‘My Hero.’ Richard Dawkins on Charles Darwin Interviewed by Paula Kirby Filmed at Cheltenham Science Festival, 4 June 2008 Richard Dawkins is one of Britain’s foremost scientists. A zoologist and fellow of New College, Oxford, he now holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science. He is the author of best selling books including The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype and most recently The God Delusion. He has presented television documentaries for Channel 4 including The Root of All Evil? and The Enemies of Reason. He is well known for his atheism and his forthright criticism of religious doctrine. In the forthcoming Channel 4 series Dawkins on Darwin he argues that Darwinism provides a more thrilling view of creation than any religion. The following clips were filmed in front of a live audience at Cheltenham Science Festival. Richard Dawkins provides a gripping insight into Darwin’s theory of evolution and all that it implies. Dawkins describes How neodarwinism explains the natural selection at molecular level by genetics and genes. Any animal is an survival machine ensuring its own genes are passed on the next generation- SELFISH GENE
January 18th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Because we can observe the propagation of knowledge and how it works now… anything past that isnt science, if you cant start here and work your way back undergoing a logical process the theory is flawed! It then becomes a philosophical matter. You are starting with a godless universe and working to the present. There is an obvious logical flaw in this! Known knowledge is growing, knowledge its self is a constant.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Well maybe, but that doesn’t mean I can’t predict what may be possible in generations to come. Sure it isn’t science, but you can’t disprove a prediction. Also, you’re forgetting that organic chemistry certainly isn’t philosophy. I think one needs to know a lot more about certain atoms to predict that something will or will not happen on its own if it has millions of years to happen.
I can’t seem to understand where my logical flaw is. Please go into more detail?
January 18th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
If given room to begin from the beginning I can say… I created the universe 5 minutes ago and everything you know, see, and think was implanted by me. There is no way to disprove that. However if you start here and look at how matter, knowledge, and though are propagated then we can deduce that I am absurd! You are right I predictions cannot be proven wrong except by themselves.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I am glad you know mutation is based in chemistry. With that understanding, or that of the nature of chemistry, you know mutations are not random but incalculable.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I just think that any evidence given to us hinting at why the universe is the way it is (like how the universe is expanding from a certain point) absolutely disproves creationism and should not be passed off as simply a “test” of one’s faith. Explain why I was being illogical yet this strange phenomena makes sense?
January 19th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Everything is moving away from everything. The universe isnt expanding from one point but all points. Whether there is an epicenter… I dont know. The Big Bang was originally a creationist theory. In no way does it disprove Gods existence, nor is it a test it coincides with the Bible.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Yes, space itself is expanding while everything within it also expands from a specific epicenter. While all this happens, though, local galaxy groups are being forced together by the gravity imparted by dark and visible matter. so as the Milky Way and its three neighbors are combining we are moving quickly away from everything else. I don’t think you can say that since the theory in no way mentions religion. You can believe in both, but I wouldn’t say it came from any group’s religious views.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I dont know of any part of the universe that is moving closer together. This is news to me… please, cite a source. The Big Bang is the theory a catholic priest came up with
January 21st, 2010 at 2:19 pm
youtube will let me post anything but my respose. wtf??
January 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
@VindicatedVigilante
Yes, it’s a fact that we are in a galaxy group.. and many even believe the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way (or rather combine since galaxies are mostly empty space so collisions are rare) in ~4.5 million years, which is within the lifetime of the Sun. I know this because I took an astronomy: stars, galaxies, and cosmology course at a university
search Andrameda Milky Way collision and I’m sure you’ll find a bunch about it. it wont let me post a link
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:07 am
@VindicatedVigilante
Well at least my prediction was right and that piano didn’t land on your head while you were praying for me to find “BuddahJesus”!
And I am happy to report I am still a hethan by any conventional accounts. And No the school bus full of christian children on christmas eve did not run me over. So we can conclude that we can accurately predict the measure of prayer.
Prayer = wishful thinking at best and Bullshit at its worst.
January 29th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
“I’m an atheist with respect to the Judeo-Christian God, because there is not a shred of EVIDENCE in favor of the Judeo-Christian God.”
~ Richard Dawkins
…Dawkins, that’s because you have not visited my channel.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:54 am
It’s amazing that in 2010 we still have to explain that 1.God doesn’t exist and 2.Creation is only a mythological tale used to explain the origin of the world to primitive people and to make people afraid so the church could control, manipulate and exploit ignorant people..like they still do!
February 16th, 2010 at 9:07 am
religion will always be around, long after we’re gone, as long as humans are allowed to think for themselves
February 16th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Why the are you all arguing, get on with your lifes and you will find out if there is a God or not soon.
Who created teh PC and the watch, who created the earth and the sun. All things have a creator, nothing comes from NOTHINGNESS. Stop fooling yourselfs. Dawkins is a sad man and science is like a baby trying to prove there is no God; it knows nothing. We dont even have a cure for some of the most human illnesses ect, who the hell can it begin to disprove GOD.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
no one will “find out” anything when they die, retard. all their brains will be rotting, incapable of finding out anything ever again. and it appears you have a head start
the “pc and the watch” were created by men. men also created god
the earth was created by the sun and the sun was created by a molecular cloud. there is no such thing as “nothingness”. but why would a retard like you know anything about basic science?
there is no god, you worthless, uneducated pussy
February 16th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
you’re right – stupidity like yours will always be around
February 16th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
the bible was written by idiots to control even bigger idiots – like you for example
there is no god, you worthless, uneducated little pussy
February 16th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
@bettyloutumor
why? religion will always be a product of the human imagination
February 17th, 2010 at 5:43 am
@sammygee17 your premise is completely irrational and delusional! First if humans are gone, everything that we have imagined (like religion) will be gone. All the myths will be irrelevant as they won’t be followed by no one! That is why religion is bad, because stop people from thinking with reason and make them believe that “we” humans are even not necessary for something as ridiculous as religion to keep existing….religion is an auto-destructive doctrine, where the ultimate goal is to die!
February 17th, 2010 at 5:54 am
@lewisag1 unlike religion, Dawkins and other scientist are humble enough to say..”We don’t know!…but we’re working in finding an answer..” Religion says that it knows the answers before we started to understand our world and the universe, and that is a dangerous statement as it sends the messege.”don’t think..we have all the answers”, but religion only tells you that if you are a good sheep you will have a place in heaven, so you have to obey and be a slave to others in order to reach heaven!
February 17th, 2010 at 11:33 am
if you people cared to actually read my comments properly, you wouldn’t make false assumptions about me like you have. No i am not religious, i am an atheist. I was merely saying that while humans have the ability to conjure up explanations of physical phenomena for themselves, religion will always exist. Even with the multitude of evidence suggesting a natural universe without the need of a creator, humans will always continue to believe in god, whether it be out of hope, desperation, etc.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
@lewisag1 @lewisag1 There is no ”nothingness”.No ”nothing has been identified as of yet.
February 21st, 2010 at 1:06 am
I believe there are no Gods. I am a man of science. But for the sake of holding your argument, and for the sake of decency, don’t insult someone just because they have differing opinions. Pfft.
February 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
go suck your dad’s flaccid wiener, loser.