I will be on a tour of North America, the UK & EU, talking about my latest book, religion, life on Earth and Beyond. I will be joined on stage by a range of friends and foes. The events will include a Q&A and a limited meet-and-greet. You can get your tickets here: richarddawkinstour.com

'You have to understand. Most people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured and so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.' Morpheus

Its funny how 15 years ago (when this lecture took place), when the Internet was younger, it was considered that religion was the only area when freedom of speech was not allowed, because of someone being "offended". 15 years on and everyone is offended by everything and offending is a crime.

Its sad that in 2024 someone has to tell people that there is no invisible man in the sky.

Thank God for Richard Dawkins!

The world is still so ignorant and primitive. Thank you, Richard, for your contribution to “true” progress.

I was 5 years old when I told my extremely religious Roman Catholic parents that I didn’t believe Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or God. That didn’t go very well, especially since we were at Christmas mass and as we were leaving, the priest asked me, “Did God bless you by sending Santa to give you presents?” My response was, “Nope, I think my mom just made up Santa and God so I’d be good.” (That’s the story that my mother likes to tell people, I don’t really remember what is said, but I do remember the priest being quite upset about my answer and scolding my mother at the time. Again, my mom was the one who punished me at the time. Not God) As a child, I was very inquisitive, I would ask how could Santa fit in the stove pipe? Wouldn’t Santa burn himself? Why doesn’t Santa just use the door? How can Santa’s reindeer fly without wings and how does the sleigh stay in the air? We had rabbits, so I couldn’t figure out how they could lift even 1 chocolate Easter Bunny, they had a hard time with the big carrots I’d give them, never mind delivering chocolate bunnies to every kid in the neighbourhood. It all just seemed so foolish to me. Then there was God… I didn’t believe in that from the first time that I heard it. My grandfather couldn’t hear me from across the room, so how could God hear and see everything that I said and did when he was nowhere to be seen? My mother said one day, “ Don’t repeat the words that you heard your grandfather say when he was working on his car, or God will punish you.” Well..that was just an invitation to try it. I went to the barn, and sheepishly repeated those words… curiously looking up for my punishment. Nothing. So, I said more bad words. Nothing. I said them louder over and over again as I walked around the barn. Nothing. Then at one point after spewing a who plethora of bad words, I turn to see my mother standing there. God may not have punished me, but she sure did. That was 50 years ago. At no point since that time could my parents, relatives, the church, 12 years of Catholic school or catechism has anyone ever been able to convince me that a God exists. Especially after I found out that there were 1000’s of different Gods that people believed in all over the world, that was it…..Religion and God were forever put into the category of absolute nonsense in my mind. The only thing that I can figure as to why humanity created God and religion was…and still is to control the ignorant masses by making them believe that there is an invisible man in the sky that can see and hear everything that you say and do, including knowing your thoughts. It’s genius actually. What a great way to make people follow the rules in a society, and what a great idea to make the powers that be the ones who just happen to be the ones that dish out God’s punishments as they say fit. I think religion is necessary, otherwise I do think that chaos would ensue. The Christian religion, thought flawed, seems the be the one that has created the most successful societies, so I say, let them believe…. It keeps them civil.

This is Dawkins on fire..quite magnificent.

What a great talk ! Thank you !

Children do not have any religion, until fear and false promises are instilled in them.

Marvellous speaker and tutor. One of the greatest minds in the world.

The one who opened my eyes to the greatest show on Earth. He unweaved the rainbow for me and also helped me climb up mount improbable... Thank you dear Sir...

Respect for you!!,❤❤

Lots of things learnt from you. Please continue to put more videos ❤❤❤❤. Love from 🇮🇳🇮🇷

1,000,000 times, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. You have been a great influence for many generations, and you will be for many more. Thank you for promoting reason, critical thinking and common sense (something that seems to be less and less common these days).

I dont "know" what comes after life...but the fact some folks think they DO is what bugs me the most

Great presentations from a true Scientist !

How come I can listen to Dawkins lectures for hours on end but I lose total interest in religion after reading one quote from the Bible ? We are the universe observing itself.

" Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think." Werner Heisenberg

Love from Bulgaria.. i speak little English but I want to share my mind with u sir! U are inspirasion! And i was god believer then piece by piece i became an atheist and that was really hard and painful procces forme and my feelings!

This book cemented my atheism.

Future is coming, Ladies and gentlemen!

What happened to "Agnostic" just meaning: "It is impossible to know the answer, therefore no reason to pursue it."

