The Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens

[Undesired Walrus]

MuyUz2XLp1E
Terrific fun. Produced by richarddawkins net.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyUz2XLp1E

[Skeptical Greg]

Four Horsemen Roundtable Video

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=101346

[qayak]

MuyUz2XLp1E
Terrific fun. Produced by richarddawkins net.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyUz2XLp1E

Didn't see this sooner! Great video, great discussion. Thanks very much.

[andyandy]

interesting discussion.....i'd never seen dennett before - he's rather Randi-esque :)

[Cueshark]

Thanks Walrus. I had no knowledge of this video.

Even though I've only watched the first couple of minutes I am already in awe at Daniel Dennet's admission about showing his book to religious people for their analysis. It seems so obvious a thing that a critical thinker would do but compare it to a religious author asking the opinion of a panel of skeptics before releasing their books. Would never happen*

Rant over + thanks.

*edit* - Before I make a huge sweeping statement I'd like to rephrase slightly stating that in my knowledge, religious authors don't often re-write their material based on a view of non-believers. They assume the validity of their knowledge based on their belief. It's all so circular. :<

[drzeus99]

I watched both hour segments and thought it was terrific !!

[danielk]

Hint: Go for for the Google video links in the other thread. Or directly to Dawkins' site. You can download the videos there in much higher quality.

[EGarrett]

As an atheist/skeptic, even I admit this is kind of a circle-jerk.

[KingMerv00]

As an atheist/skeptic, even I admit this is kind of a circle-jerk.

What's wrong with that? Church-goers do it once a week.

I was also amused by the drink selections:

Dennett: Martini
Dawkins: Martini
Harris: Perrier
Hitchens: Brown liquor. (Scotch? Wild Turkey?)

[Undesired Walrus]

Hitchens does the same thing he always does in this.

He begins with me being impressed by his intelligence and insight, but then I somehow fall into a sudden loathing of the man so strong I cannot say I'd be sorry to see him repeatedly beaten up by an army of kickboxers.

The man, IMO, is just so uninspiring..

[danielk]

Really? I can't help it but I like the guy, despite his faults.

[dacium2007]

He is quite a character, i like the way he was portrayed on the pen and teller show also, as a guy who liked his liquor and smokes. I tried reading his book and blah, the start is horrid, horrid. Its like he tried to pick as many unusual and seldom used words as he could to make him sound more professional or something. I'll give it other go, but gah, its a tough and rough read compared to dawkins and harris.

I don't know anything about Dennett mainly because he is a softy and focusses on non-athiests.

I still don't get harris' stance on the mind. Sometimes you think he is saying that there is something 'next world' about it and that macro scale 'buddism' type religion is useful for use to learn about consciousness, but then he backflips with his nuerology.

Dawkins is begining to piss me off, he ALWAYS brings up the same old stuff, things that he has already said in his books, like the story about picking music to take to a desererted island, jeez I must have heard him tell that story on 10 seperate occasions. I think he needs to start assuming most people have read his book.

[KingMerv00]

Jeez...guess I'm weird. I like them all for different reasons.