This two part series, which originally aired on Channel 4 back in January 2006, explores the beliefs that are treated as fact by many followers of religion and what Dawkins describes as the ‘process of non-thinking called faith’.
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Rating: 9.11/10 based on 90 votes cast.
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Such hate for faith. Fortunately climate change came along for people to have a faith in. That and government.
Religion is in fact the opium of the masses ( no pun intended ) Personally I do not worry about other peoples Faiths I believe there is good to be found in all Religions. Manipulation and Enforced Indoctrination is the Problem, This has Plagued the Human Race since its Inception. How ever on A Happy note I would like to say Good Luck to you All.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black…This delusional guy thinks he’s not arrogant. Thank You, Professor Dawkins, for being your true self; the narcisstic grin on this unbelievable preacher is deafening.
In the name of Epicurus I thank you Professor Dawkins for this extraordinary video.
Suppose there truly is a God, and that many folk believe that this God exists. This would lead to a total disaster of global scale. Believing in this God, sets them apart from him and thus provides his opponent, the Devil, with plenty of room to work within to deceive the whole world. Here is why……..
If you are directly connected to the truth, then you need not be dependent upon beliefs. If a person is not connected to the truth, and thus in turn is located at a distance from the truth, the person is therefore located within a zone of “less than truth”. Only when located within this zone of “less than truth”, may the person become dependent upon beliefs.
Now if the person proceeds to stick to his/her belief, this person has therefore chosen to be stuck within the zone of “less than truth”. This is an act of total madness. This placing of the value of “less than truth”, above the value of truth itself, is an insane act. It supports the occurrance of future disasters.
But most importantly, those folk who have chosen to be permanently glued to “less than truth”, and do so via “believing” in God and Jesus Christ, such people could not see the truth even if you rubbed their nose in it. Thus the God character, and the Jesus Christ character, would be rejected in an instant, if either was encountered directly, for it is the religious folk only accept less than truth, and thus they refuse to accept the truth itself.
Well I have met this guy in real life and he isn’t a very nice person , I do believe that his arguments though are quite smart however he lacks superior knowledge about religion as a believer myself I don’t like some of his statements but they make perfect sense. However some of the things he said in this video are wrong and can be applied to life without religion anyway so why say them. Humans can learn about life, this is our realm that we live in. We can’ learn about Death. So I would say that religion and science are at a stalemate. Because you can’t disprove something you don’t know e.g religion. This guy basically wants to live in a boring world of pure logic rather then a world where we can believe what we want. People shouldn’t be bias towards religion and science like some people in America however he (Richard) wants religion to be destroyed in a sense he is just like those people he wants to live in a world where science strives toward the end truth if that is possible, I agree I love science but living in a world of logic that is always changing is irrational however so is having faith. So I think we should believe in both because we need them to satisfy our natural quest for knowledge, having religious as a part truth and science and logic our tools for finding the end truth.
Student age 15
Ok Dawkins enough is enough, my judgment is not clouded by my faith at all by the fact that I believe in God, who died and made you all mighty you pretend to hold the truth but you don’t the fact that your a scientist from Oxford doesn’t gives you the right to judge your fellow human being, to me you suffer from Narcissism Big Time ! You made it a lifetime ”profession” to disproove God.
I’m a simple man of simple need’s -Live and let Live-
p.s. get a life because if you continue smelling gas pretty soon you will be choking on shyt
Sluyters Neil gerad•in a few seconds
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No creation and no god. 6000 years ago well a bit hard to argue with
Dendrochronology even a layman or blind freddy can understand this observable evidence going back 11000 to 12000 years.
The guy being interviewed around 13:00 is Ricky Gervais, right?
Of God did not create everything in 6 days, literaly, or civilization exist only 6,000 years then He is not God after all. if God create everything within 6 days, then He is indeed God. for Only God can do the 6 day creation and NOT US MAN, OR OTHER BEINGS, OR NATURE ITSELF.
No creation and no god. 6000 years ago well a bit hard to argue with
Dendrochronology even a layman can understand this observable evidence going back 11000 to 12000 years.
