Here is Richard Dawkins’ 2009 American Atheists address if you missed it:
(via)
Richard Dawkins' 2009 American Atheists Address
April 27, 2009 By 37 Comments
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Wonderful! Such a down to earth, funny, extremely smart person.
Hmm, 1:01:42… Is there anybody around who could summarise it in 5 sentences?
1. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation … cringe-worthy endorsement of ethical relativism, “all opinions are valid” etc, from the TBFF
2. Mining the Eddington Concession … quote mining in general, quote mining of evolutionists by creationists in specific
3. God as Science Ficton … useful/descriptive examples in science fiction of actual science and hypothetical explanations
4. Q&A on dealing with Creationists … audience questions about talking to their neighbors
Thanks!
I’m not yet convinced, though, I would want to spend 1 hour listening to all that. I mean, come on, the Tony Blair Faith foundation…
Meh. You’re not missing much. I have to say, I’m not really much of a Dawkins fan. I’ve not read much by him, so I suppose he may be better in the written word, but in spoken presentation he comes across as a little pretentious, condescending, and just not all that interesting to listen to. There are other atheists I’d rather listen to for an hour.
Haven’t heard him debate, either – I suppose he might be better in that kind of situation.
My initial impression of Dawkins, years ago, was “what a jerk”. He has mellowed considerably, though. I like him.
My impression of Dawkins years ago, if I had one, would have been “Aah! Atheist! Must be evil!”
I have mellowed considerably since then. ;)
Sorry, haven’t watched the vid yet, but WTF is up with that shirt? Someone who doesn’t believe in an afterlife shouldn’t dress like an idiot tourist in this one. Apparently, Oxford doesn’t offer any post-doctorate degrees in “Dressing Yourself”.
I kinda like the shirt. To each his own. ;)
I guess “all opinions ARE valid” after all! ;)
I also kinda like the shirt… although being in the bowel of academia myself you would be surprised at how little the “brains” of our nation actually know about dressing.
Actually it’s kind of one of the tests you go through in the PhD process. You can judge what year a student is by how frumpy and out of style they dress. Also this. :)
I *KNEW* that was gonna be pHD!
Truest fictional comic ever made :)
People should dress in whichever way they like. Leave it to fundamentalist religious to judge a person’s clothes.
Here, Here! That’s one thing I really disliked about church, even when I did go. Poeple in some sort of popularity/best dressed contest, that I never understood. I guess it goes back to a NOFX song you’ll all probably love: The Idiots Are Taking Over… “How to get ahead religions”… By playing thier dumb game.
As a child, I went to a church where men couldn’t wear jeans, and the women couldn’t wear sandals, let alone dresses above the knee.
…and it’s ‘Hear Hear’ not ‘Here here’. And that is not up for opinion or a matter of relativism. ;) /pedant
Sorry, I see this waaay too often. It annoys me, even though I’m not even a native English speaker.
If enough people said “here here” then you’d be correcting the minority that say “hear hear” :)
I wouldn’t, given I’m an etymology geek.
Unless everyone started spelling all instances of “hear” as “here”, in which case I’d consider recognising it as a valid spelling variant…
NOFX is awesome. :)
Did you see the bad hair of some of the audience? Dawkins stands out as well-presented. (I should disclose that I have shirts with big vegetation on, though I flatter myself that mine fit better).
Frank, I scrolled back up to look at “the shirt” because of your comment. Your comment made me ask “WTF with the comment?” It’s just a shirt, perhaps Dawkins likes it. Do you think it detracts from his credibility or something?
Sign me puzzled
I vote Frank should present an hour-long speech to an audience of some eminence wearing his most tasteful shirt, and we debate it here. The speech, I mean.
/topic
Sorry, I just think it’s goofy looking. He’s still a genius, he just dresses like my dad. I like how Lorena assumed I was “fundamentalist religious” because I bad-mouthed The Great Dawkins’ taste in clothing.
Full disclosure: I used to have a shirt much like that. It looked goofy on me, too. My wife made me stop wearing it.
@Frank
I like how Lorena assumed I was “fundamentalist religious” because I bad-mouthed The Great Dawkins’ taste in clothing.
No, she didn’t. She said “Leave it to fundamentalist religious to judge…” because the fundies do have a tendency to do just that. She did not make the connection beween you and judgmental fundies (you did that).
Even so, isn’t judging a man’s fashion sense – before you’ve even bothered to listen to what he said – an ad hominem attack?
Audience member: [sic] “You’ve been arguing for atheism for a very long time. Have you ever heard an interesting or challenging argument from the other side?”
Dawkins: “No.”
Says it all really, doesn’t it?
Dawkins may have a short memory; reference his debate in Time with Francis Collins.
o/t, does anyone know what happened to the “uncomfortable grayness of life” post from yesterday? It seems to have disappeared.
It’s coming back today. I’m surprised you saw it, it was only up for 20 seconds. :)
When you post something and we have a subscription via a feed reader like google reader, then if the browser had not been closed, the post shows up even now when it’s not up any longer.
RSS piped it to my LJ where it left an UF-shaped hole in my heart.
dr.R. It’s 1:01:42 well spent…
I find it odd that they would get one of the world’s most preeminent atheists, scientist, and author to speak and then put him on a time limit. I’d let him go as long as he wanted…
If this is what I think it is (part of the American Atheists 2009 National Convention) it was hardly a standalone talk, and presumably fit within a timetable of other talks as well as dinner engagements at the like. Going over that time limit is extremely rude and disrespectful both to the audience and the organiser (not to mention whoever may be speaking after you, who will be under pressure to speak even more quickly), and as a scientist who (I presume) has attended and spoke at scientific conferences I’m fairly sure he’d have been acutely aware of that.
Hey, I’m getting a notice that this video has been marked private and I’m unable to watch. Does anyone know where this video might be hosted in full elsewhere?
Just trying to work this out myself. the video was posted by the richarddawkinsdotnet channel. I think you have to go here
http://www.youtube.com/richarddawkinsdotnet
(have a youtube account) and add as friend (in the Connect with richarddawkinsdotnet) bit. I am waiting for a response from them.
You can also watch it here
http://richarddawkins.net/article,3752,Richard-Dawkins-at-American-Atheists-09,Richard-Dawkins
and there are a couple of options (quicktime, or youtube embedded that seems to work).