A conversation with Richard Dawkins (5/12)

Richard Dawkins and Paula Kirby sit down for a 40 minute conversation at Eden Court Theater. There, they talk about evolution, religion and the importance of science. This is followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Credit:
UHI Millenium Institute
April 2 2008
http://www.library.uhi.ac.uk/dawkins/

For other material like this, please visit Richarddawkins.net:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Richard
• Dawkins
• Paula
• Kirby
• Atheism
• Evolution
• Religion
• Christianity
• Islam
• God
• Delusion
• Atheist
• Science

[jiffin8687]

Even without the fossil record which is immense proof of evolution, there would still be enough evidence to show that evolution is fact. Evolution is everywhere and if you just opened your eyes you could see it. Its in flowers, insects, mammals, bacteria and every other living organism. Things are constantly adapting. You're wrong, period! :-)

[jiffin8687]

If the chance of life forming on a planet is 1 in a billion (arbitrary large number) the statistical probability of life occuring in the universe is as close as can be to certain because there are a billion billion planets out there (figure from the god delusion).

As a species we can think how amazingly lucky we are to exist given the odds of 1 in a billion, but it had to happen somewhere. The fact we exist is not proof of a creator just like the uniqueness of events is not proof of anything.

[WiggyWittgenstein]

@TheBlackLagooner

As are you.

[WiggyWittgenstein]

Get that man some honey and lemon!

I like Paula Kirby. She's an intelligent and good-humoured woman, and sounds like Sue Panda.

[martinbondesson]

I think Paula has the hots for Dawkins! And rightfully so, he's a very intriguing, intelligent and kind man :)

[72dew]

@sam8110 probably not, but they probably have clicked on this video just to press dislike

[sam8110]

What an extraordinary man. I feel i can learn a lot from him. I have been an athiest proud since i was 13 and my pet died young. The sheer pain i felt was incredible and i knew instantly there was no god. The more i looked into it and the older i got the more laughable the whole thing became. I now am 23 and an anti-thiest. I wish we could give Dawkins a huge platform for the world to listen.

[sam8110]

has any creationist watched this and thought otherwise on their beliefs?

[Tapiola2007]

@jiffin8687 Correct! Every single discipline that has ever been brought to bear on the question of why does nature look and work the way it does has come to exactly the same conclusion: it can only have happened the way it did because of a long process of evolution. Any other explanation that doesn't include evolution and a proper geological time scale is just infantile. Of course, evolution doesn't disprove god but it certainly puts a huge burden of proof on those who advocate god.

[GodTheHypothesis]

@jiffin8687

I think you mean a billion billion stars! We still don't know how many planets there are- I think they've only counted about 600. I think most scientists do assume there will be billions, they're just a bit harder to see than stars!