Does Personal Experience Prove God's Existence?

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Uploaded by on Jul 20, 2008

Richard Dawkins reads from his book the God Delusion on the subject of personal revelation and faith.

One of the cleverer and more mature of my undergraduate contemporaries, who was deeply religious, went camping in the Scottish isles. In the middle of the night he and his girlfriend were woken in their tent by the voice of the devil, Satan himself; there could be no possible doubt: the voice was in every sense diabolical. My friend would never forget this horrifying experience, and it was one of the factors that later drove him to be ordained. My youthful self was impressed by this story, and recounted it to a gathering of zoologists relaxing in the Rose and Crown Inn, Oxford. Two of them happened to be experienced ornithologists, and they roared with laughter. 'Manx Shearwater!' they shouted in delighted chorus. One of them added that the diabolical shrieks and cackles of this species have earned it, in various parts of the world and various languages, the local nickname 'Devil Bird'.

More on the Manx Shearwater:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_Shearwater

This video was disabled for several months by Warner Brothers as they fought Google over percentages of ad revenue on YouTube.

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Uploader Comments (thruthem)

  • ~ ~ ~ This video was disabled for several months by Warner Brothers as they fought Google over percentages of ad revenue on YouTube.

Top Comments

  • @pcmiler2000 Evolution does cut it for those who understand it and the universe is too big for your snaky-headed monkey god.

  • It takes faith to BELIEVE anything. But to see the overwhelming evidence that has been collected over the past 150 yrs regarding evolution and conclude that it is a simple eloquent explanation for the variety of life on this planet...

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  • Love this story... you know, If personal XP does prove god, then it would mean that christian god is real, Allah is real, Krishna, valhalla, zeus and all the fucking gods there are were real.... people of all religions have "personal experiences" and they all believe in different things.. :P :P who's to say who's right?

  • Answer to tital: No.

  • i've seen god and other mythological creatures ... but it was the mushrooms i got from my roommate

  • oh wow, it's Koyaanisqatsi playing in the background video..awesome film.

  • @pcmiler2000 All that says is you don't understand science. Read a book!

  • cool, is there an audiobook read by dawkins himself or is this just this one bit he's reading?

  • @oscaringoliling0

    No LSD necessary for your trip.

  • I have seen man and the majesty of the world. The worldly andperfectly obvious forces of the cosmos. I have felt the sensations of the great here and now. I have shared company with the humans. I've felt the unrelenting pain and suffering of illness. I've experienced it all...

  • @jamesrobertdobbs praying to "nothing".

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