Richard Dawkins Interviewed by Penn Jillette (4 of 6)

[juren669]

You carnt test Richy d.

[oBLACKIECHANoo]

How could hating retards make him feel sick? The religious must have the IQ of a down syndrome jellyfish to believe in the idiotic shit that they do, to be honest they don't even deserve to live, I would rather a child become a doctor, than a religious moronic retard who works in a cardboard box factory.

[MrROTD]

this is big bad dawkins? he's very reasonable

[XepicmeauX]

i love this interview you really get to see a different side of dawkins, one much more full of life and hope. I think it would be hard for him to have to be made out as almost 'the devil' by fundamentalists.

[FreeTh1nk3r]

In the book "Ender's Game" The government would only allow geniuses to have children because the survival of the human race depended on it.

[TheDunefanatic]

@FreeTh1nk3r

Ironically, that book was written by a mormon. Im an atheist and i love that book, so i admire the author, by it amazes me how someone so intelligent can believe in religion.

[MrROTD]

@TheDunefanatic I think he didnt believe, he was so smart he recognised he could control gullible and stupid people and become wealthy and powerful

[TheDunefanatic]

@MrROTD I don´t understand your comment. I was talking about Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender´s Game.

[MrROTD]

@FreeTh1nk3r good book and I would support such a thing because theres too many people on the planet. on the other hand I think its morally wrong to tell others what to do in that regard so I can't decide which is worse, forced eugenics or the eventual hardship and misery of Billions of people.

[ShawnRavenfire]

The whole time he was talking about unwanted results from selective human breeding, one word kept going through my head: "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

[martyaus2905]

Richard Dawkins is a hot sexy man.

[vendetta89]

and now foxes are domesticated :)

[funkyguyxxx]

haha, Penn has a funny laugh

[MsMaggieOC]

my biology teacher told me to have children with a tall man. and I did.

[panterasux22]

@MsMaggieOC was he the tall man? you should probably tell an adult... :/

[MsMaggieOC]

@panterasux22 lol! no, she was a very short woman. My kids have a better shot being tall now though.

[counterclockwise123]

I'm all for science, but I do fear cloning and genetic engineering of humans. That scientific realm could cause alot of trouble and I think it's best if we stopped exploring it.

[hungryman211]

@counterclockwise123 I understand your fear of genetic engineering however you are ignoring the huge medical advances which could lead to the elimination of many horrendous genetic diseases.

[MegaAstrodude]

@4:33,

It wouldn't work. The countries that put greater emphasis on engineering, stem cell research, and training would win. Genetic engineering would be much more efficient than natural selection.

[MatsEP]

"It's pretty easy to reproduce if you want to"... Easy for you to say, mister famous scientist :(

[thelws]

@MatsEP then natural selection will end your legacy :)

[thesearewarningsigns]

@MatsEP i dont know guy, no matter how desperate and unattractive you are, there's someone more desperate and possibly more attractive within walking distance. More over, i have found that masturbation is faster, cheaper, and all around better, and this after much attempted reproduction.

[Maddolis]

@MatsEP Hahahah I share your pain buddy :(

[Shoesarequiteuseful]

@MatsEP Forever alone...

[zideffil]

@MatsEP What is your problem with Mr. Dawkins saying that?

[fdasherv]

We don't have to outbreed stupid people, we just have to exterminate them.

[Getlowend1812]

@fdasherv That's quite redundant.

[GenghisCohen1]

I am guilty of making jokes about the less intelligent being able to survive due to the efforts of science. Of course, I should realize, and I do realize, that intelligence and education are different things.

[Razz000]

never thought about that the fox would become more relaxed and not have to have its ears as rigid and ready.

[Groth1175]

3:03 he believed in inbreeding?

[ChooseHeaven]

@rodiel89

Greatest man that ever lived?..you are easily pleased..