I love Richie D! I was indoctrinated from a young age to believe in baby jeebers and his magical sky-dad. It took so long for me to un-twist my brain from the insane paradigm of religeon. It is sooooooo refreshing to hear richard setting the record straight. It blows me away that in this day and age, so many people are willing to forfeit rational thought by ignoring the facts so they can cling to a fantasy (much like a sticky turd clings to a dogs arse). The bible is a badly written bunch of contradictory letters/notes by some of historys most delusional psychopaths. The real world that i live in is a marvelous place full of wonder and discovery (and all that stuff)! Lastly: if there is a hell, all the cool people will be there! Who wants to hang out with ned flanders and the rest of those boring harp playing retards in heaven. big love peeps!
david your an idiot
Reminds me of something Bill Conely once said…’religion has had 2000 years and its f**ked it …its over…overrrr’ enough is enough, you’ve all had your time, its finished. How long can we humans keep basing our whole life on a story book
Reminds me of something Bill Conely once said…’religion has had 2000 years and its f**ked it …its over…overrrr’ enough is enough, you’ve all had your time, its finished. How long can we humans keep basing our whole life on a story book
If you listen to religion and they belief 99.9% of the human race will go to the Paradise or whatever diffrent religion call the same spot.Isn it little bit crowded than with all of “angels” there , ha,ha,ha,ha
Hit in the head ….. cannot do better if I wanted to ….BRGDS
Mance…you and I are saying the same thing…different terms. You say NO possibility and I say the probability is so remote (although you CAN put a statistical probablility to it) that it will not happen…EVER. Likewise with the idea of any inanimate objects becoming living creatures. IF it is possible there certainly hasn’t been sufficient time in the Earth’s history for such to happen. Yes, evolution (micro-evolution) occurs with living creatures and is a proven fact. Yes, occurences with higher rates of improbability do occur. What if you won every lotto you ever entered (to the tune of hundreds a day) for the rest of your life and every car in front of you had the plate that you mentioned???? Those are the kinds of improbabilities I am talking about that do not happen.
Oliver…thank you for not being rude. And do not judge me (or my mental condition) by the posts here….and I will not judge you. As a child and through my adult life I did not attend church (still don’t). I wish I could impart to you all that has occured to me that has resulted in the world view I have now. Suffice it to say that I have attempted to test ALL things (i.e. don’t take anyone’s word for anything…do the research, crtical thinking, etc.) and cling to what is good. There are things that still bother me (your example of the amputee). And if they bother you to the same degree as they do me ask the question that underlies your concern (i.e. why does a loving God allow bad things to happen?). The answer is available. But hey…don’t take my word for it. Do the research yourself.
the statistical probability of finding any actual evidence to support any answer to your last question/statement is far less then the 50th power, wouldn’t you agree?
Not to be rude or anything david, but it seems to me that you have been brainwashed by your pastor/priest, family, the media, friends and the bible itself as a whole. I would really like to see the statistics on people growing up athiest as a child and then converting to become very religous as they grow to an adult; I bet the turn over would be very small. Compare that of a child growing up in a religous family – I believe the turnout would be much greater converting to a athiesm because its much more logical.
Another question that always sticks to me on this subject is that why can’t god heal amputees? no matter how much u pray, your legs will not “grow” back – the closest thing you will come will be prostetic legs or stem cell research that is backed by, you guessed it, science!
in that post about statistics, Im pretty sure you should just throw stats right out the window and that to me just disproves god even more
Read the next line…”Anything can have a probablility applied to it…..” and that clarifies that statement. You can put a probability to anything in the SCIENCE of statistics…even evolving laptops. We all know that such things will never happen just like inanimate chemical compounds turning into animate life (the laptop turning into an animate object) in 4 billion years or 4 trillion years or 4…well you get the picture. Again…anything is STATISTICALLY possible but only the most probable actually occur and that is my whole point. Thank you for your comment. I am glad I got to clear that up!
Your statement was: “It is statistically possible that my laptop will evolve into a living, breathing, reproducing creature someday. Anything can have a probability applied to it but only the most probable outcomes happen…”
This wholly misunderstands biology AND statistics.
1. There is NO possiblity that a laptop will evolve into a living organism. There is no mechanism for such an item, made of metal & plastics, to change into the essential constituents of living organisms (including carbohydrates, nucleic acids, proteins & lipids) let alone for them to perform the highly complex & self-sustaining bio-chemical reactions & processes such as self-replication.
