Richard Dawkins in conversation with Peter Boghossian 

Who needs God or religion when we have Dr. Richard Dawkins to listen to as our voice of conscience. Let us come come worship and bow down before the great thinkers of our society. Men such as Dr. Richard Dawkins and Peter Boghossian could never be wrong, we must trust the science, and exercise blind faith their religious redirect which we call science. Let us follow the evidence wherever it leads us, even if it leads us to a burning end. Such men of reason and great logic ought to be trusted, and obey no matter how fallible they are. Let us follow him with all of our heart, mind, body and soul, since he is the author and the Finisher of our faith. Praise him.

Q: "Why shouldn't you offend people?" A: Because we live in a hypersensitive age, and a highly litigious age, with cowards in positions of authority, with entitled children of entitled parents, and for many of us, we just want to keep our jobs and get through the day without suffering the tirades and wrath of easily-triggered short-tempered people. We have not the wisdom, the vocabulary, the patience, the impetus, nor the veracity to set the record straight and carry on the good fight. And we don't all have the safety and security to offend because we still need to pay the bills.

It's hard to imagine what it would take for God to convince us that he was God (if it existed). Human technology is less than 1,000 years old (more or less) and in a 13.6 BILLION year old Universe there could be (maybe MUST be) a civilisation that's a *_million years_* more advanced than us. That's only 1/13,000th of the age of the Universe. How advanced would that civilisation be? And how could we possibly distinguish it from a god?

Back when the left liked these guys.

Even if Christianity were true you still wouldn't have a good reason for believing in it. Think about it for more than just 5 seconds. You are born into this world knowing nothing. You are told what to believe by your parents, and they were told what to belive for many more generations before you. What if the people 5 generations ago were wrong about anything? How would you be able to correct that belief? We know today that people were wrong about a ton of things 5 generations ago. How many other mistakes were made along the way from 100 generations ago? In all likelyhood Christianity would have been corrupted and your beliefs would be incorrect today. Religion is stupid if you ignore the other million reasons it's stupid.

Time stamp for me 12:28 - 15:27

The more you listen to Dawkins the more you realize that he's a person deeply in pursuit of God. His Antitheism is more a reaction of his disgust with the anti-intellectualism of those who proclaim to already know the truth.

i went to a comprehensive school in the 60's / 70's, that's a state school, what the US would call public, and although it wasn't the best, it wasn't bad and we were lucky enough to have a brilliant art teacher who let us listen to music (the beatles, who, hendrix, whatever) while we worked, but also he would get us to talk about current events, and drugs, ans civics in general, what i would see as total free speech, and not only did he set me up for a career in graphics and film effects, but i think my brain works pretty good. i also tried LSD when i was in my mid teens, and although i wouldn't recommend it (i now suffer paranoia when on any kind of dope or drugs) i never was tempted to jump out of windows or convinced of anything extraordinary, all my hallucinations had some grounding in reality and i was fairly aware that i was under the influence all the time, with a few exceptions most of my "trips" were unremarkable - as i say i'm an artist and it never even helped my art. ut i am a fairly "sober" kind of person. bottom line - drugs aren't worth the risk, and none seem to ACTUALLY enhance your brain power.

A great interview! I'd like to re-read it if it could be found somewhere in text. The idea of predominant, culturally neutral god images under that Persinger helmet could convince me that there might be some sort of a superb god. But then, I suspect that Persinger's "homeopathic" magnetic fields are too weak to have any real impact, anyway.

I agree with Dawkins, why should not we offend people? Certain ideas and certain people deserve to be offended.

Just found this discussion today: As a lover of all things scientific, philosophical, debate worthy AND of Jesus Christ and His word, I enjoy listening to things like this in the way that an athlete (which I am assuredly not) might enjoy a new obstacle course to conquer. Challenges to our beliefs are meant to do one of two things: -Either they will strengthen them as we work the challenges out or... -We realize that our beliefs are not logically sustainable and we change them. HOWEVER...I find it interesting that so many people who don't believe in God do the very thing they claim we believers do and that is interpret evidence in a way that justifies whatever worldview we bring to the table. A few times in this discussion it was said something akin to "it just can't be that..." (fill in the appropriate theistic belief phrase) because there are just so many other alternatives so we have to work through all of them first."... Well...why not seriously and objectively look into the evidence that SUPPORTS a theistic worldview and a Judeo-Christian worldview at that!? Let's at least be consistent shall we?

