Bill O’Reilly Shouts at Richard Dawkins and Gets a Response

October 10, 2009 By Guest Contributor 24 Comments

Richard Dawkins appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night (in a taped interviewed). It was pretty much what you would expect. Dawkins makes good sense. Bill O’Reilly thinks he’s right because he yells and he has Jesus on his side.

I think these screen captures explain the interview completely.

The beginning:

Picture 5

The middle:

Picture 6

The end:

Picture 4

Here’s the actual interview. With the slight time lag between O’Reilly yelling something and Dawkins hearing it, it’s quite entertaining to use the extra second to predict Dawkins’ reactions :)

And here’s the highlight of your day (at the 3:35 mark):

Dawkins: You must see that it’s quite a remarkable piece of illogic to say that because science can’t fill a particular gap, therefore, we have to turn to Christianity.

O’Reilly (shouting): You don’t have to turn anywhere; you just have to present it. You don’t have to turn to it. You present it.

Dawkins: Will you listen to me and stop shouting at me?

O’Reilly: Am I…? Well, turn your earpiece down. I’m not shouting. That’s the way I usually talk. Go ahead.

Dawkins: I know it is. I’ve been warned about it.

O’Reilly: [Laughter]

Beautiful. Dawkins handled himself well throughout. Too bad his responses will go over the heads of the viewers, many of whom will just associate the interview with the word “fascism.”

Filed Under: General, Science 24 Comments
  • Matt D

    Every time I see dawkins interviewed by the likes of O’reilly i want to punch something.

    Interesting to see him get a bit ruffled this time.

    its a pity that his message is always stomped on by these imbeciles. It goes to the character of the guy (Dawkins) that he can “debate” in this forum knowing tht his message will be lost on nearly every viewer.

    Sometimes I wonder why he bothers. He must have a much higher tolerance of fools than I (oh yeah, and I dont have a book to promote!).

  • mattincinci

    if i had a book to promote i wouldnt rely on the likes of o’reilly’s show to get the message out, hope they paid him for the interview

  • http://www.polydaidaloi.com Shaun

    That was great. I loved the range of Dawkins’ expression that all seemed to say “WTF is he on about?”

    The facism response was gold.

  • Martin

    I don’t get why Dawkins does these interviews either its hardly a debate. More like a waste of 5mins. O’Reilly shouts at Dawkins, Dawkins answers correcting O’Reilly’s misinformation, O’Reilly ignores Dawkins comments and carries on shouting. Neither side of the argument are moved one iota. Also, as it was recorded I’m assuming there is more and Fox put out the parts were O’Reilly comes off the best ???
    If Dawkins got one sale of his book out of this I’d be amazed.
    However, I suspect we’ll see O’Reilly use this again in the future as ‘proof’ of Obama’s fascistic agenda as he tagged the word Fascicm to teaching evolution only in science classes and that’s what you’ll see when it repeated.

    Oh yes, and O’Reilly stating that if we all believed in Jesus the world would be all ‘Peace and Love’. O’Reilly …. Peace and Love LOL

  • Maria

    It seems A LOT of people don’t see this…

    You must see that it’s quite a remarkable piece of illogic to say that because science can’t fill a particular gap, therefore, we have to turn to Christianity

  • Narvi

    I think O’Reilly was quite rational for O’Reilly. He wasn’t as narrow-minded and aggressive as I had expected, he even admitted that Creationism had nothing to do with science.

    He’s still irrational, but he seems to be improving.

  • valdemar

    As a Brit, I am again proud of the patient and notably un-strident Dr Dawkins – ‘Doctor’ being the correct term of address, which O’Reilly rudely decided to ignore. What a dickhead. And how vile that a Catholic apologist should dare bandy the word fascism around when fascism and Catholicism got on so well in Europe and Latin America. Ignorant, smug, loudmouthed hypocrite.

  • http://chaoskeptic.blogspot.com Iason Ouabache

    I’m getting tired of hearing the word “fascism” being overused by the right wingers. None of them knows what it actually means other than “someone that I don’t like is in charge rather than me”. It ruins their credibility and weakens the meaning of the word so much that we are at risk of ignoring real fascism.

