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Hitchiest liked a video
(2 days ago)
mp3: http://bit.ly/xqVD4J - A musical celebration of the wonders of biol...
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mp3: http://bit.ly/xqVD4J - A musical celebration of the wonders of biology, including evolution, natural selection, DNA, and more. Featuring David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye. "The Greatest Show on Earth" is the 13th video in the Symphony of Science music videos series. Materials used in this video are from:
Richard Dawkins' "There is grandeur in this view of life" speech
BBC Life
BBC Planet Earth
David Attenborough's First Life
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
Bill Nye Evolution episode
Visit http://symphonyof... for more videos!
If you enjoyed the video, consider checking out Dawkins' book of the same name, The Greatest Show On Earth, as well as the other mentioned source materials. Special thanks to everybody who's donated to keep the project alive and to those who helped track down the materials used in this video.
Lyrics:
[David Attenborough]
How could one species turn into another?
[Richard Dawkins]
How is it that we find ourselves surrounded by such complexity, such elegance?
[Bill Nye]
The genes of you and me
They're all made of DNA
We're all made of the same chemicals
DNA - we're all made of DNA
[Attenborough]
Only the fittest survive
And that is the key
Natural Selection
That is the key
[Dawkins]
We are surrounded by endless forms
Most beautiful, most wonderful
Evolution - the greatest show on Earth
There is grandeur in this view of life
Evolution - the greatest show on Earth
[Attenborough]
The history of life can be thought of
As a many branched tree
The five kingdoms of life
were established early on
Bacteria
Protists- amoeba like creatures
Fungi
Plants
And animals
[Dawkins]
We find ourselves perched on one tiny twig
In the midst of a blossoming tree of life
[refrain]
We are surrounded by millions of other species
Walking, flying, burrowing, stalking, chasing, fleeing,
Outpacing
[Attenborough]
Animals strive to reach this one ultimate goal
To ensure the survival of the next generation
This one ultimate goal
To pass on their genes
That is what life is all about
[refrain]
[Dawkins]
As we look back on the history of life
We see a picture of never ending,
ever rejuvinating novelty
[Attenborough]
Those animals may seem to us to be very remote,
strange, even fantastic
But all of us alive today
Owe our very existence to them
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Hitchiest favorited a video
(1 week ago)
This is a video response to all those people who claim that the bible is...
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This is a video response to all those people who claim that the bible is free of contradictions. Ummm - it isn't. I've looked.
How NOT to respond to this movie:
a) By assuming that I have not looked into these contradictions with any level of depth and accusing me of not having tried to understand any kind of "deeper meaning". Wherever possible, I consulted christians' explanations of what they like to refer to as "so-called contradictions" and errors. I've looked at the explanations. I've given them a good go. They're just shit.
b) By saying that these aren't errors at all, rather, that they are simply copyist's errors. Uh- derr. A copyist's error is an error. I don't care what kind of error it is, just don't make the claim that the bible is completely free of errors, except for the cases in which there are errors, which are only copyist's errors only, which aren't really errors. Knock it off. I'm talking about the actual words on the actual page of the bible. When they don't add up, - that's called a contradiction or an error.
c) If you agree with me that English translations of the bible contain errors, but you think that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are pure and therefore true - DON'T tell me this and then go on to criticise me and other skeptics for pointing out that the English translations contain errors! You've just said that you agree with me, that there are errors on the pages of the bibles that your god saw fit to let get corrupted in the first place, just in time for the arrival on the planet of more people than ever before - who all apparently need to be saved by coming to trust the bible and heeding the message contained within it!
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. That which can be asserted without evidence can be discarded without evidence.
I know, and actually find to have some weight, the New Testament apologists' conundrum - namely that if all of the gospel accounts really did match exactly, then critics of the bible would instantly accuse the authors of having conspired together. So, if there are inconsistencies it counts against the bible, and if there were no inconsistencies, it would still count against the bible.
Well - tough. The creator of the universe could have done a lot better. The only reasonable conclusion to come to is that the creative force that arranged the constants of the universe, gave birth to galaxy clusters, quantum physics and DNA, invented love, knowledge and truth, and is capable of any miracle he could ever come up with- had fuck all to do with this raggedy old contradictory book of bullshit.
Whenever I make a movie about what the bible says, I'm talking about the actual words that are printed on the pages of the bible. Funny how I always get criticised for doing so, by people who agree that modern translations or English translations are inadequate and erroneous.
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I was very selective when deciding whether to include each contradiction in the script. Many that were listed on the lists and websites appeared to me to be either non-contradictory, easily explained, or simply too petty to really count significantly against the claim of biblical inerrancy. I drew heavily on skepticsannotatedbible.com , which actually has links to christian responses to each of the contradictions it lists, where one has been put forward. I read almost all of them and if the explanation sounded like a bunch of bollocks to me, then I dismissed the explanation and included the contradiction in the script. One of the criteria I used to ascertain whether I thought the explanation was good enough, was whether I thought a christian would accept a similar explanation for a contradiction in any other religions holy book, such as the Qaran or Book of Mormon.
For example:
LookingUntoJesus.net has this pathetic explanation for one of the contradictions:
"The text which is called into question is Luke 2:2. If Jesus was born in the days of Herod (who presumably died in 4 BC), then how could Quirinius be governing Syria (who presumably began his reign in 6 AD)?
The trouble is in the English translation of the text, not in the text itself. Keep in mind that the New Testament was written in Greek, not English. Since the translators were not inspired, there is the potential for erroneous translations". (LookingUntoJesus.net)
I was inspired to make this movie when I read the first few chapters of Mark Tier's book "When God Speaks For Himself - The Words of God You'll NEVER hear in Church or Sunday School", which he generously gave me a copy of at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne. Thanks Mark!
This movie took weeks and weeks and weeks of train trips to complete. I have a 30 minute train ride each way - that's my excuse, anyway! Some days I wish I had an hour each way. or two. This was a very very fun one to make.
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