[ChooseHeaven]

Dawkins is an idiot..as are all the other atheist..he will be eaing his words soon mark my words..as soon as he has a bereavement..he will be praying to God..Science doesnt know anything,,,Darwin was proved wrong in his time and he admitted at the end of his life he was wrong..this English idiot has only been listened to because of his accent..he is an idiot

[fcdog555]

@ChooseHeaven "Science doesnt know anything"

hahahah you fucking idiot. without science you would a) not be living right now, and b) not be typing your asinine comment.

You are the reason why people want eugenics:)

[ChooseHeaven]

@fcdog555

well mr FUCK A DOG you have only had colour televisions for 50 years..flight has only been around for 200 cars 150..i dont think thats very long compared to the complexities and mysteries of the universe over millions of years..like i said Science does not know anything...

[sweetvids2]

@ChooseHeaven Flight hasn't been around for 200 years.........

Pretty sure ive decided that ChooseHeaven doesn't know anything

[TheYouthHeroic]

@sweetvids2 Indeed.

[fcdog555]

@ChooseHeaven penis

[Misterdave5555]

@ChooseHeaven is "FUCK A DOG" in the bible you read?

[ChooseHeaven]

@Misterdave5555

Get real!!...being religious doesnt mean you cant swear at idiots.

[Misterdave5555]

@ChooseHeaven Have a good life!

[roac7777]

@ChooseHeaven "Science does not know anything"!!!!! That is the most ignorant statement I have seen on You Tube.

[AltruisticSelfishnes]

@roac7777  I actually laughed out loud.

[Getlowend1812]

@ChooseHeaven trollol

[thesecondislander]

@ChooseHeaven That is funny.

[roac7777]

@ChooseHeaven I see by your comment that you cannot be very bright. Don’t get lost in thought; you’d be in unfamiliar territory.  Instead of writing nonsense about Richard Dawkins and we atheists you should save your breath, as you’ll need it to blow up your date. ~So think before you write and it will save you from setting aside this moment from humiliating yourself. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself

[roac7777]

@ChooseHeaven Methinks it is you who is the idiot. Do not get lost in thought you would be in unfamiliar territory.  Instead of writing inane comments you should save your breath, you may need it to blow up your date.

[ChooseHeaven]

@roac7777

Pathetic nonsensicle comment..whooshh..its gone over my head because you know you have nothing meaningful to say...go back to you immoral way of life..indulge in your favourite pastime of incest..who is it today your mother?,,might as well since you dont believe in anything or believe there is any type of punishment out there.

[roac7777]

@ChooseHeaven Spoken like a true Christian, you cannot face the truth so you indulge in insults. Do not get lost in thought you would be in unfamiliar territory. I am glad you have chosen this time to write to me to humiliate yourself.

[ChooseHeaven]

@roac7777

Its YOU who is humiliating yourself dickhead using the same words in your comments..the reason USA is going downhill is because of Atheism and idiots like you representing it. Why dont you stand up for something at the moment you are putting up a very WEAK fight representing NOBODIES with no morals and filthy inclinations..Fuck off before i really start on you.

[2camjohn]

@ChooseHeaven Does your mom know you are on the internet?

[GraeHall]

@ChooseHeaven: if there is one reason the USA is going downhill - it's because its population is born in to a culture that habitually claims singular greatness in its entirity throughout the world as an inherited entitlement.

The greatest divinely created and blessed nation. The best.

Greatness isn't to be aspired to, it isn't earned, it isn't aspired to and striven to be achieved through actions - it's assumed.

It's a cancer on honest self assessment growth and improvement. Its dogmadness

[whataheapofpish]

@GraeHall

Thats an excellent point.

I never reply to comments online, but you couldnt be more right.

I think theres a similar but opposite phenomenon going on here in Britain: we automatically assume (or would prefer) everything to be crap. Theres a real sneering contempt for honest earnestness, idealism and national pride, which manifests as a ridiculous twisted form of snobbery - we have contempt for anyone who genuinely succeeds, or even wants to succeed.

Bad attitudes as a default.

