Dawkins talks The Greatest Show on Earth

my next guest is a man known for his controversial juice he says for example that if you believe in God you may as well believe in fairies his latest book is about evolution which he calls not just the only game in town but also the greatest show on earth would you please welcome Richard Dawkins welcome to legend thank you another book another day another chat shot oh why did you write this one it's about the most just about the most important thing you could imagine a book being about it's about why we're all here why we exist why animals and plants just about everything we see exists that's the most riveting ly exciting subject could have been written any time I take it though you mean why write in mind now exactly less interesting question okay well I'll take the answer if you could make it interesting and appreciated well it is true that there is poll information which suggests that in the United States somewhat more than 40% of the population thinks that the entire world is less than 10,000 years old now that is a bizarre circumstance that the 40% of the population of the major industrial nation in the world should have a view which is so incredibly out of tune with reality and so that's one reason why is necessary first it's time to call a halt to such would they feel about say your writings do they think it's just that you're being unfair to them and that you have it wrong they think that everything in the book of Genesis is literally true and therefore if science contradicts the book of Genesis science must be wrong and Genesis must be right well what's your take on what actually happened visibly humans arriving here in the state we are in when when did that happen in in your when did humans arrive on yes in one day yes as we as we gang as we know well it was a gradual process it's a bit like saying when did a child become an adult young you know by convention we say it happened on the stroke of midnight on the 18th birthday but we know that actually it's a gradual process so there never was a moment when the first human was born the first human looked exactly like the last ape such as so but if you put a figure about a hundred thousand years that would be by about a hundred thousand years you'd be getting humans that were exactly like us as far as their and that to me is concerned probably not as far as their culture is concerned they didn't have painting and things like that and how different jewelry from other animals then broadly well we're hugely different from other animals in that we have language we have art we have mathematics philosophy we have all sorts of emotions that other animals probably don't have yes and what about the notion of God then where does God fit into all of this well God as I see it has rather little to do anymore I mean there was a time when when God had a lot to do in people's minds he made the world he made the made life made humans that's all out now we don't we don't need God anymore to explain anything and I think that pretty much means we don't need God at all yeah but who are we because like pretty much everyone Watchmen and many people watching the TV would think that watching us tonight would say well I don't belong to that we that God is very much in their thesis and no doubt it is and no doubt there are people who get plenty of consolation from the idea of God and know that there are people who think they talk to God and think God talks to them but that doesn't mean he's really there so where is he doesn't exist not in the slightest I would have thought might that the certainly no evidence that any kind of God exists now so what is the Vatican than what Toytown or yeah I mean a gigantic and very expensive and very rich waste of time there are many people watching tonight who will say that you know much of their lives have been lived based on a belief system that involves God very much being in existence and that this is what said they've you know lived their life based on what you say to them well that of course is true there are many people who think exactly that it doesn't mean they're right and your thoughts on their on their beliefs well they're misguided mistaken do you feel sorry for them yes why well because if people have really sincerely lived their lives under a delusion and feel that they needed it for support for living a full life if you suddenly pull it out from under them then they're naturally going to feel somewhat there so where does the notion of God come from them oh well I think it goes back a very long way I think it's partly comes from the desire to understand I mean we look around the world and we see what an incredibly elaborate complicated place it is we're used to the idea that complicated things must be made by something or someone and so it's very easy to see why the idea of God should have grown up and it took a very long time it took until the middle of the nineteenth century until people realize that there was another a better more economical explanation for all that do you see God as as believable as the Easter Bunny pretty much yes and would you equate them yeah pretty much I mean they're there it's that sounds facetious because of course nobody believes in the Easter Bunny but lots of people believe in God but if you actually examine the amount of evidence there is for either it's equally equally sparse see God fills a space for a lot of people in their lives as you as you probably know from talking to people who believe in God with spiritual soul and so on and and people who have religion and believe in God might feel that the road you travel is very lonely one not at all only I've got great friends and I have a wonderful life with the human companionship that's real warm human companionship it's really there that's not imaginary that's really there by the way this is nothing to do with the new book you're asking me questions about the previous book The God Delusion yeah I'm also asking questions that are interesting oh yeah to us yeah so that stuffs are not being smart about it just on the truth so what happens then as you see it when we die well some of us get buried and some of us get cremated and where do we go where do we go as you see it is that it game over gay game game over but the game while it lasts is pretty wonderful I mean what happens when we dies the same as before we were born I mean you know we didn't know anything about it when Henry the eighth was alive and we wouldn't know anything about it in 500 years time do you fear death I fear dying why because I'm not unlike my dog allowed to go to the vet and be painlessly put to sleep but because I belong to this privileged species Homo sapiens which is the only one that is not allowed to be painlessly put out of its misery okay I would like to die under a general anesthetic just as I'd like to have my appendix out under general anaesthetic have you have you had ever thought about it which is at risk being morbid about you and I'm up yeah have you thought about your own funeral yeah I have I mean I thought I might like to ask for the music you know the elephant march from Aida oh oh oh a very triumphal trumpets a trumpet music lay out quite a triumphant exit but why did you want a ceremony to see you off well I have organized ceremonies for clearly loved colleagues funeral ceremonies I've organized readings from their favorite poetry favorite music eulogies from friends who've knew and loved them I think it is an important I think humans do need ritual they do need rites of that sort and when somebody dies I think it's right to to give them a proper send-off some sort of a wake which remembers them and which makes you feel you've somehow fulfilled something okay I want to talk to a member of the Odyssey you know father Brendan parson mammoth the Vatican is Toytown God is the Easter Bunny and you as a priest supreme wasting her