Jersey Nick
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Re:Dawkins on CNN, Monday - 2007/02/13 12:26
The atheist portion of the show was less than 1/3 of the hour. Dr. Dawkins only had a few minutes and a grand total of 375 words. That having been said, Dr. Dawkins his usual self, and they didn't seem to have edited him much. Ellen Johnson was on the panel discussion and she was awful - at one point even saying she disagreed with Dawkins. American Atheists really needs a better mouthpiece. Rachel Maddow from Air America was the only panel member that was worth 2 cents.
I'm not hooked up to get my recording onto youtube, but you can read the full transcript here.
Here's the Dawkins interview:
ROBERTS: Well, after we first brought this topic out in the open, most of the e-mails that we received were from people who thought that we should have included an atheist in our discussion.
So, now we're going to turn to one of the world's most prominent atheists. Richard Dawkins is an Oxford University professor whose bestseller sparked worldwide controversy. "The God Delusion" argues that belief in God is not only irrational, but it can be deadly. Paula spoke with him just a couple of days ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD DAWKINS, AUTHOR, "THE GOD DELUSION": Why don't you believe in Thor? Why don't you believe in Zeus? Nobody believes in most of the things that you could believe in. You're an atheist with respect to the flying spaghetti monster.
I am an atheist with respect to the Judeo-Christian God, because there is not a shred of evidence in favor or the Judeo-Christian God, or, indeed any other God.
ZAHN: It strikes me that the atheist message is particularly threatening to some Christians because they believe, in some way, you're trying to compromise their ability to have this stuff out there on the public stage.
Is there any public role, as far as you're concerned, for religion?
DAWKINS: I think people should be free to believe whatever they like, to write whatever they like, to say whatever they like, within -- within reason.
But the problem is that religious people, I think especially in America, and also in the Islamic world, are in the habit of getting it all their own way and are remarkably intolerant of atheists.
ZAHN: But why do you think they are so remarkably intolerant of atheists?
DAWKINS: Well, I think there's a sort of historic misunderstanding of what atheism is.
For some reason, people have been brought up to believe that atheists have two horns and a tail. I mean, there are figures that show that atheists are the most mistrusted group in America, which is pretty astonishing, considering, as I say, the innocuousness of what they actually are. They are just people who hold a different belief system.
ZAHN: Certainly, you have encountered people, though, who are intimidated by your message, that, in some way, it puts perhaps their own faith in doubt?
DAWKINS: Well, why would anybody be intimidated by mere words?
I mean, neither I, nor any other atheist that I know, ever threatens violence. We never threaten to fly planes into skyscrapers. We never threaten suicide bombs. We're very gentle people. All we do is use words to talk about things like the cosmos, the origin of the universe, evolution, the origin of life. What's there to be frightened of in just an opinion?
ZAHN: Final question: How would you characterize the overarching public reaction to atheism?
DAWKINS: Misunderstanding, and really missing an awful lot of what's valuable, because, if you're an atheist, you know, you believe this is the only life you're going to get. It's a precious life. It's a beautiful life. It's something that we should live to the full, to the end of our days, whereas, if you're religious, and you believe that there's another life, somehow, that means you don't live this life to the full, because you think you're going to get another one.
That's an awfully negative way to live a life. Being an atheist frees you up to live this life properly, happily, and fully.
ZAHN: Richard Dawkins, we really appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much for joining us.
DAWKINS: Thank you.
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