Richard Dawkins: From Selfish Gene to Flights of Fancy
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2022
- Learn more about Richard and Lawrence's onstage event in Phoenix, on November 15th: originsproject.org/events
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Richard Dawkins needs no introduction. He is one of the world’s most well known scientists and science writers. He is also a good friend and colleague of Lawrence Krauss. As many of you may know, Richard and Lawrence have toured much of the world together on stage, often in dialogues about their disciplines, their views of the world, and of course the conflict between science and religion. - Наука та технологія
We should keep and protect Mr Dawkins at all cost. We are so lucky to live in a time when he's with us. Both Carl Sagan and C. Hitchens have passed away way too soon and before their time. We need more people like Dawkins with us today.
Totally agree, also feel so lucky to have precious Sir David Attenborough to introduce us the beautiful wild animals.
Yes ❤ hitchens and sagan !
My interest in Prof. Dawkins started with The Selfish Gene decades ago. He helped me to instill the importance of science into my daughter who is now also a scientist. Years ago while she was at UC Berkeley Prof Dawkins was lecturing there and we both attended. I brought my original dog eared copy of Selfish Gene in hopes of an autograph and sure enough he was gracious enough to oblige.
Tell us more about your life bro…
@@jimbojimbo6873 😂
Yeah, we must look at the science. Most physicists agree the Cosmological Constants are real. Fine-tuning is a good argument for a Deistic God.
@@briansmith3791
It’s not!
Fine tuning looks that way to you because you’re nothing but a speck of a human. To the enormity of the Universe what you consider fine tuning may just be an evolutionary process that happens because of the Laws of Physics. It happened here on Earth but didn’t happen on Billions of other planets. We simply hit the lottery and happened to fall in the Goldilocks zone of our Star (The Sun). Out of the 100’s of Billions of other Galaxy’s and Planets in the Universe there are mostly likely other planets that hit the lottery too and also fell into that zone. Those planets too may have evolved just like ours and developed life and what you consider Fine Tuning.
Delighted to hear of that joyous occasion for you
Oh, I’m so excited! I didn’t know Dawkins would be on today. Two of my favourite minds. ♥️ I wish they knew how much of a comfort and source of joy they’ve been to me. For many years, it was very lonely being a Black atheist (especially in Texas). Hitch, Dawkins, Krauss… helped me so much more than I can ever express. Thank you.
Hitch is missed! Especially after the attack on Salman Rushdie I can only imagine what he would have said!
All the best from Germany!
@@nicolao.dos.santos I agree. Hitch is missed every day!
I agree with you. Two of the most amazing minds on the Planet.
@@nicolao.dos.santos All the best to you, as well. I watch Hitch videos anytime I’m missing his brilliance and charm, and I am missing him more and more each day due to the political and social turmoil happening all over the globe. We can’t even imagine what eloquence and fire he’d share with us... Or what he’d have to say about all the advancements made recently (JWST, etc). ♥️
@@TrippyKenpachi yes, I love just listening to him talk, what a command over the English language he had! And exactly: the political turmoil worldwide needs a voice like his to be commented on.
Having a talk with Krauss about new endeavours would have been amazing!
How's things for you now, have you got more atheist friends around you where you live?
Take care, Nicolao
Haven't seen a lot of Richard recently I've worried about him, so it is amazing to hear him sound so lucid and looking well. Keep on keeping on! We need you at the moment Professor.
We'll always need him. But especially at times like these.
Thanks, I too am glad he's looking great!
Man I swear he's probably on my mind like 24/7 😂 and I totally agree🙏🙏🙏
@@nadesmond6029 Hahahaha me too, for me he is the best thinker!
he had a few years after the stroke where he wasnt quite himself but you can clearly see hes back to full form and very sharp again
Great podcast. Great to see, two of my favorite teachers, together again. Thank you very much..
Two of my most favourite scientists, ever.
Brian Cox and Michio Kaku is up there as well, easily.
