Richard Dawkins: 2 Flaws Plague Unscientific Belief, from Trump & Alt-Right to Religious Doctrine

2 Flaws Plague Unscientific Belief, from Trump & Alt-Right to Religious Doctrine
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What's it like to be worshipped by the Alt-Right? Not good, especially if you're a passionate rationalist like Richard Dawkins. He was very recently accused of Islamophobia by KPFA radio—which is why some of the Alt-Right have flocked toward him—however Dawkins released a statement calling any alleged "abusive speech" by him preposterous, and clarified his views: "I have indeed strongly condemned the misogyny, homophobia, and violence of Islamism, of which Muslims—particularly Muslim women—are the prime victims. I make no apologies for denouncing those oppressive cruelties, and I will continue to do so." Here he responds to how unpleasant it is to have your rational thoughts and your name hijacked by political extremists, and he expresses his disdain for President Trump's policies, specifically the 'Muslim ban'. With that as context, he proceeds to do what he does best: use science to investigate the idea of supernatural gods as the creators of the universe—which is a scientific hypothesis, he states, but one of the failed kind. Dawkins explains that we already have a superb theory of why living things have come into being—Darwinian evolution—and the evils that can come from too much faith. Richard Dawkins' most recent book is Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist.
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RICHARD DAWKINS

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and the former Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is the author of several of modern science's essential texts, including The Selfish Gene (1976) and The God Delusion (2006). Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Dawkins eventually graduated with a degree in zoology from Balliol College, Oxford, and then earned a masters degree and the doctorate from Oxford University. He has recently left his teaching duties to write and manage his foundation, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, full-time. 
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TRANSCRIPT:

Richard Dawkins: It’s very unfortunate when you inadvertently find people agreeing with you who are the last people you would wish to agree with you. I mean, I despise Trump. I despise everything that he stands for. But it’s perfectly true that many people think that I ought to be on his side because he has these draconian, illiberal, horrible policies towards Muslims. I mean, trying to stop Muslims entering the country, what a horrible thing to do. What an impolite, unwise, illiberal, inhumane thing to do. And so I’m embarrassed if people on the Alt-Right agree with something that I say for the wrong reasons.

There’s not a great deal about religion in 'Science in the Soul'. Most of what I have to say about that is in my earlier book 'The God Delusion', so I can rehearse that if you wish. To me, as a scientist, the main argument is a scientific one. I think that the hypothesis that the universe was created by a supernatural intelligence is a scientific hypothesis—it’s a bad hypothesis, it’s a false hypothesis—but it has to be judged on its scientific merits.

The universe would be a very different kind of universe if there was a supernatural creative intelligence in it than if there wasn’t. So much of my argument is a scientific argument. There is no positive reason to believe in anything supernatural. If you look at all the reasons that have been offered, none of them stand up, none of them hold water.

In the form of Darwinian evolution, we have a superb theory of why living things have come into being, why they are the way they are, why they look as though they’ve been designed—and they undoubtedly do look as though they’ve been designed. The illusion of design in living things is immensely powerful and it’s no wonder that until Darwin came along almost everybody believed that it was created by a supernatural intelligence.

But we now have Darwin, we now have Darwin and his successors. We now know how life came about. And the complexity and the beauty, the elegance and the illusion of design of life has always been by far the most powerful argument for the existence of supernatural gods and that is completely blown out of the water.

The secondary argument is whether religion has evil effects, whether religion has bad effects, and on balance I think it does. The real problem is that religious faith prides itself on not needing support. You can’t argue somebody out of their faith, they simply say...

[hadara]

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[howtheworldworks]

Your honest wisdom is always a joy to listen to Richard. Never stop being awesome.

[doyouknoworjustbelieve]

Anything good you do out of faith you can do out of humanity.
Any evil or injustice people do in the name of their faith they can never claim to do out of humanity.

[Thor.Jorgensen]

Anti-Christianity. Not Anti-Christian.
Anti-Islam. Not Anti-Muslim.
I am against bad ideas. Not people.
People can change their minds.

[gemmamorris]

I just love Richard Dawkins!! Though inevitable, i feel so sad that he's getting older :-( I love his voice of reason and get so excited when I see a new video!!! I have all his books and my children love his book 'the magic of reality' a wonderful read for all ages!!!!

[userwl]

It's so good to see him looking well..

[maxwellduo]

God I love this man, its because of him i became an atheist (ex-muslim). I'm happy he speaks against that pathetic excuse of a human being Donald Trump.

[patbrennan]

Faith is a belief in something without evidence, therefore it is not a fact.

[leorandomnickname]

Richard you will always be my hero, you liberated my mind.

[Animeculture]

Imagine making "Information" your enemy ..

[ANDROLOMA]

*"Being religious is often a form of conceit. The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people; I was 'saved, ' they were 'damned, ' we were in a state of grace and the rest were 'heathens.' Our hymns were loaded with arrogance, self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us, what hell everybody else would catch some Judgment Day."*
-Jubal Harshaw

[patwestrope]

I definitely felt that first part, especially. Unfortunately Sam Harris has had to endure the same thing. And worst of all, Hitch, who is no longer here to set the record straight, has people saying he would have been pro-Trump. I can't think of a greater insult to his memory.

[unggrabb]

What a wonferful human being, eloquent, wise, calm, rational and inspiring.

[halimdeucedeuce]

i don't want this man to get older. i want this man to be immortal!

[TylerDurdentyler]

_Religion is an insultto human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. _*_But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion._*  Weinberg*

[bdflatlander]

I thought Bill Maher said it very well in his documentary “Religulous”; “Religion is like selling an invisible product - its just too easy”.

I was loosely raised in the Methodist church but rebelled against it when I was 15 and became an Agnostic Atheist in my early 40’s.

It is my fervent hope that as societies become more enlightened and educated that religion will continue to fall out of favor.

[beesplaining]

He is the voice of reason in a crazy world.

[ThereBeGoldInThemTharHills]

I could listen to the Dawk talk all day.

[nuance]

Everyday the world becomes more secular. More people decide to think critically about how to treat human beings with decency.

[DanielH-pour]

What a wonderful man, and a brilliant mind.