[ChooseHeaven]

@GraeHall

Agreed

[johnnyphoenix74]

@GraeHall

The problem with the culture in the united states that contributes most to its difficulties is a claim that capitalism in its 'purest' form. It has been attached to our basic emotions in that any alternative is construed as 'communism' or 'socialism,' and thus represents a threat to our own individual freedoms. However, as we have been seeing for a while now capitalism run 'rampant' without restriction is cannibalistic-we devour our own and weaken from within.

[sonykroket]

@ChooseHeaven

You really are a biblekissing dipshit

[MrMaffen]

@ChooseHeaven dude please ... wake up. youre scaring the shit out of me! im beginning to lose every hope that mankind's breeders arent dumb as a cheesetoast sandwich.

[unfad1ng]

theyve already done that human breeding thing, in China and Sovjet

[KalleVarta]

The thing about the russian foxes is still going on. Many generations later. It is a sped up breeding of the sort we did to dogs. Essentialy as I understand it it is about prolonging/encouraging the naiveness of the animal because the behaviour of these bred foxes in their adulthood is the same as how they are when young. Basicaly making them survival idiots, because in nature real adulthood is required for survival.

[Hodongji]

This guy speaks eloquently, yet has no answers.. I like how he goes against the grain..

[mehico33]

@Hodongji Which guy? Has no answers? Everyone in this clip is serving their cause perfectly, Penn is being a decent radio host and Dawkins is giving the answers that a distinguished biologist on a mission to kill religion would give.

[ShiftyMcSly]

I don't think Penn got the answer he was hoping for with the eugenics discussion. I think it probably is possible to selectively breed for smarter humans, but I don't think our current trend is making the species stupider. I think it's important to note that intelligence does not equal education, class or culture. That and the fact that intelligence has shown fairly low inheritability means I'm not concerned by this idea of "stupid people" breeding.

[wingsofliberty437]

Eugenics wouldn't work because wisdom is dictated only by the individual in control of his own mind.

[cretinalert]

If we outbreed the stupid people, how will congress survive?

[JiveDadson]

That Russian silver fox experiment is still on-going. The reason that breeding for tameness lead to dog-like foxes is that the tameness came about by mean of neoteny.  Dogs are just neotenous wolves!

[TheNewCrankyWorkshop]

Here in America, welfare-recipients receive more free money if they have a lot of children. There's no such incentive to reproduce, for people who support themselves. So, yes, we select for disability, stupidity, and laziness.

And then we wonder why the country is full of zeroes. Duh.

[Moggiemcclee]

When Richard mentions the idea of a nation who wants to win the Olympic High jump, it reminded me of something I read in "Before The Dawn" where they talked about how people from a certain area of Kenya have the fastest distance running records due to practices that involve people in that area needing to run. I think they were herding sheep or goats from other villages and running them back to their village. And through generations, speed became a natural genetic ability.

[Guitcad1]

I think another bigf reason, besides Hitler, that the idea of "human breeding" has fallen out of favor–or, more correctly, the reason the idea used to be more popular–is that people today are not dependent on domesticated animals the way they were 150 years ago. I can see how eugenics might have made a lot more sense to people who regularly compared the bloodlines of the horses that pulled their carriages and farm equipment. The idea of breeding was just a fact of life for people back then.

[mufcrulz]

lol at the 2 creationist nut-bags who disliked this...

[Anonymous7349]

brb breeding wolves for tameness to see what happens..

then lions..

maybe komodo dragons or something else after that too.

[ExEverest10]

3:44 Now that's what I call being objective, good point.

[AtheismFTW1988]

The eugenics bit is sooooo true.

Because we have bread dogs to look a certain way but a side effect is that they can suffer from arthritis,seizures etc.

[Vermin298]

easy way to get rid of all the stupid people is to educate the stupid out of them.

[octemberfury]

@Vermin298 no, because stupidity is relative

[Vermin298]

@octemberfury no

[panterasux22]

@Vermin298 with a stick

[anonymous8261631]

@Vermin298

Completely agree.

In the grand scheme of things one or two more atheist kids aren't going to make a big difference. What will make a difference is society itself evolving to the point where truth is praised and myths are discarded.

