Spreading the Seed

October 2, 2007 By Guest Contributor 14 Comments

Ashley had a chance to ask Richard Dawkins a question at the Atheist Alliance International convention. He was signing her copy of The Selfish Gene at the time.

It’s slightly hard to understand in the video below, but here is what she says to him:

You mentioned that the male species tries to spread their genes to as many people as possible.

I was wondering why you haven’t started to do that.

Because we could use more little Dawkins.

His response is priceless :)

Watch the brief video to hear it:




[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Filed Under: General 14 Comments
  • Ben

    Standard. :)

  • Charles

    According to Wikipedia, he had a daughter, Juliet, with his second wife in 1984.

  • Mriana

    Hemant, I really hate to ask this, but can you tell us what they are saying? There is just too much background noise for the hard of hearing to understand it. :( I really would like to know what Dawkins and the Ashley are saying to each other. That and I can’t see their lips, except in that one place where Dawkins asks if she’s volunteering. I missed everything before that. :( Thanks.

  • http://friendlyatheist.com Hemant

    Hemant, I really hate to ask this, but can you tell us what they are saying?

    Dawkins’ response: “Are you volunteering?” :)

  • Mriana

    What was before that? :( 24 the answer, but what was the question?

  • http://imparo.wordpress.com/ Darmok

    Amusing…but I hate when people say things like “the male species”—if males were a species, then they wouldn’t need volunteers to help them spread their genes!

  • http://www.nullifidian.net/ null

    Mriana, the question posed to Dawkins was what Hemant put in the grey box above the video.

    The woman’s response to his response was “Well… (laugh)”

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  • Mriana

    That doesn’t say what was before it all though. What led up to his question?

  • http://www.nullifidian.net/ null

    The conversation in the entire clip:

    Woman: “You mentioned that the male species tries to spread their genes to as many people as possible. I was wondering why you haven’t started to do that. Because we could use more little Dawkins.”

    Dawkins: “Are you volunteering?”

    Woman: “Well… (laugh)”

    One can only imagine that she’s making reference to either something he said on the night, or something she’s read in one of his books. From my own reading, I seem to recall this mentioned in The Selfish Gene, although I may be wrong.

  • Mriana

    AH! :lol: That was funny! Thanks null! Dawkins gave a good comment. :lol:

    BTW, null, do you have hard of hearing members in your family? You seemed to understand better what I trying to ask. Thanks again. :)

  • http://www.nullifidian.net/ null

    No, I do not, I just like to help out making things plain. :-)

  • Mriana

    Thank you. I appreciate it. :)

  • http://gretachristina.typepad.com/ Greta Christina

    (snicker)

    I just wish she’d called him on his bluff. Something along the lines of, “Hell, yes. Right now. My hotel, room 2317, ten minutes.”

    I guess I’m just a groupie at heart.