Dawkins: Lecture 3. Climbing Mount Improbable ( 2 of 8 )

Richard Dawkins
Royal Institute of Christmas Lectures
Climbing Mount Improbable
1991

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[AtheistDiscGolfer]

I live in Wisconsin which is a liberal state and I didn't even hear the word evolution throughout my schooling. Its sad but ive learned more by myself in the last 5 years than any US school has to offer.

[Sum1n0tu]

Adult creationists descend from child creationists, who are largely brainwashed by people they love in their youth. Love creates a strong emotional bond--to say that a loved one has lied to you creates anger, especially when that loved one believes they are telling the truth. A sense of camaraderie and family can be threatened by disagreeing with strongly held values, and many if not most are loathe to do so.

[justforflag2]

@DrMontague

True, true.

[DrMontague]

@justforflag2 That is correct. There are many gentle paths leading up mount improbable. One path can look as equally inviting as the other. However once you embark up a particular path you cannot go back down and choose another path. This is the reason a spider could not evolve into a human as it would have to come back down and choose another path. This is the reason we have such a diversity of life on the planet.

[justforflag2]

@DrMontague

Oh, thanks.

What I meant is that there is no way to reach the top since adaptation is always in regards to the environment, thus no absolute goal for evolution.

[DrMontague]

@justforflag2 It is called mount improbable because if you were to stand facing the sheer face of the mountain (which is say a mile high) and you saw an animal standing on top of the mountain, you would think to yourself hat it couldn't have jumped up that distance in one leap, as it would be impossible for it to do so, therefore a supernatural force must have put it there. However if we see the mountain from the back we see it has climbed up gentle slopes to reach the top. Slow evolution

[justforflag2]

There is NO creature at the top of the mount, that's why it's called mountain improbable.

[monkeywage]

It really depends on what you define as "perfect being", doesn't it?

[mistershithead]

walking away/towards the perfect beings is a metaphor for incorporating technology with nature itself (nano) instead of mining nature away from itself with toxic remainders. In short, time to quit being destroyers and start being healers.

[mistershithead]

So far humanity has been progressing in power/height but AWAY from the perfect being at the top of the mountain. I think we're now finally reaching the point where we're ready to turn TOWARDS the perfect being on the top in progression of the rest of our civilization's climb to the top.

[DrMontague]

He says something like evolution has know way of knowing what lies ahead, one path looks as equally as inviting to go down as another. It has no goal it is trying to reach. In other words ancestors of the spider wouldn't consciously think I want to go down that path because I only want to have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes etc.

[ctvwr]

Does he get into it later?

I don't think many people at all understand. People seem to tend to think teleologically.