15:05 PB: ..What would persuade you (that God exists)? RD: Well Im starting to think that nothing would! Which in a way goes against the grain, because I‘ve always paid lip-service to the view that a scientist shoould change his mind when evidence is forthcoming. The problem is, I cant think what that evidence would look like.“ So Dawkins and all those nutty religious types have something in common after all, it seems.... neither one will change their view, no matter what! Got it.

Dawkins has a mancrush on the Hitch! Don't we all?

Imagine what they’d make of cancel culture today ?

I loved the humour and the wonderful relaxed way the discussion progresses. And what a discussion. Educational and so informative. Thank you.

I wish you believed in reason.

There is a God test that would work to prove God's existence. And all powerful God could make you or me God. If I am God I'm pretty sure I I will be convinced of my own existence.

I'd be interested to hear their take on the mandelbrot set, when they were talking about PI and what God's signature would potentially have to look like in order for them to believe in him.

the problem with fine tuning is, if god can't make life other than where the dials are set then he's following someone else's rules of physics, god should be able to set all the dials to anything at all and get what he wants. also, wouldn't those dials be spot on perfect, cos some of them can be twisted quite a long way before everything falls apart, why would god let the numbers be inaccurate? sloppiness? and as far as nature is concerned, all those numbers are "1", we base the speed of light on the length of someone's arm. maybe no other laws of physics are at all possible, we only have one universe as a sample. i've always thought PI is the registration number of universes, each universe has a unique ID of it's own, and somewhere there is a universe that has circles of PI = 3.0

"Islam is Right About Women" is a meme I wish went viral. It highlights ever so perfectly the doublethink of the NPCs/wokels. It bothers me that they have lapel mics but this recording didn't use that feed. Instead, it uses the mic on the camera, which is among or behind the audience. Everything the audience does and says is far more audible than what the speakers are saying.

I have goosebumps. This is so inspiring!

I say skip the trip, its not worth it. You'll have increased mental input, but it won't make you smarter, more creative, or more able to process stimuli. Even if you have some revelation, you won't remember it when you come down. The best you can hope for is to be with some people you like, laugh your ass off, enjoy the music playing loud and not sleep (or eat, as food tastes totally foreign unless its cold drinks) for 24 - 48 hours. I tripped at the first Star Trek Movie, not for the first time and it was just a freaky paranoia fest.

I feel sorry for both of these men. 😔

that like when addict stop doing drugs or alcohol to now be 24/7 inside a church

PB: why did you write a memoir? RD should have answered: God told me to.

changing from a religion of belief to now not belief is not anything truly important without real actions

It’s easy to criticize the silly dogma people claim are truth. But they fail to realize the real truth in religion is spirituality. The concept of God is deeply personal and internal not necessarily external. They can’t accept the idea that God might be undefinable by its very nature. They continually address the beliefs but not the deep relationship people have with God.

15:00 We can, but I spilt a can of soda over the control panel. At this stage, it seem humanity won’t have the replacement technology for at least another 400yrs. Lucky I really like this thing called RU-vid and it makes waiting not so bad.

Tremendous interview! Thank you!

the just changed the things not broken the addiction

I submit that the universe may be the result of a "Escape From the Planet of the Apes" like time paradox. Man, or some other creature, grew in this universe to gain enough scientific knowledge to create the universe. Or perhaps it is all a computer simulation. While I have no proof that this is the case it does have the virtue of making some kind of sense. Which is more than theologians can claim.

God is an unfalsifiable concept, a metaphysical one. Just as it can't be falsified, it can't be proven either. Y'all should read Kant.