2. Evolution occurs with living organism, and a laptop is not a living organism.
3. “.. only the most probable outcomes happen ..” No, improbable events do happen. For example: (i) people win the lotto and yet the probability is extremely small when a ticket is purchased, and (ii) driving back from work earlier today I noticed a car in front had the registration plate ‘RG8197’ … out of the millions of cars that I could be behind what were the odds it would be ‘RG8197’?
“It is statistically possible that my laptop will evolve into a living, breathing, reproducing creature someday.”
No it is not. For you to write such clearly shows what a foool you are.
Wow!! Yes, science is ignorant. Scientists in 3010 will consider our “science” the same as we consider the “science” that exsisted in 1010. And until science has reached the pinnacle of all knowledge then it is still ignorant. We are not as smart as we think we are…or want to be.
But if you wish to truly be scientific (and I do) then let me elaborate on what I said in my first post about the SCIENCE of statistics and the enormous improbability of this moment in time. Oliver, are you familiar with the chaos theory? Get familiar with it if not. Apply that to 15 billion years of cosmic “evolution” and you can easily see where there would be FAR more outcomes at this point in time more likely than the one we are currently experiencing. To say that “Yes but this is what happened” begs the question of HOW we beat the astronomical odds and more importantly WHY we are here and now! And my guess is that most of the statistically favored outcomes would be a mere fizzling out of the cosmos after a few billion years….when was the last time you saw an explosion (Big Bang) that left anything like this beautiful universe in its wake?????
Oliver, how old is the earth??? Four billion years I think. How long does it take to get animated life from inanimate lifeless compounds? Again, the SCIENCE of statistics is going to say much longer than 4 billion years. It is statistically possible that my laptop will evolve into a living, breathing, reproducing creature someday. Anything can have a probability applied to it but only the most probable outcomes happen….anything beyond normal probability Oliver is a MIRACLE!!!! And yes I agree, open your mind, ask question(s) and listen. You might hear what you are truly seeking. May God bless.
Yes.. science is ignorant. It’s the understanding of that ignorance that causes science to ask questions, and find answers (unlike religion). That pursuit has moved us from caves where we feared being eaten by tigers in our sleep, to the modern world. Religion provided nothing to the progress (and, in fact, set out to hamper progress every step of the way).
In 3010 the knowledge of our species will be much more vast, to the point that we looked like complete morons here in 2010. Yet, even in 3010 those scientists will acknowledge that they are ignorant about many things.. things we can’t even conceive of as existing at our current level of ignorance. And if religion is still around then, and rooted in the same absence of fact as current ideology, scientists then will still be wondering how our species survived with such destructive forces, willfully, worked against knowledge and fact.
Would you be surprised to know that many of the finest scientists in the world are Christians? Yes, that’s true. They’re not making a big statement about it, they’re just quietly doing their jobs. But they’re also praying and meeting with other scientists to pray and read the Bible.
There are some scientists, like Hawking, that get a lot of publicity. But there are many more, behind the scenes, that no one has ever heard of. These are the scientists that affect our daily lives the most.
I’m not going to elaborate more because well, I don’t want to, Some things are too close to my life to reveal on a forum like this.
You really have a limited understanding of scientists. They’re not cookie cutter professors with no interests outside of a lab. They’re not walking around claiming there is no God and demeaning others for their faith or lack of it.
You never know when the guy greeting people at church is the same guy working for the government on things so classified even their own families are not told. Open your mind to the possibility that many many scientists believe in God, I would say more believe then don’t, but given the nature of their work they go about their days quietly doing their job. The spotlight is not for them.
Let me put it another way: Steven Hawking ain’t all that! Seriously, he’s a man with flawed judgement and flawed character just like any other man on this planet. And like every other man on this planet he will die someday. All things that are secrets now will someday be revealed.
Even Steven Hawkings will learn that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
I won’t answer any questions about this post. Read it, take it or leave it.
Did you really just start off by saying how ignorant science is? That has to be the biggest load of bullshit ever.
Science is actually quite opposite of that. They never claim they are right, they work together to find the most logical answer possible. They have evidence upon evidence backing their findings. Thinking logically is exactly what people need to do. Its really that easy.
