richard dawkins - beyond reason channel 4

[Sheherazadethegoat]

i am loving it - i hate those parasitic mediums.

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bugger dd is awake - and there is no reasoned arguement to be had with her!!

I tend to avoid threads about mediums/tarot/homeopathy etc coz I'm scared of being ganged up on.

I did post on the one about rescue remedy though, but I don't think anyone noticed me sneak in and out.

forgot to video it

bollards!!

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I thought it was an interesting programme but I found his sneering dismissal of anything that could not be explained by the laws of science nauseating.

I'm a scientist by training and I know that there are many things in this world that cannot be explained (as yet) using the laws of physics, chemistry, biology etc.

The problem is that people think that just because some charlatans exploit vulnerable people using these beliefs e.g. tarot cards, mediums etc, then anybody who believes in allied topics are equally demented and and need enlightening.

I thought his comment that science was the poetry of the world was beautiful. However, I wanted to ask him

"If you believe that everything we believe in should be emperically proven, then prove to me that you love your wife using the laws of nature".

You know what, he would not be able to and nor could anyone because it a feeling that comes from within. Just like spirituality.

quite peeved that it is on at dd's bedtime so i miss it.
maybe instructive telly for a 2yr old? never to young to start i think

Speedymama: am well impressed by your description of Dawkins & his sneering. you put it very well. My DH is a scientist too, and does not dismiss everything 'unexplained' either. Quite happy to believe that our friend who dowses for water, for example, and earns his living at it, has an as-yet unexplained skill.

I thought it was good but his phrasing quite abrasive.

sort of: If you dont subscribe to science you're nuts, sadly

I believe in science and I believe in feelings - I think they can exist side by side.

I used to be a big believer in mediums etc..until I went to see Derren Brown.

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that is his style though and i don't think he rubbished anything that did not deserve to be rubbished.

poor old dowsers were not sneered at just subjected toa double blind test which they failed.

how did you want me to phrase it?

I accept science

Better?

I found his discription of the attendees who went to see the Indian guy speak as "being at the less strident sandal wearing end of the spectrum" or words to that effect as very demeaning and puerile.

If he would lose the malevolence towards anybody who does not think like he does,I would find him more bearable. That's why I refuse to read the God Delusion - I'm sure it is littered with his incessant, pithy, purile diatribe.

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speedy, it is.

Excellent book though.

"being at the less strident sandal wearing end of the spectrum"

oh come on, that was quite restrained. and he didn't say a world about the loons in teh spiritualist church.

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of course, the rock is effectively alive at a sub-microscopic level. But the 'rockness' of the rock was a bit lost on me.

Pruners, man use to belief that one day the Sun would fall out of the sky until Newton came along with his second law of motion (the law of gravitation).

Belief precedes scientific proof.

I found it dragged on a bit towards the end like he'd made his point, let it go - but it was very interesting. (the book I mean)

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man use to believe

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puerile or not sometimes it gives me some satisfaction. especially when subjected to mainstream babbling about some 'alternative' wishy washy waste your money here nonsense