  • muggle

    “We must present…” My immediate reaction to that was, no, why the fuck would we?

    Which Dawkins worded so much better than I would have. I wouldn’t have the patience to be polite to this imbecile either.

    Must present??? If we must overuse the word, let’s ask just who’s the fascist.

  • John

    O’Reilly (paraphrasing):

    You [should] present in the science classroom all the alternatives that are legitimate.

    I really wish Dawkins would have responded directly to this (or perhaps he did and it was edited out). I would have said something like, “How do we determine which alternatives are legitimate and which are not? What sort of framework do you propose for testing the legitimacy of any given alternative? The best answer to that question is ‘science’.”

  • Luther

    PROOF THERE IS NO GOD.

    Dawkins is not struck down. O’Reilly is not struck down.

    Both are proof there is no god.

    Dawkins is proof of intelligent life on Earth. O’Reilly is proof that evolution is not driven by perfection.

  • http://anexerciseinfutility.blogspot.com Tommykey

    Someone should have told Dawkins that when O’Reilly starts to blather about having a Christian moral compass, that Dawkins should have just said “Andrea Mackris.”

  • Pingback: Science=Fascism (Bill O’Reilly) « MacPsych

  • Dan

    John said:

    I really wish Dawkins would have responded directly to this (or perhaps he did and it was edited out). I would have said something like, “How do we determine which alternatives are legitimate and which are not? What sort of framework do you propose for testing the legitimacy of any given alternative? The best answer to that question is ’science’.”

    I wanted to say the same thing myself!

  • http://www.banalleakage.com martymankins

    It’s so hard to watch intelligent people like Dawkins go head to head with the like of Billo The Clown. I understand about wanting to get your message to as many people as possible, especially with a new book out, but Bill isn’t the best platform for presenting a sound message. He’ll just do whatever he can to counteract that.

    And the fans of Bill will just see someone like Dawkins as an anti-religious windbag.

    Personally, I thought Dawkins handled himself very well. He’s a logical, educated man who is a great orator.

  • Tom

    If what atheism is doing in the science classroom is fascist, then what O’Rielly is asking for is communist. All ideas should get equal treatment, there is no better truth than the other. How can you be moral by not making a judgement call on what is right and wrong, and therefore letting all ideas get their share of time.

    It’s also funny how this is a taped session, almost as if they were too afraid to make it a live interview.

  • Tony

    Am I the only one to notice Richard’s crocoduck tie?

  • http://smokesignalsonawindyday.blogspot.com/ Injun Trouble

    Whenever Douche O’Reilly interviews someone whose position he’s opposed to, it’s like watching a child put their hands over their ears and go ‘Lalalalalalala!!!…..I can’t hear you!!…..lalalalala!!!’.

  • Wendy

    OMG, the crocoduck tie!!!

    I can’t watch O’Reilly (too infuriating for my liking) so thank you for summing it up in screen shots, Hemant. Those frames are brilliant!!! Lmao.

  • http://www.myspace.com/stagendogs Stagendogs

    Yeah , if you not understand something and bothers your fundamentalism, just call it fascism ….

  • Gabriel G.

    Dammit O’Reilly… I really wish someone would just give him a lollipop already, that’s all he wants. He’s just a child who ignores what everyone is saying because his parents told him one story and he doesn’t want to have to learn another story.

    I swear, everyday, I see more and more people who had stopped maturing before they got anywhere near puberty. (No offence to actual children, I’ve known quite a few who were smarter than many full grown adults.)

  • http://religiouscomics.net Jeff

    Sooner or later one of these right-wing pundits is going to loose their religion and come over to the side of rationality. If it happens while they still have their day-job, it will be interesting to watch.

    The crockaduck tie is classic.

  • http://camelswithhammers.com Camels With Hammers

    Those screencaps are absolutely priceless. A perfect way to sum up that train wreck of an interview. Dawkins’s expressions are just spot-on and hilarious.

  • thilina

    Why is Dawkins promoting a book on the O’Reilly Factor?

    It’s not like the people watching it can read, or hear anything that’s not being yelled by Bill.