Reading of The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA2. Comment #5993 by Irate Harry on November 12, 2006 at 5:54 am
Three cheers to Richard Dawkins for suggesting betterment of Liberty 'students' But this might be wasted on them - Liberty is a neo-conservative christian body masquerading as a Universtity.3. Comment #6013 by Zaratustra on November 12, 2006 at 7:48 am
Yes, it is clear to us that Dawkins is not insulting any human being in this world, but insulting God who is not exist! So, the one who said that he/she is being insulted by Dawkins' lecture because Dawkins insulted God, is the one who thinks either he is delutioned of being God him/her/its-self, or he/she should go see psychiatrist because it is clear something wrong in his/her mind.4. Comment #6035 by Randy Ping on November 12, 2006 at 9:36 am
I find it absolutely confounding that the same type of people who can accept the evidence in a criminal case as scientific and verifiable enough to find a murderer guilty and sentance him to an execution would seek to overlook or dismiss much more empirical, much better and more strenuously tested evidence for Darwinistic evolution.8. Comment #6048 by Randy Ping on November 12, 2006 at 10:18 am
Well, Zaphod, You certainly conjured up an image of a giant slab of ribs as seen in the old Flinstones cartoons.9. Comment #6049 by Anonymous on November 12, 2006 at 10:19 am
I found Dawkins amusing in one sense, absurd in another and quite insinsre about his presentation of his "facts" from which he assures a firm foundation for his belief in Atheism. He stated that darwinian evolution and "change" must be viewed as a process that improves a system and not random change of no use. Poor little Richard played both ends of the table, in that evolution produces mutations which are haphazard and, to use his own words "mindless", and that this mindless or haphazrd process is the unified equation of usefull advantageous results?! Or, let's try your specialty, mindless mutations and haphazardness = intelligent and useful results? Really? Wow, that's some smart mud or it's a flim flam job. It lacks explatory power, I suspect you know it already. And to cite numerous dating processes such as carbon, and whatever others you had in mind, as a sort of accurate pillar( Time Machine?) for dating aged items is special pleading to the highest degree. Each dating procedure is based on at least three assumptions that are known to be totally opposite of what they claim. That's not bedrock evidence it's puff-n-stuff. Charles Lyell came up with dating the geologic culumn by pure imagination, carbon dating or any other, wansn't even heard of. But then dates are selectively chosen (only the dates that reflects charlie's imagination of course) all others are ardently rejected by evolutionists. dating (the wizard of Oz) is a bogy to get our wit off od charles' imagination the virtual lack of any meaningful support for it. Alas, I found your pitch to the young and imnpressionable weak. I heard a lot about your wit in science of course. You may take head of a fellow countryman of yours who said, "seeing through everything is to see nothing". there's no getting around first principles my dear boy. Though I suspect you already know that. To bewitch a youngster who has already been conditioned to your courageous view is no great feat, others have prepaired him. To simply show up, give him a pat on the back saying, "that's it you've got it" is for boys not men. perhaps you agree with Gould that the little love handles on the undercarraige of a snake are iseless leftovers, the old magical legs they once were? perhaps you agree with Heckael and his famous art work, or Huxley, oe Lyle? Perhaps you shall try to live out the philosophy Darwinism is drredged in to the fullest extent and prescribe survival of the fittest to Mankind, the very same way Hitler, the evolutionist did? In meantime I shall fight it with Vim and Vigour!11. Comment #6066 by Roy on November 12, 2006 at 11:45 am
That was wonderful, the best yet, The man is impossible to "trip-up".12. Comment #6067 by Louis Perry on November 12, 2006 at 11:46 am
With all due respect to Jerry in comment #5994, please, please, please make all future video offerings available in Quicktime. On Macs the videos downloadable as flash files don't download as usable on Macs (well, on mine anyway). The opportunity to hear Richard Dawkins via Quicktime is worth all the space I have left on my hard drive, and when I run out, I'll buy an external drive to keep filing the good Doctor away! P.S. In my experience, Quicktime quality is far superior to YouTube quality (with apologies to YouTube, which I love).13. Comment #6071 by Anat on November 12, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Anonymous wrote:15. Comment #6080 by Jonathan on November 12, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Yes, well done. Except he didn't actually answer the question, and I'm certain the one asking the question was thinking "dammit, more of the same." Bear with me now... we're talking about the question of how a religious person ought to go about proving his biblical prejudices right. In reply, Dawkins addresses the state of the art in the scientific dating of geologic time. In time, and not that we've got it all wrong, but perhaps we will have more reliably demonstrable methods of geological time than the theoretical decay rate of particles. But the bible will still be the same finished product, and this is the issue. How does a bible believer prove either that his interpretation of the scripture is wrong, or the scripture itself is wrong? (Or right?)17. Comment #6086 by B on November 12, 2006 at 1:24 pm
I was raised in the Evangelical community (which, in its defense, always regarded Falwell as being borderline loony), and like Charles White in his comments above, my chief feeling about staying in that community all the way through college is primarily one of embarrassment. He's dead on there.18. Comment #6094 by Mike on November 12, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I read the account of this event, then heard some (poor quality, but gripping) audio, and finally, the video is here!22. Comment #6123 by Randy Ping on November 12, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Yinka, nothing could be a indicative of ignorance and proud stupidity as your wretched excuse for typing.23. Comment #6127 by Cynthia on November 12, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Bravo! As an American who simply cringes at the superstitious idiocy that informs the thinking of so many of my countrymen, I was buoyed by your energetic and compelling defense of reason and atheism. Between you and Sam Harris, we might have a chance yet to wrest our nation back from the Luddites.24. Comment #6130 by David Williams on November 12, 2006 at 7:06 pm