They both suck. Some of worst representation in atheism.
*most favouritist
Stole my words but going to say it anyway.
@@OriginalPuro + Brian Greene
Dawkins' books changed my life 14 years ago
The Selfish Gene changed my life too.
It filled all of the 'why' gaps and helped me understand what I am, and what my purpose was.|
Coincidentally, I read the Origin of Species last week. It could almost have been written by Dawkins in style, but it would have been his poorest book.
Me too - made me seek out being Christian.. Now I am
@@tonycatman So how did it change your life?
What is your purpose?
@@BM-zd3vs My purpose - i.e. the purpose of me as a conscious entity is of secondary importance.
The body, and my consciousness, are a vehicle for the propagation of my genes.
As a conscious entity, I feel the reward of happiness as long as I act in a way consistent with what my genes would want.
I wasn't brought up in the best of cultures. If you found a wallet on the street, then it was your good fortune, and you would be a sucker if you tried to find the owner.
So why would a person lose sleep if they didn't hand the wallet in ? Is it because at some level we believe that we are judged by a god in the after life ?
I couldn't really reconcile the concept of 'doing good' with my atheism.
The Selfish Gene explains the tit-for-tat game, and the concept of reciprocal altruism. This led me down the path of evolutionary psychology.
For me, the field brings me much closer to the concepts of 'good' and 'bad' as distinct from law, religion, and power structures. I'm far more comfortable with my concept of right and wrong.
I can hand the fictional wallet in without feeling like a sucker. I can give my life for my children without questioning whether it would be the right thing to do. I can perform a random act of kindness because of the kick I get out of it.
I understand why the effective altruism movement is nonsense. i.e. it is okay if I feel better about helping out someone in my neighbourhood than someone in another country.
Dawkins never compromised. He called fools fools and didn't give a damn. For instance, he didn't hesitate to call nonsense Jordan P started talking stupid.
When JP talks about anything else other then his area of expertise he sounds mostly like a fool.
I love Dawkins!❤. His comments, always so well explained. I started reading Dawkins when I had doubts as a believer and I am glad I did! Now I am not a believer and happy to be one. He helped so much! I think without reading him probably I would be thinking that it was me, that I was weak having doubts, I know it sounds silly but I didn’t allow myself to THINK! 🙄. Reading him I realized its OK. 🤷♀️. Haha! It sounds so stupid but it was like that. Thank you Richard Dawkins!
Beautiful to see them chatting again here ♥️♥️
This was both fascinating and wonderful to watch.
Lawrence, and Richard: You two are heroes for your decades of work of communicating science and reason. Ignorance is like darkness and you two are radiant beacons of light. Keep on shining, my friends.
Probably two of the most influential scientists in the modern time; I’m most grateful to them
The Selfish Gene was polled as the most inspiring science book of all time. It changed my life.
Dawkins in particular is massively sidelined because of his religious and political stance. Most of us don't realise how privileged we are to be alive at the same time as him, and to hear him speak.
.. influential in what way? They both ramble on about nonsense - a disgrace to science.
@@Chris_Sheridan why because they don't buy your Sky daddy crap?
@@Chris_Sheridan William Lane Craig is that you?
If you were a young female being predated on by Krauss - maybe not so 'grateful'
These 2 scientists have been very influential figures in my life.
"The Selfish Cell" was a great title. (Titles can be deceiving)
I love "Flights of Fancy.""
I have "John Gould's Birds"
John Gould was the leading publisher of ornnitholical illustrations in Victorian Britain. The 'birdman' as he liked to be called had been 'enamored with nature, and her charming attitudes' at an early age.
"The Monograph of Kangaroos" (1841-1844) and the mammals of Australia (1845-1863), both lively and exciting accounts of wild life in that unexplored continent.
His scientific researchers were widely acknowledged; he had been elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1843, when he was only 39 years old. Birds in flight are beautiful as all species in every category.
It is ridiculous that in America that evolution is still being fought over because of religious divisions.
