Somebody made an 8-minute clip of my conversation with Dawkins last night and posted it on YouTube. Since the organizers didn’t film the event, which is a pity, I’ll put this up. The sound is awful, but perhaps you can make out what Richard is saying.
It does include my favorite question for him, which begins at 1:53.
And I didn’t realize I slouched so much—perhaps a submissive posture in the presence of an pack leader?
and a nice tweet from Richard:
“And I didn’t realize I slouched so much; perhaps that’s a submissive posture in the presence of an alpha dog.”
I chuckled at that. I would guess the last time you felt that way was before you had big boy pants.
The sound of this is too poor for my smart phone. I will try sin with headphones on my PC later.
Wow, spell checker changed again to sin…lol
If that’s the case them christians that keep eating the geebus again, again, and again are really in trouble.
My headphones didn’t quite do it but, they are the cheep ones. Too much echo for mine and me to resolve.
Yeah, I’m thinking such insouciance might be saying just the opposite. 😉
(Thinking of William F. Buckley on Firing Line…sometimes his head barely cleared the back of his chair…)
I think the slouching probably has more to do with the gawdawful doctor’s reception room chairs they provided for your seating. So the organizers not filming might be their lesser sin.
I too noticed the slouching, but my explanation is that you were doing it to better show the cowboy boots. They show up really well in one of the photos.
Christ hide?
Richard should’ve been wearing boots, too – anything but grey socks with cream trousers and brown shoes! 😉 (He’s very natty otherwise.)
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Jeez, everyone’s a critic. I thought he looked very well put-together.
Yeah but he didn’t show what I call “ankle flesh” (that flesh between the pants and socks – if you see mine, you go blind!) even once.
Dang, that’s frustrating–the sound quality, that is! Enjoyed what I could make out, though. 😀
That’s about what it sounded like: terrible. I figured that you were either supremely comfortable, or your mother never taught you to sit up straight. F just thought you were relaxed and casual.
Yes. This is the quality I heard from the middle rows. Very hard to understand. If they had put it up on the big screen, I would have had a better time as I rely a little on lip reading.
Clearly the slouching is a result of the satisfying noms and beer that one had beforehand. It is a posture of content!
I was in 2nd row close to center and even from there sound quality was poor and I missed some comments.
A conversation between two of the people I admire most, and trying every sound resource I have, I cannot make out more than a few words. What a shame, and I’m sure I speak for others as well. If better recording turns up, please be sure to share it. All best.
The sound quality was bad but I was able to make out most of it. I think this is because I just have a good ear for words.
I was once in a meeting and we had an international phone call on speaker phone at work and some of the audio was bad. The poor Aussie we were talking to kept saying, “I can’t hear you! You sound like you’re in a fish bowl”. Everyone was puzzled at what he was saying until I told him & he replied, excitedly, “yes yes that’s what I said! You sound like you’re in a fish bowl!”. I joked that I was the translator between the Canadians, Americans & the Aussies. 😀
I noted the different sitting styles in the pictures and more took this as Richard has amazing posture. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him slouch. Maybe it’s Canadians and Americans that just have sloppy sitting. 🙂
I can’t believe you wrote “tweet” instead of “t–t” 🙂
Perhaps Jerry’s mellowing because Richard (♥) uses Twitter … 😉
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My thoughts ‘xactly… Also, Hili has a dog coz…. 🙂
Oh, a word of caution for other readers: I used my earphones and cranked up the volume to hear as much as I could hear of the interview (and succeeded in hearing a lot), but had my ears blown out when the audience broke into enthusiastic applause!
Ha ha! I kept having an amusing image of Jerry smacking Richard’s phone out of his hand when he tried to tweet. 🙂
I scrolled down and saw it again: your slouch has become sort of a leitmotif. Perhaps a chaise lounge might be more comfortable? I’m JUST JOKING, Jerry. 🙂
It was such a great talk, it was really amazing to see you both speaking in front of me rather than in a youtube video. And thank you for the ticket!
The Iraqi-American-woman Atheist, minority trifecta.
I’d slouch too after all that bread pudding and beer.
“truth trumps comfort” But not for everybody
The above is the question Jerry refers to at 1.53.
I am wondering if others have experienced similar thoughts to the below. For me I am happy that when our lives end that’s it. However it is difficult to imagine, at least for me. One is trying to imagine nothing at all and it’s a bit like the infinity of the universe – beyond our current comprehension.
I have been married for 29 years so I know my wife well. She knows I have firm views that there is / are no god (s) but we don’t talk religion much. However I pushed here recently to say whether or nor she believed in a god and she said yes, maybe.
I thought about what it meant. We have recently had a bereavement and we have elderly parents and so it may not be long before the next. The concept of an afterlife means that the dead relatives are not fully gone but “looking down on us” and “with us”. Whilst I, and perhaps you, would view this as untruthful, dishonest etc I think it does provide a useful form of denial or buffering from the hard truth (imo) of a simple and final end.
The human capacity for denial is great and partly useful if we face consequences we can do nothing about eg death of a close one. Of course denial is also damaging with myriad examples.
So yes, for me and others like me there is no comfort in any thought of an afterlife as there is no evidence that this is the case. However for those of a different disposition I can see how comfort may come before truth.
I’m suddenly reminded of what Dr. Oliver Sacks once said in a book, when speaking of schizophrenia — that in a rare instance, the more compassionate thing for him to do was to leave a mental patient in her delusion.
I think we have to be fully aware of the choices we make and be prepared to live with those consequences.
I’ve recently learned that some people consider themselves merely *cultural* Christians, Muslims and so on, and don’t really adhere to all the doctrine. It makes life go more smoothly for them in their social circles, and has some professional benefits of networking. But do they see the larger picture of the problems of religion and the untruths they pass on to the next generation?
Sure, of course people would prefer delusion over reality and it’s probably a reflection of their personality type and their environment. I’ve always been the “gotta know the truth” kind of person which brings with it a certain bit of malaise but I can’t rest until I know. The saddest part of me about dying, is missing out on knowing more things.
Then there are others like a religious cousin of mine who we don’t even push to see that her god is a myth because we feel she’d have a complete and utter bread down if she were faced with that fact.
Ain’t that the truth.
I liked this very short review of Dawkins’s new book.
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Well here is the connection!
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Sorry, but it won’t copy.
One more try using the shortener:
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And if this doesn’t work, I apologize for the space taken.
Now I’m dying to know what you’re trying to post. 😀
Give us a hint (key words or site title) so we can search – there are other methods other than urls to find things!
Can’t understand nuffink!
Acoustinks!
In the first couple minutes, Dawkins is talking about a book he was “taken in by,” but I couldn’t hear clearly enough. Does anyone know the title of the book and the name of its author?
Terrible acoustics! Struggled to understand that 🙁