I worship the sun ☀️ but I pray to Joe Pesci! - George Carlin

I love when a sports team loses. You never hear 👂 the following: “ Jesus wasn’t with us today.” 😂😂😂😂😂 😲 😲 😲 😲 😲

Even if there wasn't a God --IT STILL would be useful to follow the wisdom of the Bible!!

Richard rocks! 😎

It's such a tragedy that the people that need to see these type of videos are not even considering watching them. The comments show that every time, everyone agrees, obviously, but the ones that need convincing are nowhere to be found. Except for the few times people scream that Rich is gonna burn in hell for what he says, proving once again that their whole life philosophy is based on fear and treats. I honestly think that altough these discussions are very interesting, the goals of getting humanity behind reasoning and logic, will not be achieved this way. Knowing how religious people often think, it may even enforce their beliefs. Thanks anyway, Rich. We all know you did your utter best to unite humanity and to some extend, you really did.

Dearest Richard, Thank you.. this was awesome

I don’t believe in religion or astrology; I’m a Capricorn and we’re skeptical.

Thanks again for this wonderful lecture wish all a great Life

Thank goodness we have human evolution-derived morality and experiential (what works over time) moral progress to judge the negativistic intolerance, absurdity and preposterousness of events and characters contained in such outdated old or ancient pre-science tribalist books such as the Jewish Bible, the New Testament, the Quran, and the Book of Mormon.

"Most people are never going to die because they'll never be born." I am in awe that in a huge, complex universe, I came into existence and in this power filled universe that I can only glimpse or understand tiny aspects of, I can determine my path in life, make choices, survive. That is why I don't find death unfair, that's why I don't concern myself about why we are here.

Refuting the Stork Theory in a heresy we should not allow.

Great presentation Dr. Dawkins! Big fan! Cheers! ❤

Our minds are amazing, we don't even know it, but we can choose what to fill our minds with. Then hoping for the best outcome?

Richard Dawkins, you have done profound work for this world. I am so thankful that I live in a time where I can see and hear your teachings without living in a place where I would have otherwise been restricted from hearing your voice because it “goes against their beliefs.” You are so incredibly brave to stand against the enemies of reason and to let the world hear what you have to say about blind faith and unquestioning dogmatic belief.

I will start by telling you I loved your video and discussions. I will comment on my thoughts of the universe with the leanings of my atheist thoughts. I lean more towards God, agnostic, and atheist line of thought. But your outline is something to think about. I’ll also reveal, my folks, when asked if I should go to church, told me it was up to me. I was seven. Much later, I began educating myself at 18 while going on leave on a USAF radar training break. On the bus I met a US Army man, and we talked philosophy. I read an introduction to philosophy book during our travels. It began my philosophical quest, which has continued to my eighties. Let us consider how mankind think. Our upbringing and most of our education proposes that there is a beginning and an end. We are born and we die. We start a project, and we complete it or abandoned it. And so forth. I’ll jump right in with my thoughts of the universe. If the universe has existed always, then there is no beginning/no end. Meaning the universe as a premise, it just IS. I also think it is logical to assume the universe is finite, another speculation. Thinking that the universe is infinite, seems illogical. That would mean it is continuing creating particles to establish infinite particles. To me, it is absurd to think of particles out of nothing. To digress: I took two calculus classes taught by a Bell Labs scientist at the University of Hawaii, remote location. His introduction to calculus, included the statements; ‘the two most difficult concepts to grasp, are the terms infinity and infinitesimal.’ He went on to explain, other than the universe (perhaps), mathematics is the only place the concept of infinity is valuable, as it is for infinitesimal. He then offered this example; You can walk across a line easily. And you can also mathematically define a path between two lines, such you can continuously divide the distant one is traveling between those two lines in half, such that you never cross the line. That point between that division of halving the distance and the point just before crossing the line is the infinitesimal. Those are two concept we will discover in calculus. Besides the above, I found that considering the universe as always existing with no beginning or end is just as difficult or more so, than the concepts of infinity and infinitesimal. But there it is. The consideration the universe always existed, is no more mind boggling than God always existed, and built the universe. Me? It is much more logical/reasonable to believe the former. And as a humorous comment: God has all these particles tucked away in his pocket. A finite contained universe existing with no beginning or end would mean an endless universe, with condensation to begin another cycle and so forth. So then, time as a measurement is defined as the motion (or even not-motion) based upon motion of other things within the confines of an environment of energy and mass. I submit: Clocks (no matter what kind) will change their characteristics based on environment, and not that they change their characteristics based on time as an entity. If so, the internal mechanism of the clocks is affected by the environment, not affected by the time within the environment. Perhaps the energy or the mass is changing because of its underlying fields. As an aside, the two greats, Newton and Einstein provided the scientific community with formulas which are very descriptive of the gravity and time-space. Still, little is known of the specifics of gravity. And, I have only read of one occurrence of the detection of a gravitational wave. Though, there may be more. And based upon the above, time is metrics such as volume, length, mass, and others. Clearly defined as a standard. Summary: Belief based upon what I think is logical, the universe has always existed. Time is a metric. We as mankind has developed over billions of years. Although, impossible to prove, I believe in Free-Will. And I have enjoyed you discussion on these and associated topics. Please continue to challenge the biblical nonsense. Thank you and the very best, Dale Hamilton, Dale-marie@hotmail.com