I always loved Carl Sagan and Christopher Hitchens and Mr. Dawkins. Open minds of enormous contribution to our world. Sir David Attenborough's documentaries are awesome of nature.
Leonardo Da Vinci had extradinary intelligence with his artistry.
The Galapagos Islands, I can only imagine what it was like when Charles Darwin first arrived there. Today the have been having problems with plastic in ocean and the locals and scientists are working hard to help there. Man has become greedy.
The butterfly swim is the most difficult for the swimmer. It takes enormous strength.
Our galaxies, stars, suns, moons, black holes, dark matter lives in infinity as well as our oceans of depth of exploration of the unknown.
Thank all of have made contributions in sciences of vast education of the worlds of wonder with creating hypothesis of nature.
This was a fascinating discussion and I thank you Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawson for this informative discussion.
Elon Musk does not have the balance inside his mind , the ego gets in the way in my opinion.
"I dont know what your destiny will be. but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be truly happy who will have sought and found how to serve." Albert Enistein
Oh, I’m so excited! I didn’t know Dawkins would be on today. Two of my favourite minds. ♥ I wish they knew how much of a comfort and source of joy they’ve been to me. For many years, it was very lonely being a Black atheist (especially in Texas). Hitch, Dawkins, Krauss… helped me so much more than I can ever express. Thank you.
Same. Latino kid growing up in E. Los Angeles in the 80's, I had to keep to myself a lot.
That's sad lucifer let us have free will
Two great minds. How lucky I am to live in this era to learn from such phenomenal teachers. I am from India
I've loved that Krauss has let Dawkins do a little talking a few times.
I can remember getting his book "The God Delusion" after seeing an interview with him. An acquaintance of mine said, "Oh, he is that crazy scientist." Thanks for opening that truthful, rational rabbit hole, Richard!
Patrick Ringel : Dawkins no longer holds the New Atheist worldview he held in 'The God Delusion'. In his talk with Francis Collins ( 'Unbelievable' UA-cam), he now concedes that " the Cosmological Constants are real, most physicists agree..." and "fine-tuning is a good argument" (for God).
He is still an atheist, but not militant any longer.
Not his best book, IMHO. I'm an atheist and an evolutionary biologist with a casual interest in history of all sorts, including the Ancient world of Antiquity But he seems unaware that for primitive people, sometimes every object, every stone, had a soul, and and that this (animism was how religion started. He mostly refers to polytheism (Gods of the Ancient Greeks, etc) as an example of something no one believes now, but doent mention how rarely it leads to slaughter in its name (I am reminded of Hinduism, but it seems to me a single religion, with many avatars and not polytheism. He expresses stunned disbelief that organized religion exists.
I could listen to Richard Dawkins for hours
*hears “Dawkins” & immediately checks running time*
Two hours?. hell yeah!! 🍿
I resemble that remark!
Thank you so much for this conversation, Dr. Krauss.
It is sad to think that time will end the content these two produce. I will watch all I can in the mean time.
We need more discussions like this. Thank you Lawrence and Richard.
This was like having a lobotomy
@@jacobturner861 apparently you've already had one.
These minds should live forever!
My like came so easy. Having two of my best people on the planet interview each other... legendary!
What a TERRIFIC conversation! Thank you BOTH!
Awesome. Thanks to you both, seriously, for all of the years of hard work that it took to arrive at a podcast like this one.
I can listen to you both all day, I barely understand some of things talked about, but that doesnt hurt the sheer joy of listening, thanks to both of youi.
