Look, if you've got to kill an hour on religion (and you know you do: life can't all be about the wacky things cultists do) you might as well check out Richard Dawkins at U.C. Berkeley. That's a snippet above.
So why do I think you (whatever you "believe" you are) should watch it? Because the lecture's on atheism, and while Dawkins sometimes gets played for the fool by the media (which I'm learning to thoroughly sympathize with) unfiltered, there's no denying who's who and what's what. You know how it is, when you see someone you might've read or seen, and it's a let-down, or a confirmation of your worst fears? That isn't what's happening here: I like this guy. I thought I might since he made The Enemies of Reason but, hell, Dawkins is so good here - uncut - that I might even have to forgive him for the whole "Brights" thing, cultish as it is in execution; and I never thought I'd ever consider doing that.
But he's really that good. Come on, when was the last time you've heard me say anything like this? Well, it's the truth:
The man's a better speaker than Barack Obama!
This is all well and good, however Dawkins often appears guilty of the very behavior he is mocking in this video when it comes to evolutionary theory. I think there is little question that evolutionary theory is not 100 % complete and air tight, yet quite often those who wish to question certain aspects of this theory (or add to it) are simply dismissed as “creationists” or “intelligent design fanatics”. This is eerily similar to climatologists who call those who question climate change “denialists”. The main problem I have with Dawkins is that he is a scientist and an activist. These are two endeavors which do not and should not go together since the result is always the same; a staunch almost religious belief in their pet theory resulting in the identification, vilification, and isolation of all those who disagree with their shiny perfect hypothesis.
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