Richard Dawkins Discussing The God Delusion

[mit181]

Einsteinian i.e. Spinozist. Give the man his due.

[ykyr]

What a world of difference to all those childish, simplistic, agenda-driven American interviewers like O'Reilly this is...

[housecry]

Don't attack me I want to give my honest observed opinion. When Richard Dawkins refers to the God delusion he is referring to Christians. Every time I see members of the science community attack religion it always comes back to Christianity. They seem to have a problem not just with God, but the Christian God. They complain about fundamentalists trying to insert religion into science yet they can't seem to publish books without avoiding religious issues, Richard Dawkins especially.

[Lemmy15]

@housecry I agree, all the people I know who have a problem with religion grew up in a Christian-dominant environment and are really rebelling against that. I don't see how some of these complaints apply to the gentle philosophical tendencies of some of the Eastern religions. Granted I haven't really looked into the subject.

[taoandzen]

@housecry

No, if you read the book, he doesn't have any love for Islam or Judaism either. Oh right, all the same figment of an imaginary god.

[Squipplekillzbitches]

2:10

HAIL FSM!

[bennyv04988]

Paxman is soo far below dawkins in this it's uncomfortable at times haha.

@5:20 I think Dawkins should have reference "self intergity driven morality" vs "religion induced morality"

[CyrusGuitar]

He's playing devil's advocate which is hard when there is no decent counter-argument. I'm fairly certain Paxman is an atheist or at least agnostic.

[PurushaDesa]

Paxman's still fantastic. What a contrast to the cowboy-on-coke style of O'Reilly.

[peacefreak789]

"God almost certainly doesn't exist"??? How as a scientist can he actually believe his own crap.

[fealetheGees]

I tend to keep an open mind about things and having given this one much thought I ask myself would I really be better off knowing that there is definitly no life after death? The thought scares me and it worries me...

We are all going to die some day and there is no point in living life with the knowledge that you are a ticking time bomb.

When it comes to this subject the phrase "Ignorance is Bliss" springs to mind!

[ldl21]

we are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they have never been born.

-dawkins.

[fealetheGees]

There is no "Most People". If it hasn't been born, there is nothing to consider is there?

[fealetheGees]

Except perhaps those who were conceived but didnt make it.

I just wonder how dawkins feels about telling children that there is no life after death.

[ldl21]

Well, the next sentence justifies this first part, but I couldn't remember it all so I didn't put it down. It is the opening lines of 'Unweaving the Rainbow'.

When contraceptives are used for instance, many millions of potential lives are prevented.

[fealetheGees]

If there is no after life...then we dont have much reason to feel lucky. When you cease to exist...Everything you have lived for was all for nothing. If your conscious mind goes into nothing when you die, there will be nothing to register that you have lived a life for X amount of years. To you...It will be as though you were never born in the first place.

[ldl21]

But we will have the books/art/music/philosophy we left behind, family, those who loved us.

A scary prospect to cease to exist, certainly. Yet I didn't exist for billions of years before my death, and it didn't do me any harm!

We get to spend 70 years in a strange, wonderful world, and all those potential lives who died in the interior of a condom do not.

My friend, it is indeed terrifying to know that you will die and never return, but also exciting.

[TheAssist]

At 4:30 i got annoyed at the presenter guy, he started fucking interrupting Dawkins and trying to screw with him. What a tosser.

Go Dawkins!

[itstartedinmud]

hold me tight, hold me tight... i what the lie

i hope god exists and there is an afterlife, i

want to laugh at them forever, so me and god can sit back have a beer and chuckle at all the delusional fucks who still get in but just cant laugh as well

[SimplyBen84]

Were living in dark times when people like Dawkins - High rankers in the World top Universities are ignored over the rantings of the likes of FOX News, televangelists and Ann Coulter. It's probably why Paxman gives him an easy ride; 1, he diserves respect and 2, its time to give in-the-know academics more of a voice in Bill O's Culture war.

[MadamMimIsMad]

I enjoyed watching this clip, thank you. I have read The God Delusion and agree with most of the things Dawkins says.

[khrist89]

propagation of existence?thats your only purpose?pathetic...

hey, heres an intelligent guy whos out of his mind

[LongOnAllFronts]

1.

Dawkins was answering as to whether there is any predetermined purpose in life; a plan, divine or not, that provides us with purpose. This isn't to say there can be no purpose, either for people as individuals or society itself. But while the realities of human existence present us with many challenges, but they come about by happenstance rather than some holy mandate...

[LongOnAllFronts]

2.

Dawkins therefore points to what I presume he considers one of the few if not only examples of a purpose that is pre-existent to individual or societal constructs: nature. And as far as our DNA is concerned, propagation of life is perhaps not even its purpose so much as its assumed mode of operation...

[LongOnAllFronts]

3.

As human beings though, we are far more than the sum of our parts as the brain allows us to process everything from irrational instinct and emotional experience to abstract thought, imagination and logic. The very real miracle of sentience allows that we may find or create purpose, sometimes even as profoundly meaningful as I suspect is Dawkins'.

[daughtry4eva]

o'reilly sucks

[leecorrine]

Well done, I enjoyed this clip and the book. Could not agree more, thank you Mr. Dawkins.

[kurdistaniatheist]

kurdistaniatheists. com

[humanedomain]

Richard Dawkins ... another man ... with another set of ideas, theories, etc.

[Lookatmeimdriving44]

The talking snake theory is the real one

[amb005]

can we get someone intelligent to interview dawkins, all these interviews are going over the same points, asking questions that are clearly explained in the book!

[feedbackdude]

yeah, I wasn't really impressed by that interview but I think interviews these days are more of a promotional tool than anything else

[entreri100404]

Are you kidding? This is one of the best interviews with Dawkins I have seen. I think Paxman agrees with Dawkins.. he is very level headed and doesn't take things without evidence. I think here he is playing devil's advocate.

[bennyv04988]

I agree, this is the best interview of Dawkins that I have seen.

Another good one is Dawkin's interview of Jill Mytton, a religious cult survivor. Dawkins actually recommended it to me after I e-mailed him about my experience in a religious doomsday cult.

I was actually really surprised to get a response though; he actually said "you're worth ten of them!" It made my day...