Morris' painting is fantastic. Selfish Gene causes something in my mind to perk up and it's because those two words have never been seen together. It still makes one react to the bizarre combination of words. It is a smashing title for a book. Richard is doing what we all do and that is we all make decisions and then later, sometimes, we can have doubts. I once asked a finance manager what is the most important thing a manager in his busines must never do on the job. He told me something that I have taken to heart and try to live by to this very day. He said, "What he does is never to go back on a decision he made about anything at work. If he had to sack someone, rather than go back in your mind and start kicking yourself for being too hard on the person---he would not question his decision again. Rather than pine over not signing a contract with a supplier, he stood by his decision to go with another company. You're free from guilt when you don't beat yourself up for thinking you made the wrong decision. You made the right decision and the thing is you can't undo it; so why worry about it? Up until the moment I met that man I had done what Richard has done and that is go back in my mind and wonder out loud if Imade the right decision on just about everything. We only tread water in life if we don't believe in our decisions...
So good to see Richard back in Canada, Always good to see him and Richard. Science is truly wonderful.
I needed this ..two of my hero’s together again!!
What a way to bless ( easy now Dawkins) my saturday evening! Thank you.
Thank you for this interview,Dr Krauss. Love your UA-cam channel. Though I have never met Professor Dawkins in person, he is my favorite Professor of Evolution through television starting in the 1990s when I was kid.
Two of my favourite people of all time. Watching them debate on religion is what got me interested in Biology and Physics. Science is awesome.
"Well, if you're Feynman all you need is Newtons laws and then you just derive everything from that..." lol
Feynman is still my ultimate scientific hero and favourite bongo player.
Feynman guy is overestimated.
Seeing these two scientists talking to each other , smiling , enjoying the converation make me happy somehow. Thanks to youtube.
I am happy to see here, how important your messages has been and shall be. Your presentations has helped many people. It is so important that we learn to valuate questions, make questions. It is the way to find things, learn things.
Thank you for your work to promote humanity!
Helped you burn in hell!
You both have given us so much for so long. Thank you so much for all the hope you've given us that no matter the stupidity , Reason and Scientific Brilliance can prevail and beam our species forward away from self destruction...
I first saw you guys in that science storytelling show and I am hooked ever since. Whenever mind pops out a question regarding science and sometimes philosophy I search for "lawrance krauss the question that just popped in my mind" 🙂
I can't express how much you guys had helped me about 5 years ago when I was a fresh skeptics surrounded by religious drunkies and Dawkins, Krauss, Hitch, and Sam Harris, plus Matt Dilahunty have helped me sharpen my logics, scientific knowledge, etc... Today I am a well informed atheist. I have bought most of their books, and I've been supporting this channel from day 1.
I really appreciate your work guys. Kudos to you all. Keep up the good work!
If you really are a "well-informed atheist" then you will be aware that Dawkins has moved away from his 'No Gods at all' view to a new position where a Deist God is a real possibility. In his 'Unbelievable' talk with Francis Collins he makes this clear. He is still an atheist.
Great podcast! I am extremely grateful to see two of my favorite scientists together.
Great interview. First time I have seen Richard so clearly happy and excited talking about a topic he is so passionate about. Most you tube videos show Richard and Larence in confrontational roles which while entertaining, don't provide a forum to hear them communicate about their specialist subjects
Such a great podcast. Thank you both very much.
More of this please my mind needs it.
Thank you. I was thinking just today how I wish so many people with these crazy ideas would have taken just one physics class.
jhall229 : The Cosmological Constants are real, most physicists agree.
Fine-tuning is a good argument (for God).
When I listen to Richard Dawkins talk about evolution I feel like watching 5 documentaries about evolution
Two joys here, 1 the video, 2 all the marvellous comments posted. Cheers SBM.
Great to see this great exciting dynamic duo talking and sharing ideas again. Great minds. Great people.
Two of my favourite scientists! Terrific.
I could listen to this all day❤️
Dawkins is the greatest
Couple living legends.
TERF and Epstein Islander, living legends both.
Excellent. Two of my favorite scientists
Great GREAT interview. THANK YOU.
Thank you for sharing this conversation
How I admire these two great minds. Thanks to the two who remind us this is a wonderful world and some minds make our lives more discerning. I salute both men with my heart from India
I've missed you two ❤
I really enjoyed this - two of my most favourite voices of reason in this turmoil of insanity these days - thank you very much!
