TURN DOWN THE ELEVATOR MUSIC, WE'RE TRYING TO WATCH SOMETHING HERE.

While a lot of that was funny, his sophomoric understanding of the crucifixion suggests that while he may have been a great mind at some things, he didn't really 'bother' to understand what Christianity is based on. Not in any sort of mature way. His glib and flippant dismissal of it suggests an emotionally shallow person, be that true or not.

The music needs to go

Care to explain where you think he's wrong?
What he said as I heard it is what I've always been told by christians...god, Jesus, and the holy ghost are the same thing...and so god sent himself to earth to torture himself for the sins of humanity that he himself created (both humanity and the sin).
Exactly what part of that is wrong? (not glib, flippant, or immature, just a straight question)

This reminds me of the story of the student and the teacher. It is cold, and the teacher blows on his hands. The student asks why...teacher says he is trying to warm his hands.

When the teacher blows on his cup of tea, the student asks why...teacher says it is to cool the tea.

The student leaves in disgust, as the teacher does the same act for two opposite reactions.

Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it is invalid or untrue.

It is sad that Dawkins, if he is right about his atheism, lived a life with no meaning. One brief candle in the darkness, extinguished and forgotten in the vast eternity of the universe. How sad.

Reminds me of that too, but the religious person is the student that doesn't understand reality.
For it to be the other way around, Dawkins being the student, you must change the analogy to :
'the teacher prayed over his cold hands asking big daddy to warm them, then prayed over his tea asking big daddy to cool it, and because he's in a room warmer than his hands, but colder than his tea, offers the temperature changes as indisputable proof that big daddy listens and follows directions. The student leaves in disgust, as the teacher and big daddy do nothing, yet the teacher claims a 'proven', invisible, all powerful hand of big daddy does his bidding.' Just because you feel like you understand it, doesn't mean you're feeling is valid or true.

The really sad thing is that some can't fathom any meaning in life beyond their own silly beliefs in magic. That's so incredibly sad for them and damaging for us all.

*religion

Adding video to channels (Religion) - requested by ant.

No, absolutely not - if he is right about his atheism, it is surely joyous and enviable that he lived his life free from delusion? And sad that billions live and have lived subject to the whim of clever con artists preying on the easily misled. If - as you say - he is right about his atheism.

.

yeah...that's what Christians do...

when they're not building hospitals, feeding the poor, raising their families, defending the nation, going to work every day.

Good luck finding that atheist hospital before you drop into your nihilist, nonexistent afterlife! lol

also, I'm curious... what is precious about life when it has no meaning?

....and when they're not telling others what to do, what to believe, how to love, who to hate, who to kill, who isn't human, which gender is to be subjugated, which race is acceptable to force into slavery....

Plenty of non-religious hospitals out there, (ever hear of Kaiser
Permanente?) but more religious ones because Catholics (and other greedy religions) realized how much money there is to squeeze out of the desperate and bought many non-religious hospitals and quickly raised the prices across the board. Very few religious hospitals are free, or even non profit.

Only a life spent in subjugation to a non existent deity has no meaning, a life well lived and based in reality has great 'meaning'. Existence is precious. Experience is precious. Knowledge is precious. But a life spent trapped in belief is absolutely worthless and meaningless.

The NHS is a non-theistic universal health care system.

Still the pride of the nation despite corrupt politicians trying to sell it off, and creating confusing policy changes and overhauls to try and slow it down and clog it up to make it look like it needs privatisation.

Are you trying to play down the positive influence that atheistic people have had on the world? Because even the pope would call you an imbecile for trying to suggest that the world would be better off without contributions from those who worked under an atheistic remit (i.e. one which was prepared to challenge the traditional, often religious answers). And vice versa - the problem with the world is people who can't find the value in things they don't understand or agree with.

How very small minded of you to think that a life without theism is a life not worth living. I'm sure an alcoholic would say the same to a teetotaller. I couldn't find meaning in a life without god =/= there is no meaning in a life without god.