With the atheist population growing faster than ever, it's nonsense to worry about who is having more children.

[aimonaali]

@Vermin298

Too bad that intelligence and education are two different things...

[Vermin298]

@aimonaali yeah, you use one to get the other.

[flapjackboy]

Easy way to control the levels of stupid people in the population:

Remove all warning labels.

[hop208]

All I could think of during the eugenics discussion was the movie Time Machine and how humans had bread themselves into their own predators.

[jrwilson98]

Dawkins did say that Eugenics is possible, but I think from the tone of his voice he is completely against it. Like Penn it is quite disgusting and I don't think we should mess in that kind of science with people. Just for the reason Dawkins states that you could breed some desirable trait, but you would also end up with some trait you where not counting on that would be very undesirable.

[whatthehellimbored]

Great interview!!! thank you for posting it.

[moestietabarnak]

I don't think people talk about outbreeding the idiot as a genetics way, but as with intelligent people, their offspring get better education without the prejudice and the superstition of their parent passed on them. When idiot and bigot reproduce more, they get more vote for their idea that they pass on to their children. Thus making idiotic policy.

[beavis6363]

On tame fox experiment:

watch?v=enrLSfxTqZ0

[maj1kninja07]

The problem is something bad this generation if it can reproduce it could become the start of the frontal lobes all over again.

[SelfAware1]

evolutionary biology is fucking amazing and hearing dawkins talk about what he most knows is so deeply interesting!

[coprographia]

"Outbreed the stupid people." Jesus, I'm glad to hear someone else say they're disgusted by that.

[LanceDirk]

@coprographia I think most people are disgusted by that, and if they aren't, they know how much shit they'd get for it if they supported it. It's like one step removed from being racist. Maybe a lot of people do support it though, I may just be imagining this because, I promise, I actually find it disgusting, I'm not just saying that so I won't appear to be almost racist.

[coprographia]

@LanceDirk eugenics is even worse than racism

and classism in the U.S. is so pervasive that most of us don't even see it

[LanceDirk]

@coprographia I feel it's more insidious than racism because it can easily be presented in a way that is innocuous, or in a way that people seem to agree with it.

[coprographia]

@LanceDirk right. most people consider themselves part of some racial category or another but very few identify with "stupid people"

[adzug]

@coprographia wuddnt you like to be born with a stroner body and a stronger mind tho? i kno we are who we are now, but wudnt you like ur kids to be stronger more intelligent human beings?

[coprographia]

@adzug no

if I wanted stronger, smarter kids I'd try to inspire them to have those kinds of values

trying to breed people for specific traits will make them into livestock

[adzug]

@coprographia yes that was part of the fox study tho. they gave aggressive fox kits to tame fox moms who raised them but they remained agressive implying nature was stronger than nurture. and i dont think it makes us livestock. see thing is we try to cure disease so if we can affect disease on a genetic scale it wud be a cure. so we cure your family line of being susceptable to brain anurisms. then we start breeding for stenghth , intelligence... i think it gets slippery

[antonyneal]

@coprographia

Why? I don’t understand why it’s so terrible. If stupid and intelligence has a genetic component which it obviously does it is plausible that it could work. I don’t see the harm in trying to increase the frequency of intelligence conducive genes in a population as long as people's liberties are not infringed upon in doing so. I am not sure how effective it will be and i wouldn’t both myself. But if others want to what is so terrible about it?

[coprographia]

@antonyneal through what methods, then?

[coprographia]

@coprographia and to what ends?

[antonyneal]

@coprographia

Smart people volunteering to donate large amounts of their eggs or sperm and large numbers of people choosing to use said eggs and sperm to have children. If you think my method is flawed, i don’t care. Just because i cannot think of a way of ending world poverty without force does not mean that there isn’t one and it defiantly doesn’t mean ending world poverty is evil. It probably means i lack the skills knowledge and resources.

