Posts tagged: richard dawkins
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones
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 Arabia. 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. – Richard Dawkins
The Genius of Charles Darwin by Richard Dawkins
Another excellent documentary by Richard Dawkins on the elegant simplicity of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Within just the first 10 minutes, Dawkins creates an excellent metaphor for the body of evidence supporting evolution.
Nobody’s actually seen evolution take place over a long period but they’ve seen the after-effects and the after-effects are massively supported. Its like a case in a court of law where nobody can actually stand up and say, “I saw the murder happen.” But yet you’ve got millions and millions of pieces of evidence which no reasonable person could possibly dispute.
Worth Mentioning This Week
Incredibly busy this week and loads of surprise complications, so blogging will continue to be slow for a bit. However, I’m leaving you with a few stories I’ve found interesting ove the last week.
- The LA times have an interesting article on the Jefferson Bible and our founding father’s views on religion.
- LOST executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have created the Lost Book Club to share books that have inspired, tie in with, or appear on the TV show.
- Richard Dawkins and John Lennox discuss the scientific evidence for God in an informal sit down.
- The British Board of Film Censors have approved Passio, a pornographic film featuring a homosexual Jesus.
- Some atheists want to battle the religious majority by raising money to buy bus ads.
And when you’re done reading those, watch this…
I’m A Six On The Dawkins Scale
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins created a scale of points along the spectrum of humanity’s belief in God. The scale ranges from 1 (total belief in God) to 7 (total non-belief) with 4 being exactly 50/50.
I put myself in category 6 along with most of the atheists I know. I find it amusing how many people include themselves in category 1 with absolutely zero skepticism. They KNOW! Give me a break. It’s very difficult to know anything when it comes to really complex things. We can be 99% sure – like really, really positively sure about things, like gravity, but there’s always the chance we’ll discover something new. That’s the beauty of science. It’s assimilating new data as it comes in instead of relying on an ancient book written in the first century.
I liked Dawkins’ scale and wanted to do a little more than just write about it, so I created a set of 14 images (7 for light backgrounds and 7 for dark) that you can download and put on your blog to show where you stand on the scale. Some of the text on the images differs slightly from Dawkins’ but, I think, maintain the meaning. If you edit or improve the images, let me know in the comments and I may update the whole set.
Dawkins Responds To Misguided Jew
The coming aftermath of Ben Stein’s disgusting excuse for a documentary Expelled is shown crystal clear in the form of a letter received by Michael Shermer sent by an angry Jewish filmgoer.
Now I truly understand who you atheists and darwinists really are! You people believe that it was okay for my great-grandparents to die in the Holocaust! How disgusting. Your past article about the Holocaust was just window dressing. We Jews will fight to keep people like you out of the United States!
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins felt compelled to respond to the Jewish individual in an open letter in hopes of clearing up his misguided anger towards scientists and atheists. Anger created by the misinformation portrayed in Ben Stein’s Expelled film that incorrectly links Darwin to Hitler.
Things began to make sense once I saw the movie and I am just appalled. I have learned a lot from Ben Stein, a Jewish brother, who has opened my eyes up a bit.
I fear there are more ‘Jewish brothers’ out there who have been twisted by Stein’s film into thinking the same way. Make it a point to show these twisted minds the light.
Via: Richard Dawkins
The Fact Of Evolution
Creationists love to blather on about how evolution is just a theory. It’s a great little sound byte that crops up almost everywhere evolution is doubted, tainted or otherwise misunderstood. The problem is how it undermines and misrepresents the meaning of a scientific theory, a testable (and well tested) explanation of the facts that also makes specific falsifiable scientific predictions.
In truth, evolution is both a fact and a theory. Let me explain this using gravity as an example.
There is the observable fact we call ‘gravity’ – Things fall when you drop them. Then we have an ever-changing theory of gravity we use to explain those observed facts. Our current theory started with Newton and was later added to by Einstein. Regardless of what theory we use or where that theory stands, it doesn’t change the fact that things fall when you drop them.
Now let’s change ‘gravity’ to ‘evolution’.
There is the observable fact we call ‘evolution’ – Species evolve over time. Then we have an ever-changing theory of evolution we use to explain those observed facts. Our current theory started with Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection and has since been added to and changed by thousands of scientists over the years. Regardless of what theory we use or where that theory stands, it doesn’t change the fact that species evolve over time.
This is one of the reasons I loved it when Carl Sagan noted in his Cosmos series, “Evolution is a fact. It really happened.” Evolution did really happen. Species evolved over time. It’s observable. It’s a fact. And the best theory we have to date to explain these observed facts is evolution by natural selection.
Micro-evolution vs. Macro-evolution.
Now, a lot of creationists like to meet halfway by saying they accept micro-evolution but not macro-evolution. I don’t differentiate between the two, but just to explain – Micro-evolution is used when talking about small changes within a single species. Macro-evolution is used when talking about a single species becoming two separate species. In truth, there is only one kind of evolution. Accepting micro-evolution but not macro-evolution (indeed, even acknowledging a difference between the two) is usually employed as a method for religious people to make room for God in their otherwise purely scientific and reasonable view of nature. This is the God of the Gaps dilemma many religious people face. As evidence from various areas of science fills in the remaining gaps, God (or the need for a god) gets smaller and smaller until there are no gaps left for him to inhabit.
This is when many religious people fall back on what Stephen Jay Gould called NOMA or Non-Overlapping Magisterium that says;
The net, or magisterium, of science covers the empirical realm: what is the universe made of (fact) and why does it work this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning and moral value. These two magesteria do not overlap…
As Richard Dawkins points out in his book The God Delusion, “This sounds terrific – right up until you give it a moment’s thought.” After all, by what means does religion gain insight into life’s ultimate meanings and moral values? But that’s a question for another post.
Recommended Reading:
An Evolution Primer for Creationists by Skeptoid
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The Big Question – Why Are We Here?
It’s been almost two years since I first stumbled upon this video that introduced me to Richard Dawkins and his wonderful, humorous way of telling it like it is. I just stumbled across it once again and thought I should share it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8572351836469636547
If You Say Something Positive
You see, if you say something positive like the whole of life – all living things- is descended from a single common ancestor which lived about 4,000 million years ago and that we are all cousins, well that is an exceedingly important and true thing to say and that is what I want to say. Somebody who is religious sees that as threatening and so I am represented as attacking religion, and I am forced into responding to their reaction. But you do not have to see my main purpose as attacking religion. Certainly I see the scientific view of the world as incompatible with religion, but that is not what is interesting about it. It is also incompatible with magic, but that also is not worth stressing. What is interesting about the scientific world view is that it is true, inspiring, remarkable and that it unites a whole lot of phenomena under a single heading. And that is what is so exciting for me. – Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins – Beware The Believers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaGgpGLxLQw
No, I did not create this video (as someone posted in the Pharyngula comments) … It was created by RandomSlice Michael Edmondson on behalf of the Expelled filmmakers.
UPDATE: Simon Owens has a brief interview with Edmondson on the artist’s intentions behind the short viral video and its sequel.
