1. Comment #1780 by Travis on October 16, 2006 at 5:33 pm

This interview was o.k. The interviewer gave Richard some good questions and allowed Richard to answer them. As to the religious sector in the UK, I think Prof. Dawkins was comparing it Religious political poweer in the US. As far as I can tell from UK news media there is great deal less emphasis put on religion particularly in politics.

PS: Prof. Dawkins is an ethologist not an ethnologist! Sheesh! :(

2. Comment #1785 by Janus on October 16, 2006 at 6:38 pm

A very good performance by prof. Dawkins.

His only flaw, as far as I can tell, is that he tends to spend too much time building the foundation for whatever point he wishes to make, and when the time comes to actually _make_ the point, to draw that final conclusion from the premises, it's usually done in only one or two sentences! I get the impression that it's a habit prof. Dawkins has gotten from communicating so much via writing.

In a book, or even a written interview, these kinds of highly detailed premises are fine, because it's easy, both for the author and the reader, to go back to them to remind themselves where the argument was going, but in a spoken interview, the speaker tends to lose track of the finer points of the argument, and it leads to confusion among those listeners who don't know in advance what point the speaker is trying to make.

Of course, pretty much everyone who frequents this website, and many others who've read prof. Dawkins' books and articles, can often quickly see where an argument is going even if they haven't come across it before, because we have a sense of how prof. Dawkins thinks. But for the sake of the much vaster audience comprised of people who've never head of Dawkins, it might be a good idea to cut down on the lengthy premises, and allocate more time to explaining and expounding on the conclusion(s).

- Janus

3. Comment #1831 by Mike on October 17, 2006 at 4:29 am

The MP3 link appears to be broken

4. Comment #1842 by Andy on October 17, 2006 at 6:01 am

Ditto the above, I only recently "discovered" Dawkins when I heard some of the media coverage of "The God Delusion" which I hastily bought and have been hooked on ever since. Not only is it a full and superbly put set of arguments against the existence of God but it is also well written, humorous (in part) and gives an uneducated person like me a fascinating glimpse into the elegance of Darwinism. This interview gives a light taster to what the book holds and anyone hearing the interview who thinks Prof D makes sense should definately buy the book and get fully converted! I now refer to it as "The Good Book" - Thank you Professor for giving me the set of arguments I couldn't quite vocalise myself to counter the religious beliefs around me. How can thinking people believe this stuff??

5. Comment #2118 by Bob on October 19, 2006 at 2:14 am

Excellent stuff. Clear intelligent material...and that was just the interviewer!...with well thought out replies.