IMHO, I think people that believe deeply in the bible feel that they, or their families, devoated so much time and energy to one subject that they can’t let go of the connection they have created with this 2000 year old script. I totally understand why the feel so pationate about something that has no evidence. When people are told something from a very young age that something is true, there going to believe it no questions asked. As they grow up, they start to think that this fairytale is reality.
We had religon years ago because there was no way to prove anything scientifically. Now we can, and people say “ITS JUST A THEORY!!!! IT CAN’T BE RIGHT!!!!” Well what the hell can you do then? Some of the smartest people in the world have been working with science to formulate how we got here. I think they are doing an amazing job and I give credit to every single one of them. I ‘ve seen that no matter how much evidence you throw at someone that is very religous, they throw all logical thinking out the window and there is nothing you can say to convince them othewise. How do you argue a point to a brick wall? Athiest get proven wrong all the time, and thats the beauty of science and that is how we are advancing so rapidly.
open your mind, ask question, and listen
Good summary David
What most men of science quickly forget is how ignorant scioence was and still is.
Imagine if you will that Einstein chose to keep one of his discoveries a secret…that time is not a constant. We all know now that this is a proven fact..your time, relative to others depends on how fast you are moving compared to others.
What an absolutely crazy idea this would be if presented without the proof of mathemeatics..and later proven. Prior to Einstein, scientist, would defend Newtonian math etc and use it against creationist. More recently they use what they think is a higher level of knowledge to do the same.
Today we find that reality is not so real, quarks, string theory, dark matter, multiple dimensions, the face that a subatomic levels experimental resultes change depending if you are looking!!!!!!……we know nothing, especially if God exists.
Ar the core of an atheist is a subconscious horrific fear…..the loss of their god…themselves
After viewing both parts of Mr. Dawkin’s doucumentary I can say for a man of the scientific mindset he has woefully little real knowledge of the actual Judeo-Christian religion. One would think that a man of science would examine all facts about religion, evaluate them and come to a conclusion. He has apparently cherry picked what he sees as wrong with religion (and I agree with his opinion on much of it…for example killing in the name of God) and found enough people, like himself, ignorant of the true meaning of God and religion to showcase to prove his biased, unempirical views. He does not understand religion and most of those he interviewed were equally ignorant of true Christianity. If the blind lead the blind both will fall in a ditch!
In addition at the very end of part two he touches on the exact reason I cannot believe that this universe exsists without a Creator…and it is a scientific principle that proves to me there must be such a Being. Mr. Dawkins points out that statistically we are truly lucky to exsist as individual sentient beings in the first place and in effect we should enjoy our brief life to the fullest. Indeed he is correct….for the possibility of this universe, this galaxy, this solar system, this inhabited planet, this species of intelligent life to exsist (us) after 15 billion years from the big bang (creation) defies all STATISTICAL ODDS (statistics being a scientific endeavor). Statisticians will tell you that anything over 1 in 10 to the 50th power of probability is NOT going to happen. The fact that after 15 billion years in an ever changing universe we do exsist and Mr. Dawkins exsists to make his documentary requires a probability factor WAY beyond the 50th power. There are countless results far more likely after such a time span than the one we have now. By all scientific rights we should not even be at this place and time in the universe….and yet we are against impossible odds. How???? I urge all to do as Mr. Dawkins professes he does…that is examine the facts and decide for yourselves….Creation or pure chance????
Actually, given the time of our existence in the grand scheme of the life of the planet.. and given the number of stars in just our Galaxy.. there have likely been thousands of sentient species that have existed and gone extinct over the past several billion years.
Pretending like our being here now, with all the things that had to go “right”, is some how a “miracle” is to ignore the mechanics along with all the random actions across billions upon billions of stars over billions of years. We’re not a miracle, we’re much less significant than you care to admit.
Up to 100,000 years ago (or so), there were two distinct human species on THIS planet. And that’s just over the past few hundred million years. If something huge smashes into this planet and turns the entire surface into molten lakes of rock, we might all be back here again in 3 or 4 billion years. No god required.
Face it. You’re not really special. Your existence really isn’t all that unique. We’re just too young and too ignorant (as a species) to have found the evidence we need to see that there have been 10s of thousands of sentient beings across the Universe.
Read the book mate.