time well I don't I wouldn't exactly put it like that I'd said to go back to the things you a Richard was saying earlier on I wouldn't say I mean I have no problem with science when my mother left school at 16 and she read to the Argent species at breakfast I don't have you got free in the morning and she followed that by reading the Bible thing she'd never done her life so I think in Ireland we don't have the problem you mentioned in the state's my first year in the university we did book I'm sure your PCA John Maynard Smith theory of evolution that was taught by a priest in other words it isn't a problem in Ireland the very well the reason you vote no of that book because we never saw certainly I never felt there was any conflict between science our evolution and my belief at all whatsoever but I did I do feel there is I mean I've read a lot of your work and how I to say I still think my favorite book of yours is the ancestors tale I think is totally brilliant you do like what he writes if I might you talk like somebody writes more than orgy words what's your content so contention with what he writes the contagion I'd have would be at least of two or three of them that might give us the most obvious one would be science but I think I know I'm not trying to run right now you Richard I think he believes in science in a sense that he like he feels that science explains everything but I mean the one thing science doesn't explain the science itself I'm talking about the Natural Sciences including biology so I feel there really is a problem here because if you like the word science comes from a Latin word making knowledge and I think there's other forms of knowledge which are just as well grounded as the knowledge of the Natural Sciences so there are questions that are not asked by the Natural Sciences so I've always felt in a certain sense you shouldn't give answers to questions you haven't asked you might argue Richard Dawkins you might argue that that's with your theory and evolution so forth there's always there's evidence there's things to look at to point to what do you point to when it comes to God because of the good things about his book that he's mentioned there and I've seen the reviews I have no time to read them the good points about it part of it is written like a detective story of my right and there's clues and you're spotting the truths and I would say one of the obvious clues to the existence of God we're not talking about at the god of Christianity of the old house we talk about a god at the level of yo reason effectively the fact that you have a reality namely the Big Bang you have a question there that cannot be answered by physics our astronomy and if you read the big guys like Stephen Hawking's a famous guy I've seen them in sweet chair and soul but a book here over another guy way back in the seventies George Alice it's quite curious that we come to a singularity here similarities think we can't repeat it again again which is the start of everything which we cannot explain by physics our astronomy and it's that's that sign is such a jump in and say oh now we have a chance I think there's actually a question here the classic question Richard had been asked at many a time why is there something rather than nothing and biology is meant biology is that my equivalent biology isn't like if you like if I can make a parallel between our farmer and a supermarket the farmer produces the stuff the supermarket has selling is process to the biologist deals with the stuff as its presented it doesn't explain where the blinkin fruit came from hands up everyone of this audience who believes in God please hands nice and high please just give us that an idea okay what just what you call that Richard about what 50 60 70 percent I've saved more if anything 75 and I don't hands up those who do not believe in God at all which is a sprinkling which is quite interesting think of that I mean it's right yes I think you're being difficult at the result I would so all hands that went up the first time deluded well look why don't I just come back first you are not friendly person yeah yeah first I'm delighted you brought the subject back in a way to the topic of this book rather than the previous book which was which was The God Delusion now when you say that I believe in science and you know why do I believe in science really because it works in the evidence is there it's a kind of self validating process because as a result of science these television cameras work planes fly cars go day after day we see that that the evidence of our eyes is that science works now when you are asked about the evidence for God you use my analogy of the detective coming on the scene after the crime and you infer it from all the clues that are left lying around that's what I use to say how we know evolution has happened because we can't see it because it happened mostly before we were born but I don't actually think it's right to say that the world is littered with evidence for God I think when you look at it carefully it turns out this this particular detectives got it wrong the you think the evidence is there but I think if you look at it really carefully I mean before Darwin came along I mean you of course as any intelligent theologian would believe in evolution but before Darwin came along most people didn't now Darwin changed our minds on that and I suspect that we'll find that other people are going to come along and change our minds about the other alleged Clues that you think you've seen okay let's talk about just another element to the book I'd like to ask you about is the future for evolution where do we go from here what does the human go from here as you see it in evolution parentheses um well remember that when we are thinking about the future we're used to we're accustomed to about a historical time scale which is centuries you're not going to see much evolution in centuries so we got to look forward to say a couple of million years in order to give that question an interesting answer in a couple of million years the chances are we'll be extinct because most species do go extinct if we but on the other hand there is something rather special about the human species if any species could protect itself against going extinct the way the dinosaurs did it might be ours because we do have the technology to do that so let's suppose that we do manage to survive through ten million years what are we going to look like them nobody has the faintest idea but in order for any particular hypothesis to be true like you might say perhaps the brain will go on getting bigger in the dominant trend in the last three million years of our evolution is that the brain has swollen up from the size of a chimpanzees brain about three million years ago Lucy's brain was about the size of a chimpanzees brain - now is it going to be much bigger again in ten million years time well only if it's true that the cleverest or the brainiest anyway the individuals with the biggest brains are the ones who have the most children so is there any evidence that the people who have the most children are the brightest or the cleverest or the ones with the biggest brains I don't think so but it would have to be so in order for natural selection to favor the enlargement of the brain it must have been so during the last three million years otherwise brain size would not have increased the way it has since the time of Lucy three million years ago okay well thank you for coming to see us is very very much a dog is a book by the way is there it's the greatest show on earth

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Views: 114,436

Keywords: Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth, Charles Darwin, atheism, discussion, evolution, interview, religion, science, skeptic, talk show

Id: N64MIc9awSQ

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 29 2012