Tribute to Richard Dawkins: We Are Going to Die

Richard Dawkins reads from his book 'Unweaving the Rainbow'

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Richard Dawkins]

:')

[steaksaretasty]

This is easily one of the best 4 minutes on all of youtube.

[kkevin369]

Sadly, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to live in another planet with complaisant properties if anything were to happen to earth.

[WildmanSamurai]

"Great speech hairy legs but it lacks a designer and a purpose "... This purpose you're looking for, you must create on your own, if you're lucky enough to survive long enough to do so.. Those are just the facts for our species, there isn't a designer at all. For me, knowing this makes everything I do that much more important. I make my own future, then when I die, I go back to the state before I was born. That's peaceful in my eyes.

[Rena Sania]

What else are you going to do?

[AzumiRM]

Absolutely beautiful.

[Daniel Ervin Balacanao]

LOL

[Ian Atkinson]

Stop sneering, Warren.  Just enjoy the sunset while it lasts. You're having your life - wanting another better one is greed, not morality. People can be moral in this world for the sake of family, friends, society and for the greater good of human kind, and the hope that humans will keep becoming so much more than they were in the past - a much nobler morality than one that's adhered to for reward, as if goodness, prosperity of human kind, peace and love wasn't reward enough.

[Tychoxi]

well, while largely true, I must say that each time I use a condom I'm dancing AGAINST my DNA!

[AATYKON]

I don't really know what you two are arguing about but I would like to point out that we do not have free will anyway as so many different stimuli affect our decisions our choices are not really our choices. Just thought I would add to the conversation :)

[Sammuel Nevarez]

After I watch these videos, I always fee like I am part of a cell; small.

[Daniel Ervin Balacanao]

yea yea I get it the planet is so beautiful.. how ironic though that ultimately it is arbitrary. the awareness granted upon us is nothing but instinct, as we can do nothing but "dance to our DNA."