After a belated viewing of Dawkins' speech in Lynchburg re The God Delusion, I looked at richarddawkins.net and the comments regarding the speech. I found Dawkins' comments in Lynchburg close to my own thoughts. The comments on the website troubled me (although they were not dissimilar to pro and con arguments on the existence of a god I have previously been privy to). The majority of those comments in favor of god and those in favor of athiesim were very angry in tone. I have come to expect pro god commentators to be very heated but I thought the athiests would be more rational. Gloating in Dawkins shooting down the undergraduate Liberty students does nothing to further the cause of a dialogue. Most religious believers live in fear of their god; their beliefs honed at their parents' and educators' knees; criticism and ridicule only hardens their resolve. To the extent that it is either necessary or proper to convince them of the wrong headed nature of their beliefs, it will not be accomplished by calling them stupid. As Dawkins alluded to in his Lynchburg address it is more appropriate to show that although athiests are not "god fearing" they are moralistic. That being said it is notable that the pro god comments were seemingly written by undereducated if not illiterate luddites. Their comments on the website and at the Lynchburg address do nothing to contradict Dawkins admonition to Liberty students to quit now and attend a real educational institution.25. Comment #6134 by rob on November 12, 2006 at 7:36 pm
"do not merely comment cos it'l only bring out ur low minded sense of reasoning. explain wat u mean and do so like ur making sense and not repeatin wat ur told but u dnt noe!"26. Comment #6135 by Greg100 on November 12, 2006 at 7:56 pm
After viewing the video, I come away disappointed that this very brilliant man is wasting his time with all these sophomoric responses to his book which is an obvious ploy to make money rather than contribute. I would far prefer that he spend his time working the problem of developing an ethical system based on secular foundations, teaching people how to contribute to the unification of humanity, developing scientific understandings of the pathologies of modern society such as terrorism and how to deal with them, promotion of the concepts associated with the role of the human species in the biosphere, etc etc. I prefer to see less "anti theism" and more of the positive objectives and projects of philosphical naturalism.27. Comment #6143 by Randy Ping on November 12, 2006 at 9:04 pm
The only appropriate response to the willfully ignorant is to rebuke them as harshly as they deserve. Playing nice hasn't worked for the last century adn a half. The circular logic and same old tired and defeated arguments that theist use deserves no respect. We should be radical. We should be confrontational, because there is nothing worthy of respect in the superstitionist arguments (and I am loathe to even dignify their non-sense based, laughable attempts at retort with the word 'argument').28. Comment #6153 by Tiffany on November 12, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Between Dawkins and Sam Harris, perhaps humankind will begin to blow all the holy smoke out of it's way and see the real light . I hope.29. Comment #6154 by Kingasaurus on November 12, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Nothing like a Dawkins speech broadcast on C-Span to bring the creationist wingnuts out to this website in droves.30. Comment #6155 by Badger on November 12, 2006 at 10:49 pm
I've posted the video on YouTube for all those poor souls frustrated by QuickTime. RealPlayer also works with .mov files these days, but here it is:31. Comment #6158 by Tiffany on November 12, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I am disappointed that there is no response to my theory of God and the need for parents. Come, come someone...I'm dying to know what people think of my idea.34. Comment #6175 by Basil on November 13, 2006 at 1:47 am
Yinka,36. Comment #6182 by Hipshot Percussion on November 13, 2006 at 2:50 am
I feel the need to respond to Comment #6143 by Randy Ping. While frustration with the willfully or innocently ignorant lead by the dishonest and deluded is understandable, your suggestion that we should hold the lot of them in contempt will be ineffective in defeating this monster. We need to win their hearts and minds, by showing them respect as fellow seekers after truth and teaching them what we know.38. Comment #6248 by Linkage on November 13, 2006 at 11:41 am
Professor Dawkins,39. Comment #6285 by Tatarize on November 13, 2006 at 1:30 pm
It is actually acceptable to allow people to download large files as via bittorrent and save your bandwidth. You should still have the static link, just also have other methods of download that aren't so draining.40. Comment #6322 by Tatarize on November 13, 2006 at 4:00 pm
The 23 feet answer is correct.42. Comment #6443 by Kingasaurus on November 14, 2006 at 9:28 am
Oh fer cryin' out loud...44. Comment #6607 by Kingasaurus on November 15, 2006 at 4:39 am
You forgot the fourth option, genius. "Legend."45. Comment #6680 by IANVS on November 15, 2006 at 10:30 am
Richard, you may find this useful.46. Comment #6945 by IANVS on November 16, 2006 at 9:05 am
The dearth of logic amid the posted attacks against believers argues that Richard Dawkins has no little task before him, even amongst the unshackled.48. Comment #7451 by Robert on November 18, 2006 at 2:53 pm
@Gary 114
1. Comment #5976 by Tim Walker on November 12, 2006 at 4:18 am
I met Richard Dawkins at the JREF TAM3. He never disappoints - his arguments and answers are always to the point, without waffle, and clearly understood.He is without doubt one of the best communicators alive today.