If you ever get to visit Galapagos together, please make it into a video series! I'd be delighted to watch ☺️
It's wonderful to imagine with facts. Thank you!
Thank you both!
Nice.. why am I just seeing this.. can't wait to watch all of this
A great conversation.
I ran into Krauss at an airport. “Lawrence Kraus!!” flew out of my mouth like a bird. He stopped and said, “Yeah.” My girlfriend took our picture. She was like, whose that? I said that’s the Bob Dylan of physics. My grandfather was a great physicist but he’s long gone. Krauss is a kind of avuncular physicist.
@@briansmith3791 I’m not the jealous type.
@@johnfulton4952 : No, I didn’t mean Krause is attractive, just that he’s a sex pest!
something to listen to and lighten up my weekend!
Wonderful to see these two!
Excellent content, as always.
i love that more scientists are doing podcasts now. we need them
Absolute 💯 gratitude. Thank you both.
Can't wait to watch the rest of this. I just learned that LK has a podcast. Just want to say the selfish gene was a great title and the title alone grabs me and Interests me and it was one of the best books I've ever read. It changed my perception of life.
So relaxing to listen to you gentlemen!
Can't believe this has only been up 7 days. Man, I'm doing through the top thinkers in the world and I just happened to look this up.
Ohh finally a new Richard Dawkins video/interview and with krauss on the other end! Man this is gonna be enjoyable on another level🤤🤤
Nice to see to great person together, love it
Thank you for this discussion. What I learned from it is that I need Flights of Fancy, it sounds fascinating.
It was due to Professor Krauss' book "A Universe From Nothing" which I read in February 2016 that I went from being an agnostic -which I was for thirty-seven years -to an atheist. I shortly thereafter read Professor Dawkins' book "The God Delusion". These two men have been beacon lights for me in our modern age, i.e., mentors. I have read Darwin's two major works as well. I grew up Mormon but cannot accept the validity of it -or any -religion. Many thanks to all those scientists for all their hard work in seeking to understand the world as it is, not as religion would like it to be. May good health and happiness accompany these two great men. Thank you both for helping to remove the scales from my eyes and helping me to see my place in this grand existence!!!! Atheist in a Mormon town.
I love you both, thanks for inspiring us for the world of science....
In South Australia, we began learning Physics, Biology and Chemistry in Year 10, High School. Mind you, that was in the 80s. Also, the curriculum was/is determined at a state by state level in Australia, so I don't even know how/when it was/is taught in the other states, such as Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales etc. It makes sense to me to learn all three subjects at the same time as they are so interconnected, though I probably didn't appreciate it at the time.
Very glad prof dawkins is in fine and well
Biophysicist here, love this conversation! Keep it up!
What a treat to see Dr. Dawkins in the flesh, thank you for the excellent interview Dr. Krauss! I’m seeing him in Brisbane in February!
it's always a joy to be privy to conversations that articulately and courageously flesh out the perennial conflict between the conversationaly defined stances of robust tentativity (science) and certitude-at-all-cost (religion as ideology). Both stances are strategies for attempting to tame the sense of overwhelming awe spawned by the combinatorially explosive aspectual nature of the unfolding lifeworld. Ironically, both are premised on the assumption that the lifeworld itself is intelligible.
The intro for your podcast is awesome
Two of my favorite people!
Pure epicness....seeing people like you discussing life and science is such a delight, too bad it's hard to bring worlds together , schedules and distance BUT, use your charisma Mr Krauss and trick people into doing it more often, it ballances out the uselessness of the world today, it is much needed and very appreciated, good job gentlemen, best wishes and looking forward for more.
P.S. Congrats on the latest book Mr. Dawkins.
Who was it that said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”: Lord Acton.
Do you think that observation might also apply to the academic world, especially science, where they have the power to be able to say the most outlandish things, knowing that there is little chance of them being questioned by lay-people, with many of those who are equipped to question them, haveing a vested interest in not doing so, because they do not want their own findings to be challenged, at some future time?