I tell you what; i'll have a life without meaning as long as you're a coward who is crippled delusional by their fear of the possibility they will one day cease to exist. Do you think your god approves of your behaviour?

If there is a god, he'll prefer my company over yours - i didn't need the promise of sweets later to be good now. I did it because i'm good.

what is precious about life when it has no meaning?

you give your own life meaning. everyone does, including you. the difference is just where you get that meaning from.

Anyone who is honestly "baffled" by ignorance and stupidity isn't that smart to begin with. Ignorance and stupidity is easy to understand. What's difficult is dealing with it in a constructive way.You cannot change someone's mind without proof of some sort.

Theists basically need God to come down from Heaven and tell them that he doesn't exist. That's how hard fighting ignorance and stupidity is.

Life.

If you need someone to tell you what is the meaning of your life to you, there is a long journey inwards you have failed to make. Most don't do it because of fear and are just happy to be empty shells built upon the ideals of others. It is not really your life then, is it? The journey is fucking scary one and one can not trust upon gods to make it thru. You can have them as companions, for solace but not as guides or helpers.

BTW, you will never find the whole answer and the one told to you by someone else is not it either.. No one knows the answer and wondering about that is the most wonderful thing to have. This puts your inner morale in to question: do you have it or are you relying on someone else to tell it to you? How is that any better, to ruin one of the most wonderful part of your life which is asking questions all the way to your grave. My journey thought me that my moral is the same with or without religion, only thing that changed was that the outside matched the inside; there was no more pretending to be holier than i am. I'm true humanbeing now, full and i can enjoy the miracles of life as they really are.

What is precious about life when your meaning is making it to an afterlife?

What exactly would be precious about corporeal life if we earnestly and truly believe eternal life inevitably waits thereafter?

Shouldn't the opposite hold true?

I believe it was billpayer who said life was too precious to...

it is now deleted

Which is why I was asking him...what is precious about life if it has no meaning...

I'm also curious as to why he deleted that comment.

Well, its a pretty deep topic, that can't really be relegated to the comment section of a video hosting site, but just briefly, your first fallacy is that 'he sent himself to be tortured'. Humans tortured and killed Christ according to the story. You can dismiss this as stating that mankind is God's creation so its all some sort of torture circle jerk, but you missed the important element of free will, and that's the critical distinction. Man wouldn't need saving if man is just a puppet of a deity. There's all sorts of other things, including a pretty cursory understanding of the trinity that to me indicates that Hitchens spent too much of his life on the defensive against what he perceived, perhaps justifiably so, as a hostile religious society.

OK, I'm glad you tried though.
Actually I dismiss this as ignoring previous repeated public/biblical statements about god, Jesus, and the holy ghost being a single omniscient and omnipotent super being.
I've been told time and time again that Jesus "sacrificed himself for our sins". That means HE had control, obvious if he/3 is omnipotent, he has control over everything, knows everything, and free will is an illusion/lie...just like the cake. ;-) It simply can't be both ways. Either god is omnipotent or not. There's no such thing as 'partially omnipotent'....it's like saying 'part of infinity'....meaningless. (in case you are unaware, any portion of infinity is infinity)
If it was not intentional, and was all the doing of man, then Jesus didn't do anything FOR us in that death. So why do people thank him constantly? Why do people chastise others with 'Jesus died for your sins...so now you owe him your eternal gratitude'?
Man wouldn't need saving if god didn't CREATE sins to be avoided, or rules and rituals that must be observed (although oddly, every religion interprets the rules differently, even those that take the rules from the same book, which should be impossible if it's really the 'infallible word of god', no? Why would He make his definitive requirements so impossible to understand and follow, unless he's really closer to Loki in temperament and is really just screwing with us all), or punishment for being 'confused' about what's reality and what's not: Hell....or if god doesn't exist, or if god's existence and/or sin is unknown to a person.... (WHAT? What kind of rule system is that?) Reminds me of a joke too....