One of my favourite lectures of all times. Unfornunately, making these points about religion is not enough today. In real politics of today you have to choose whom to side with, just to protect culture and reason itself. That's why we see more and more smart and free thinking people turning mild (secular, non-theist, cultural) Christians to oppose Woke and Islamists that want to erase our culture and kill the idea of freedom.

Big words for a insignificant clump of matter in this magnificent universe 🐺

Great video. Thanks

I been born in Christian house, I am Buddhist most of my life. Rebirth effect also.

I first started to study/question religion at roughly 9 years old ... just before my 10 year. I remember this time well as I underwent IQ testing. My best friend then was the eldest son of my Reverend. In those days I did not pose questions directly to my Reverend but rather posed them to his two sons. This was much safer. The subsequent discussions between my friends were very confusing. Almost 60 years later I still question the same questions.

Fantastic lecture.

I'm 52yrs. my dad's 81yrs yet every time I land my $75,000 biweekly return he sounds like an angel when asking for something!!!!!

Up!💙💛💚❤️

Your lectures work miracles, dear Richard.

Not an old Christian or religious person in the audience. How nice.

Dawkins is right: GOLD IS A DELUSION!

Most physicists working on Quantum Mechanics, confess there are scientifically inexplicable realities.

Excellent explanation...Long live Richard Dawkins...

"People would rather believe than know." E. O. Wilson (1929-2021)

18:16 - this, the "termination of the regress" is, I believe, one of the primary sticking points between rationality and religion. Rationalists will say "well, where did your god come from?" And the religious, feeling sublimely coy, say "well, where did your big bang come from?" And if we're being quite rational, we have to admit that not only one, but both questions are fair questions. What I say then is two-fold: 1) All attempts to regress lead to infinite regression. To finally terminate regress, at some point we have to choose to stop. We have to say "It's turtles all the way down," or say "there was no before, because time didn't exist until that instant," or say "time isn't linear," or "God didn't need to be created, he/she/it is infinite," or very bravely rest upon "I don't know." But what I'll say of the god "solution" to this dilemma is this: If you're willing to accept that something did not need a beginning, why not suppose that of existence itself, which is evidenced before you, while god is not? Existence is perhaps a more suitable candidate for the assumption, given that it's here, and we know spontaneous generation and absolute material destruction are imaginary. Physics evidences and suggests the infinity of existence property to a non-linear time. Even though the latter half of that is hard to relate to from the perspective of the human experience, existence is at least evidenced, while nothing evidences god. If I must put my faith in something (and we all do, to some extent, unless we're nihilists) it's reasonable for me to place it in the former, rather than the latter. 2) With rationality and science, we may not be able to answer all questions, but gloriously we can ask them, and we can bravely say "I don't know" sometimes, and so we can invest ourselves in curiosity while we strive for a better understanding. When some instead recuse themselves with a Jedi hand-wave and say "god did it," these questions are done for. It is valid, and somewhat grand, to say "where did your big bang come from?" It's a fantastic question. And isn't it fantastic to be able to ask such a question, and to wonder, and to perhaps one day be able to understand the answer? But if we cut off our critical faculties, if we suspend reason and questioning to simply say "god did it" and terminate the regress with a bold-faced, unevidenced assumption - then that is the end of questioning, it is the end of discovery (for those individuals, at least).

This man fulfilled the criteria to be considered a walking god: a superior knowledge creator who has shown us the sacred path to follow as humans. Respect!

Dawkins was a man with great potential, but squandered it promoting hatred of religion.

More people need to hear this.

I am 86, through my life experience I believe, without any tangible proof, in God's existence. Why ? Because any person gains something in believing and nothing in not believing. For my age I consider God as a good, silent friend that has helped me sometimes when asked and some times without being asked. So, more than my intelligence, my instinct tell me to believe.

@Richard Dawkins do you have an answer for David Hume's problem of induction?

