Joe Rogan Experience #1366 — Richard Dawkins Transcript

Transcript

0:00 All right, here we go, Mr. Dawkins. Thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate it. Can you pull that microphone right up to your face? Well, obviously not, because I just produced another one. I'm also humorous. I'm not sure. Yes, that was not BBC. playlets yeah the devil coming on with horns and glowing eyes and and i actually participated in a reenactment of that play in los angeles back in the day a comedy reenactment um bill maher was in

2:55 without being a parody, And I said to him, what's your target audience? disturbing. There's a great documentary on it as well for someone who wants to see the thought is sort of aimed at a younger audience. And I like to think that it can be read at any age, and maybe new leaders arise That kind of makes sense to a biologist looking at diverging species.

6:10 I mean some of the extreme sects which whip themselves with horrible weapons, actually bleed, scar their own backs. Yes, that is the purpose and meaning, right? other hand, is an afterlife really all that comforting? I mean, I don't know. Right. No? who was a major expert on psychedelics. Yes. with this if I had tried this out when I was 30. Well, don't you think the lights go out?

11:10 But there's some interaction with certain chemicals Nothing wrong with it. That guy, really? Well, he was very hostile and in a very weird way. I remember that. Netscape Navigator, I think, maybe. a good debate with you Very amicable and gets there before you finish the sentence. What surprised me was that he turned out to believe in all the other miracles as well,

14:39 Well, what's fascinating to me is not just the old religions, but really the young religions. Mormonism, I'm depressed by how successful it is. and lots of detail about Egypt and Abraham in Egypt and things. And he was 14, too, when he came up with it, which is even more bizarre. Just a boy with a fantastic imagination, and it sort of caught fire. It's just so strange to me that it persists, but the people that practice the religion are so nice.

17:25 If they did, maybe I'd change my tune. believed that cargo planes were sent by their ancestors you would say well get a fiction author particularly a bad one a bad science fiction author And it's so strange that to this day, Yes. that Hollywood directors who were also Scientologists Well, I suppose so. much of what people believe as opposed to actually looking at the evidence. The Center for Inquiry,

22:05 Well, people find great comfort in these belief systems. and allows you to condense your thoughts into a better path. The placebo effect, of course, and here's this thing, like just focusing on it. them actually selling homeopathic remedies, but we can try and do is But they're now no longer allowed to because it violates human rights. It cannot work because there's no active ingredient. I can't wait to tell you the story of chiropractic medicine

26:33 But the point I'm trying to make is that whereas it's an empirical question whether chiropractic works, Yes. Christianity by saying praise Odin. But of course you are. book called The Long Dark Tea Time of Thousands. the Noah's Ark story is very similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh. And there's so many that you see like, And it was like a big deal in the family.

29:27 religion? Yes. Like, I'll never forget that moment because we're all sitting around the dinner table. Right. Of course, there are plenty of individuals who educate that do not believe in a higher power. do you envision a time and I look forward to that time, of course. Richard Wagner And that compares to any one particular Christian to vote for a gay candidate for president, a black candidate for president, a woman candidate

33:29 be immoral. And that is totally ridiculous when you think about the horrible immorality of, for example, both the Bible and the Koran, which are horrific in the sense that if you believe in a higher power. What do you think, let's extract this concept of a higher power, which are really significantly different from 100 years ago or 200 years ago or 300 years ago.

36:06 the slaves. He was passionately anti-slavery. But he too thought that there was no question about anything. videos of yourself debating religious scholars. So that progress of something in the air has, And we've got a project within CFI of downloading free of charge as PDFs several of my books, including The God Delusion, and will be outgrowing God as well.

39:27 There's certainly some sort of a community aspect to religious worship. There's that awful man, what was he called, who ended up taking his followers to a South American jungle. Exactly the same. Well, that would not surprise any naive Darwinian who would say, what on earth do you think do you become the dominant chimpanzee the actual thing that it represents a bonding of the community.

41:44 So you do think he was a real person? Well, that's a separate question. 15. But I think 14, well, the first chapter has been read by one 10-year-old, my acquaintance. She was his granddaughter. Yes. And he also escaped. and she, I've had her on the podcast. Why wasn't she ruined by it, and why – she is so intelligent. It seems to be a part of what we are, though.

45:41 but apart from them, I don't know. is that Jewish people, there are many Jewish people that are not religious, like a great long tradition that he's a part of, but he doesn't observe. When someone sneezes, do you say bless you? Now, when you set out to write this book and write it for young people, how did you structure it in your mind? And then the second half of the book is about science.

49:51 The argument that it's too complicated for it to not be of a divine. like that, we all know they wouldn't work, obviously. but didn't have anything to put in its place. They say, oh, well, he didn't need a designer. how to combat the pushback that they get Sorry, folks, we had a little bit of a technical difficulty. down the generations. So I've always wanted to write a book for young people. And of course,

54:02 but it plays out in very complex ways. And I think think about it, the middle of the 19th century is rather late, 200 years after Newton did, to achieve the feat Yes. That's artificial selection, not natural selection. Mosquitoes, I think. So it's light colored. like Devon and Somerset, stayed with their original color. but that this is how a human being came to be.

59:19 changes like from And 1,000 million years would be bacterium to human. we get a kind of frisson of awe, So I want to thank you for being here, Richard Dawkins, ladies and gentlemen, bye bye