Aborigine asks the missionary :"So, you say God would not have punished us for sinning if we did not yet know about him or sin, and we would have all gone to heaven?"
Missioinary replies: "Yes, God is compassionate, and would not punish you for not knowing something you could not know, or not knowing rules you had not been taught."
Aborigine replies: "The why the f#ck did you tell us! Asshole!"

This parody article that came out about Dawkins I found to be hilarious:

http://wundergroundmusic.com/richard-dawkins-renounces-atheism-after-smoking-dmt/

It could happen on the spice and I mean it's more than likely if he takes the challenge that people have presented to him (people have been urging him to see the "unknown" loud and clear) that it would alter his perception of reality and how he speaks about these topics completely.

But it's Imagine!!! It's a great song!

Reading these comments, how can believers chalk up something tragic to being part of "God's Plan", if mankind having free will means the deity doesn't necessarily know what is going to happen?

Maybe on my deathbed I will grasp at straws and wish for everlasting life but in my daily life it just sounds like a Hallmark sentiment that people use to comfort themselves and others. There’s not enough pixie dust in the universe for me to snort to get me to believe in everlasting anything, much less shout it from the rooftops. (my essence/soul/personality/memories will be around long after our sun collapses, just because I accepted a deity "into my heart"?).

Some child rapist/murderer repents on his deathbed with seconds to go, and St Peter throws the switch on his soul train to where he now has eternal life instead of eternal damnation. Again, not enough pixie dust.

That is what I am saying. THE pixie dust does exist - you could snort if you wanted to and it would show you - many cultures have for thousands of years - it's called Yopo contains (Bufotenin (5-HO-DMT), 5-MEO-DMT and NN DMT) - I would NOT recommend doing it (take NN DMT and smoke it or do Ayahuasca to get there). But, it's not going to be about what your puny ape brain considers "ever lasting" it is something completely different - to some degree it seems that we are eternal but not in way of ever lasting memory of one life to another, but it does contain "death" as well and you will remember that you've been there before even though it's beyond any fucking ape insect of Earth's imagination or comprehension. Do it and find out for yourself, lol! I was just as cynical as Dawkins about the afterlife until 4 seconds into the experience... it's like an atomic fucking bomb of alien consciousness (gold mine).

And if you haven't actually done it yourself - down voting is down voting through your own ignorance of not having experienced something that bewildering. I'm still surprised that I had enough courage to let it all go to witness the unknown but I do not regret it at all. It takes HUGE balls.

Not necessarily. Perhaps they're downvoting the very idea that a drug experience is the same as a religious one. Perhaps they are downvoting your contention that doing certain drugs and causing yourself a certain amount of permanent brain damage is an act of courage somehow.
I, for one, think they ARE very similar, and that they are both just as meaningless, and both entirely in the mind of the effected, not in the real world in any way.
It's a bit like saying 'to those that don't believe in pink elephants, you simply haven't become addicted to alcohol then suffered from detoxifying hallucinations from a lack of alcohol...as that's the only way to 'see' the 'real' pink elephants, or you can simply believe in them, even though you don't see them, because others have seen them and written about it.

If you are talking about the comment downvote, I'll let you know because I just feel you should know. I am completely tired of reading your banal bullshit addict riddled sounding tripe on the topic of DMT. You're like a broken freaking record. But as is my right to downvote that, so is your's to express yourself.

First of all, DMT is not addicting. That is a motherfucking fact, plus it's too awesome to experience too often (listen to Doug Stanhope talk about it - too awesome for any situation).

Second, where the hell did religion ever come in to play here? It's not about religion at all.

Just like I said to BoneRemake, what makes you think of religion from what I'm writing? I don't belong to any religion whatsoever.