Professor Dawkins 🌟🌟🌟 I love you so much. I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your profound contributions to the fields of science and reason. Your unwavering dedication to advancing knowledge and promoting critical thinking has inspired countless individuals, myself included. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 infinitely for your tireless pursuit of truth and your commitment to fostering a deeper understanding of the natural world. Warmest regards 👩‍🔬🔬🩷

If we were born in 2000’s America we’d be unconsciously worshipping our intellectual egos

Great topic. My son is 6 years old and knows many gods, Horus, Rama, Jupiter. He calls them imaginary creatures like Unicorns. Maybe one day he will hear of the middle eastern god called Yaweh and Allah.

What would the episode have looked like had I seen it a week earlier?

Not in our family! At the age of nine or ten I started to question Catholicism which didn't go down too well as my uncle is a priest. He's a really good bloke and has done a lot of good in our family but I just don't buy the religion.

Raise children in the truth.

Truth! Thank you for the profound and stimulating inspiration!

The devil (he or she whom abides in error or untruth) is a liar and a lie. We move forward in truth only.

Brilliant!!

Luckily, a mind as brilliant as Dawkins has dedicated some of his attention to such an important topic. Many of us are delighted to have lived at the same time as Dawkins. Reading The Selfish Gene just gave me the final push to abandon the religion that had been "imposed" on me since I was born. I finally managed to understand that there was another explanation for my existence than a God. This was Evolution.

Brilliant speech, thank you.

1:13:19 Francis Crick, not Collins. Wonder if Richard caught that.

Brilliant.

(From the news of the Royal Society ,19 July 2017): "Richard Dawkins' 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, has topped a public poll of the most inspiring science books of all time, commissioned by the Royal Society to mark the 30th year of the prestigious Royal Society Science Book Prize. It is followed by Bill Bryson’s 2003 book A Short History of Nearly Everything in second place, and Charles Darwin’s 1859 classic On the Origin of Species in third place."

What about Islam when they talk about religion they never include Islam why??????

Please read about " Explanatory Gap” as explained by a physicist friend, Cal Tech Alumni

People are so embedded in the abyss of ignorance,no the truth then we are freeeeee!!

I am God and i have a new message. I just need to choose one man to give it to, and tell him to tell everyone else in the whole world. What could possibly go wrong? 🤪

God is just a mem, master

Great question at 58:52, cited his response in a structured arguments map on Kialo "What is God?" and "How did our Universe begin to exist?" (check them out) about why God is not a meaningful concept or word in the cosmological-metaphysical question how our universe came to be; it doesn't make sense to use the word God for that when it refers to so many things while there are better-fitting words that more clearly communicate what is meant and also aren't attributed with so many things that imply some sentient complex being.

Wish you luck.

Love from South Korea... Professor Dawkins is comforted me. Because, Professor Dawkins explained about god is a delusion

@stephenholmgren405 0 seconds ago I've become a better, sober smarter, kinder person since I discovered Dawkins many years ago during the atheist explosion 🖖 This man is a hero to the rational thinker

SCIENTISTS CANNOT CREATE THE SIMPLEST OF LIFE BECAUSE THEY SAY THAT TO DO IT IS TOO COMPLEX.

Thank you ❤!

I'm offended that these bloody awful things are happening in the modern world and we're allowing them to happen. When is it going to be stopped?

Anyone that thinks they can tell you what happens when you die is either a liar or ignorant

Psalms 14:1 (NKJV) To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David. The fool has said in his heart, “[There is] no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.

Yeah yeah, all well and good. The question is, how do we get rid of this atrocious nonsense.

Psalm 14:1 - Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!

Dawkins has a very simplistic view of God and faith. Religion is an easy target, sure, but there's a distinction

Humans trying to confine God according to their understanding.... In the End, You will have the ultimate justice delivered to you. Look, Feel and understand the world. You will never be able to explain everything/every phenomenon. Where science fails, God doesn't fail

29:00 I couldn’t agree more!

The illusions of the hopelessly real people, of what is behind their blind spot, is created by doctrines of falsehood against falsehood, grown in centuries of fear of each other, has fueled every conflict for profit. Sheep; sad to say. Peace

If Richard gives the same speech today at the University of California at Berkeley, he will be faced with a large audience of wokesters to cancel him on the spot.

you can analyze everything to pieces but then the feeling remains, science and religion did not want to work together at first and yet they started to do so, it is understandable that the dividing lines between atheist and antagonist and the believer become blurred and can no longer really be placed

The concept of God is linked, entirely, with the deliberate operation of Nature and the living creatures therein. Nothing unnatural should exist, and should be rejected culturally.

Why should an atheist be so obsessed with God?

Richard the greatest of all time

God is the mitochondria in every cell of your body

Beautiful ❤️ beautiful Life water 💦 life expectancy quench your first priority peace 🕊️

God is the force that is in every human heart!