Or are we to believe there are no charlatans, among men/women of science, quietly having a lend of us?
@@davidbanner6230 there are some that use power and some that focus more on self gain , including in the science world, we are talking about humans after all, but! In this field, only the sharp, deep thinkers make it big, and those usually have those traits because they see past self gain and in the field of science, an individual is only part of a whole and science is a cumulative effort, it is the foundation on which science is built upon, and the most factual based field anyone could take part in, scientists are very responsible in general, being based on reason and logic, so i's say most of them, certainly a gentleman like prof Krauss here, is gettinfg his rewards from his work and spreading knowledge rather than using it for personal gain.
Nice to see Lawrence and Richard together again. I used to watch all the shows they did together back around 2012. I thought they had parted ways after those allegations against Krauss. Great to see them back.
Those allegations were not amounting to anything more than flirting. But we live in a world where the madness of crowds prevails.
Both of these men are mentally disturbed.
WHY even bring that up?? Totally irrelevant remark!
@@loranelizabeth9148 It isn't.
Excellent!
I have ordered the book Flights of fancy and waiting anxiously for it to arrive. I have seen few more videos by Richard Dawkins and enjoying to the utmost. Thanks. v. k. bhalla
The blackhole makes up 7% of the mass of the entire galaxy?! Holy shit that puts things into perspective.
1:38:00 we've been doing this for a long time in computer animation, we call it flocking, and basically a bird follows a path and any other birds stay within a certain distance and series of angles that are "springy", so they all follow a route, but with a delay and with a boundary. i think i first did one of these in the late 80's? but certainly it was "perfected" in the 90's. i did special effects on the movie of the original resident evil (milla, james perfoy and eric mabius), i did twenty or so shots of the creature (any shot with the tongue in i worked on) and although i had no part in the shot of the birds flocking, at the very beginning milla (alice) startles a flock of birds in a tree - that was computer graphics.
Love both of these guys.
You're not alone. Regards from Australia.
Great conversation, as there always are. And the Easter egg? Lawrence's shirt.
I bought my son Flights Of Fancy, a fantastic book.
A great conversation, Richard Dawkins really is a legend of science education. Though as an aerospace engineer, I do have a few issues with the wing lift discussion haha. Goes to show how complex and tough the physical explanation actually is of something we take for granted I suppose
Can you please tell us what these issues are ?
Well, aircraft wings don't flap to provide lift so it's an entirely different animal pun intended.
"Flights" is a really fun read, btw, you should all totally read it. It's more casual than "Greatest Show" or "Selfish Gene" so it's even a good fit for science minded kids maybe age 10 or so. I love all his books.
Science is fantastic.
Sadly .. not science but the ramblings of two nutters.
Nature is amazing. What a wonderful two hour podcast.
High School Physics, then Chemistry, then Biology. Great point! I would have liked a narrative throughput.
I agree. I’m a HS math and science teacher.
A lot of people, including myself, discovered Dawkins because of Nightwish, namely his reading of Darwin in their song "The Greatest Show on Earth". What a fascinating conversation
This was amazing.. always learn something new… the darwin Storie will stick for ever! Thank you both… this is exactly the conversations i want to hear.. just… perfect!
Richard relaying the message about books being beautiful was very nice, around 37 minutes. 43 minutes is flight fun? 49 minutes the moth might be prey, but has a predator cloaking system. 1:02 basic science lesson, and a cool one at that Lawrence. The Terror Birds side tracked me last night, 10 feet tall, weighing close to a thousand pounds and a beak that looked like it belongs on an eagle and would have been longer than 2 feet, well it was named correctly that's all I can say. We live in a beautiful bubble buoyed in the universal fabric, within that bubble all of what they're talking about taking care to explore with us is astonishingly complex, wonderous, and just to pee off Richard, magical.
Thank you both Richard and Lawrence for such a rich, rich conversation.