[coprographia]

@antonyneal you could cut your own dick and balls off

I wouldn't object to that

[antonyneal]

@coprographia

Yeah, good idea smartie. You hate the idea of people trying to improve the gene pool even if they don’t hurt anyone in the process but like the idea of people mutilating themselves if they don’t agree with you. You’re so a righteous.

[coprographia]

@antonyneal oh are you electing yourself as a designated breeder then

[Icemario87]

@antonyneal "Just because i cannot think of a way of ending world poverty without force does not mean that there isn’t one and it defiantly doesn’t mean ending world poverty is evil"

I'm very extremely curious right now: explain a scenario under which "force" would "end world poverty"?

[nactan]

@coprographia There's the kind of people who think of themselves as highly intelligent and wish they could get laid despite the anti-intellectual American zeitgeist. But there's also the type that has seen actual statistics showing that religious people breed exponentially faster than non-believers, and that most people indoctrinated in childhood remain believers their whole life. In light of this undeniable FACT, some get nightmares about what the world will look like half a century from now.

[coprographia]

@nactan you are so precociously full of shit

look, son. becoming an adult is all about learning to live up to your own ideals instead of expecting the rest of the world to conform to them.

so be a man

and rip your own stupid dick off

[nactan]

@coprographia

Line 1: Possibly.

2 & 3: "Becoming an adult"? What does that mean?

4: I am biologically male.

5: Not until I understand your argument.

Reducto ad odium? :P It's interesting you assumed I'm in favor of eugenics even though all I've done is present two points of view, to which you responded like the classic internet tough guy. Well, tough guy, why don't you rip your own dick off and show me how it's done?

[coprographia]

@nactan you are not even remotely worth taking that seriously you gross child

[Icemario87]

@nactan Ignore coprographia. He thinks you're antonyneal.

[Icemario87]

@coprographia I think trying to "outbreed the stupid people" qualifies you for celibacy.

Like the foxes and the collies and others, if you breed for a desirable trait you're also breeding for several unexpected traits. And further, the bigger point is:

If you're too dumb to realize that the "stupid people" problem is actually a "stupid education system" problem, then you probably shouldn't be breeding a large flock.

In short: stupidity is not a genetic problem, stupid.

[coprographia]

@Icemario87 damn straight

Nobody who really understands evolution flirts with eugenics, it's just a thin veneer of science spread over a lot of self-entitled classist or racist horseshit.

[jakematters]

I mean, call me cold-hearted if you want, but I'd rather see any deadbeat dad/mother made to have their reproductive organs removed than to see my taxes increased to subsidize their irresponsible behaviors..

[jakematters]

Eugenics practices by the Nazi party was arguably more about silencing race and political tendencies than inferior genetics. I'm not going to prevaricate about the bush.. Personal responsibility seems to be slipping away in modern America, and in that light, I do in fact support eugenics to a degree.

[pyrix]

@jakematters I liked Doug Stanhope's idea of "Incentive-based Eugenics" where we get undesirable people to castrate themselves by giving out white trash prizes n' stuff.

[imsuperhim]

@pyrix

"we get undesirable people to castrate themselves by giving out white trash prizes"

Well, what is Jackass and Backyard Wrestling?

[SockbatReplica]

That eugenics discussion was very fascinating.

[DavidLavery78]

Yeah, nice to hear Dawkins admit that eugenics could actually work. Too many people dismiss it as pseudo-science, no doubt because of the nazi connection.

[SockbatReplica]

Well it's wishthinking.. Regardless though I found the discussion to be interesting I don't know what it is about eugenics but the subject for some reason manages to capture my fascination. I especially enjoyed that little thing he said about the russians who were breading foxes that ended up coming out looking like Collie's. That part is cool.

[ytzuigt]

I've been saying the same for a long time, after researching it a few years ago. The Nazis definitely ruined eugenics for the 20th century, though in the 1930's you could say the epicentre of it was in the United States.

N.B.: the father of eugenics, Francis Galton, was Charles Darwin's cousin (Galton also did research about the occurence of genius in families...).

[CrossCreed4800]

@SockbatReplica My thoughts exactly on the 'taming of the fox' experiment