Suture the future into a book from the past, better make it fast - the book won't last.

And now the new religion of diversity, equity and inclusion? I hope that this new religion is better and that it totally doesn't spill out into the streets during a pandemic. That would be a tragedy

24:30 Only gotten worse.

Trór / Thor, king of Thrace is Richard Dawkins, FRS's 11th cousin 95 times removed.

The Pi thing theoretically would best prove to change mind. Since it would be hard for just simple aliens to do it. If not Pi maybe something similar, some some signature in some fundamental things, that can't be changed, without changing our universe. Basically it's close to fine tuning. Basically a signature in the 'fine tuned' parameters on which whole universe is based. However, this signature must be really obvious and easy to confirm by other people. Because some people with lack of critical thinking sometimes see patterns and 'signature' in simple accidents, like Jesus on the toast. And some people see secrete messages in the bible, using silly algorithms that potentially allow to find any message you want in the bible. Other idea, is that it must be not a single fact, but a set of non contradictory facts, that could be confirmed independently. Like since, that based on years and years of research, improvements, criticism. If something could be proved more and more, and confirmed, and investigated - that could prove extraordinary claim. But any single event, always could be a hallucination or trick. So basically, yeah, it's should be something based on reason. Ideally multiple cases of signatures in maths and physics, that is not just people seeing patterns in the random noise, but very clear signatures, that would be confirmed by many people. If not God, at least it would be prove of some being outside Universe who created it. And I should admit, Carl Sagan idea with signature in the Pi, is extremely cool! The image of circle drawn in binary inside number Pi =) It's so cool idea, that it's sad that it's just a fantasy)))

Who is "Comrade Lawrence"? Lawrence Krauss?.. Someone worth idolizing :)

I can think of a way God could prove himself to us. First he opens up the sky and says "Here I am, your loving God, let there be no more doubt." Then we get speeches, updates and miraculous/impossible supernatural displays on a regular basis, that each generation gets to see with their own eyes. I've argued with a friend about this and he just couldn't seem to answer the question of "why is there a debate at all? Why doesn't he just appear and settle this argument we're having right now?" Friend: "But he has! He sent his holy messenger yadda yadda...." But why do we have to rely on the testimony of someone who died thousands of years ago, instead of regular updates that we personally get to see? Imagine trusting in a government that you're assured was installed 2,000 years ago but nobody has heard from since.

I'm too modest to believe in God or any supernatural explanations. 😁

Nice interview, thank you for sharing!

What would convince me??? It would have to be the "Thomas Test" "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." John 20:25

You were fed lukewarm nonsense that should be spit out. Yes, the Maker does require having super human intelligence. That is the point.

Yes, and being gay is not a race either. It is an action, not a biological state.

The evidence of your Maker looks like Richard Dawkins. You exist so your Maker exists and objects did not make you.

I can't help but to point out the hypocrisy of insulting creation science which has yet to be proven wrong after insulting those who are intolerant of hearing opposing ideologies. Also I feel that it is important to remind this Dr that evolution is in fact still a theory due to the actual scientific method being applied correctly against it's findings. To force one's theory onto the public as fact is to do the exact same hypocrisy that he himself despises about religious people who believe their religious beliefs. It's become difficult for me to respect this "Dr" as an acceptable representative of his own beliefs.

We don’t need religion, we have Richard Dawkins. I would love to see his autobiography turned into a movie - they did this for the late Stephen Hawking.

So arrogant, this man want´s to see the Lords second coming only to belive in Him... and says that even that would not be enougth.

The evidence of a supernatural Maker is not so much the constants, although you can never have working parts, without having a Maker, but the real evidence of your Maker is the living organisms that have significantly sequenced written directives that make every living thing there is as a unique life form.

You need to respect culture because it feels very strange to them to break from their customs. They need to be the ones to break from their own customs. *You should not be the one to force your will on them to change.*

I've read most of Dawkins' books, including the *God Delusion.* They illustrate so well his self-delusion. As a Mormon I found the *God Delusion* particularly delusional. Pretty ironic.