily]

Yes! Good point! And science still rests ultimately on philosophical presuppositions. I just wish more scientists were upfront about that.

[tbrown52]

True, science would be philosophy if it weren't for statistics and for the practical predictability about it, unless you of the school of Decarte and don't believe anything you see!

[DrMontague]

Decarte concluded that we can believe what we see. He argued the only thing we can be sure of is: 'that I can think, I think therefore I am, If I can think of god then god has made me think of him,therefore god exists. God exists and god would not deceive us with illusions. What we see must therefore be reality'.

[jamesstephenbrown]

Are you aware that Descartes was wrong? Look up the Masked Man Fallacy.

[DrMontague]

I'm not arguing right or wrong only what he believed.

[jamesstephenbrown]

Sorry, jumped in prematurely... I retract the misguided statement. Thanks for posting these, they're fantastic! Are the other lectures coming soon?

[DrMontague]

Other Xmas coming soon. Had to have a break for a while. There not with Dawkins but some great Xmas lectures that were made by the BBC a few years ago but relevant.

[RajahBrooke]

Framdamdidly - who says life has greater meaning? If there is a meaning, it is one we invent after looking at the world around us. If it is the case that we decide what our lives are for (if anything) then wouldn't we be in a better position to do so if we knew more about the world? There is more grandeur and beauty and shear awe in the real Universe than in any philosophy or religion; the feeling of clarity and wonder that I feel when I learn more about the Universe cont.

[RajahBrooke]

Is something I have trouble describing - black wholes (the idea that if you were to fall into one you could theoretically be both alive and dead at the some time), planets orbiting neutron stars, dark energy (the invisible force that is causing the universe to expand and accelerate, and that will eventually destroy matter itself), the big bang, the big RIP. I imagine this is what religious people feel when they say they've felt the presence of God - only it's real, and far more amazing.

[wrekk]

Thanks you also.

[shsnawada]

a very nice set of videos ..

[stanek]

Thank you for this wonderful series