And your metaphor about alcohol is just crazy, maybe one of these days you guys will take the plunge and I hope you do, you too will be amazed that more people are not talking about it.

DMT does not cause brain damage. How can you even begin spreading disinformation when it's obvious that you know nothing about it?

More and more are and I think that is hopeful, because it is probably the most humbling an experience anyone might have. That is why I would love Dawkins to take it - it would humble his shit forever. Yeah, Christianity is a false religion, who cares or doesn't know that, lol!

@shagen454
Why is DMT even being brought up? What does it have to do with this video? Taking any opportunity to interject about the wonders of dmt when not talking about it in anyway feels very much like someone who has recently found god/religion and their need to tell everyone(although i dont know how true that actually is). Just sayin thats what it looks like from where im standing.

This....
"THE pixie dust does exist - you could snort if you wanted to and it would show you" ....

The pixie dust @ulysses1904 first referenced and you replied to is (from my reading) the pixie dust that makes you religious.

You assume I have not 'taken the plunge' just because I don't take it the same way you do? Quite an assumption for you to make, an erroneous one. I've taken many a 'trip' in my day, on many a substance. I feel that I have enough grasp on reality to understand that anything they made me see or feel was a chemical reaction in my brain to a drug, not a mystical, religious, spiritual, or other experience.

Drug experience are as false as religion, IMO. Your mind creates images and thoughts that are not based in reality. If you can gain some measure of peace or knowledge from that, good for you, most can't, and suggesting they take unregulated, often permanently damaging drugs in a random setting is not responsible.

But answer this, have you taken DMT? You might have taken all sorts of substances but you probably understand that they are all vastly different.

Also, there are actual techniques for taking the stuff. Technique is important and one of the key components for taking it in any of it's numerous forms.

It might "feel" like someone who's found god/religion but that comes down to brainwashing & propaganda. Just like the propaganda that is spread about drugs in general that are scheduled (that they are unhealthy and have no health benefits). The atheist trend is just a trend and everyone is going along with it. I'm not saying I believe in god but that things are a lot more complicated than that.

I commented because it's Richard Dawkins, who in my mind - has a position - one that I had for most of my life in fact. That really there is nothing that can't be explained. Sure, DMT affects the serotonin 5-HTA sites, who cares, It's messing with your brain. So, what? What the person experiences is really the only thing I have ever encountered that truly is a mystery. It opens up that dialog that, really, no one knows what the hell is going on in the Universe if such as strange thing is possible. And in my mind, that is incredible.

What @eric3579 said.
Not the first time you have hijacked a thread to espouse the wonders of DMT. Are you a chemist that makes the stuff or what? It is not a 'safe' drug in any way.
If it's not about being a 'religious experience', your interjection of it here is out of place and odd.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 12:31pm PST - promote requested by newtboy.

See now I can tell you really know nothing about it, since you do not need to be a chemist. You could grab yopo seeds and just smoke those (they were found in a 3,000 year old bowl in Costa Rica - people have known about it for a long time, then for some reason it became a secret - I think Christianity stepped in to get rid of the knowledge of it), it's found throughout nature - you could grab some acacia bark, boil it and drink. It is safe and it is not dangerous. It's been studied many times and is still being studied for how it affects the brain & as well for it's natural therapeutic effects. It is believed to be endogenous - that is it already exists within your being (it's in many plants and animals, recently found produced in an animal's pineal gland). Not a huge Tool fan but they often allude to this substance, the pineal gland, Alex Grey's artwork - pretty sure they know full well of what it is.

Anyway, I totally did derail the comments and I do apologize for that, but you guys were calling me "religious" and downvoting me so I took offense. I derailed mostly to post the link about Dawkins having a profound experience that humbles his approach, it was a joke - but really I think all of us that have experienced the wonders would love people like Dawkins to spend the 5-10 minutes to experience it and then hear what he has to say about it.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, February 14th, 2015 1:45pm PST - promote requested by shagen454.