First of a three-part series presented by Richard Dawkins starts tonight at 8:00. It doesn't get much better than this!
The Genius of Charles Darwin - tonight on Channel 4
by funkyderek 7 Replies latest social current
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Octarine Prince
But it can get worse.
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BurnTheShips
No thanks.
I can learn about evolution without having to hear that pompous pontificating jackass for three hours.
BTS
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Octarine Prince
So it doesn't get twisted:
I appreciate Darwin's work, in general.
I don't care that he married his cousin, either. It doesn't change the worth of his scientific output. -
funkyderek
BTTT
Quick, it's about to start!
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jakmarx
just watched it. It was good but ifound dawkins a little preachy / verging on fanatical about it which didnt help! Me wants 2 propigate my dna now
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dorayakii
Dawkins' personality may be rather preachy, and not very forgiving to theists and agnostics, but his way of explaining evolution is pure poetry.
Dawkins: "The total amount of suffering in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to say these words, thousands of animals sre running for their lives, whimpering with fear, feeling teeth sink into their throats. Thousands are dying from starvation or disease, or feeling a parsite rasping away from within. There is no central authority, no safty net. For most animals the reality of life is struggling, suffering and death...
For Darwin, grappling with natures horrors must have been a huge challenge. As a young man he had wanted to become a country parson. He had believed in an orderly and harmonious animal kingdom. Now, he contemplated the brutal reality of nature".
If anyone has actually seen nature, (true nature not our man-made paradise of tamed, domesticated or wild urban animals), he cannot continue in the belief that a benevolent god constructed nature in an orderly, harmonious way. The cruelty of an omnipotent god who punishes sinless animals for the sins of huumans, what alone punishing sinless human children for their 'potential' to sin has no satisfacory judeo-christian answer.
No matter how many times it was explained to me why God "allowed" unbearable severe suffering, I never understood. Maybe yes, it is good for us to feel the pain of a fire, to teach us a lesson about danger, or to suffer the pain of someone's scorn because we hurt them in some way, but the unwarrented suffering of babies, children and adults around the world teaches us nothing and drives man to all sorts of desperation.
Only a natural explanation to life explains why suffering continues. The only way to improve this situation is through humans' evolved sense of inter-species cooperation which led to our morality.
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Satanus
'The only way to improve this situation is through humans' evolved sense of inter-species cooperation which led to our morality.'
It's possible that we are the key to the reduction of suffering on this animal planet. On tv, i see many efforts by scientific types to get a greater understanding of animals; what they eat, where they travel, their sociology, why they do things, etc, and to preserve endangered species. It seems that study of this kind, of nature in a scientific way, which darwin carried out so thoroughly has only just barely begun. We know so little about our planet and the life on it. We humans are only an infant species on the big time line, however, we are the best thing that evolution has thrown up. Our potential may well be infinite.
S