Richard Dawkins is coming to the RDS next week!

Sam Vimes

A crazy guy just called Dawkins a fundamentalist, called us all elitists and walked out

TheManWho

That ex-fundamentalist didn't sound very reformed.

darjeeling

I was skeptical it was going to happen, given the weird seeming news blackout. In the end, I only found out the time and place from skulking around web forums. Were we all just part of the first Dawkins flash mob?

TheManWho

That whole ticket thing was a bit of an anti climax, I encountered no doorman or guest list. Anyone on the street could have just wandered in and sat in the front row.

robindch

Sam Vimes wrote: »

A crazy guy just called Dawkins a fundamentalist, called us all elitists and walked out

Well, that guy ranted for a good two minutes, all of it unintelligible save for the "I used to be a fundamentalist :eek::mad:" bit. Didn't catch the bit about elitists, but a dark-suited chap helped our friend from from the room while shaking his fist at the ceiling.

Weird.

TheManWho wrote:

Anyone on the street could have just wandered in and sat in the front row.

As indeed, did i

Turtwig

I wantz moar info..crazy folk check : any gorillas?

C'mon I wasn't there:(
Fill me us innnnnnnnnnnnnn
Pleasseeeeeeeeeeeee

Zamboni

That was fun.

Got in early and was about 5 from front on the left beside the booksigning table ;-)

There was plenty of seats at the back though.

Got two books signed and just found out I have a ticket to the Late Late tomorrow too.

Awesome.

TheManWho

I thought his elitist remark was directed at the Irish Times spokesperson.

murrayp4

It was great to finally get to meet him
Got my Blind Watchmaker signed :D

ironingbored

Zamboni wrote: »

Got two books signed and just found out I have a ticket to the Late Late tomorrow too.

Awesome.

How did you swing that? Did you get a ticket afterwards?

ironingbored

To be honest I was slightly disappointed with the lecture.

Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the experience and was chuffed to get my copy of TGSOE signed but

a) I'd have liked him to ad lib a little more
b) the time wasted on him not hearing the questions from the floor
c) the moderator I thought was poor

Does anyone else feel the same?

darjeeling

Malty_T wrote: »

I wantz moar info..crazy folk check : any gorillas?

C'mon I wasn't there:(
Fill me us innnnnnnnnnnnnn
Pleasseeeeeeeeeeeee

Dawkins was talking about his new book. He said it's the first in which he's set out the evidence for evolution. He outlined the themes of each chapter and read selections from some, covering several areas: the extent of religious opposition to teaching of evolution, the nature of the fossil record and why claims of gaps are spurious, hominid fossils, the distribution of species in the world, evolutionary arms races and their inherent wastefulness from the point of view of any imagined designer, other stuff I've forgotten - probably.

Questions were varied:

Did you know, Prof Dawkins, that Thomas Aquinas knew about evolution long ago?

Are we still evolving?

How did life begin?

Is evolution happening in silico, with data replicating itself?

You're just a fundamentalist preaching to elitist Irish Times readers - no I don't have a question, just a rant.

Should the theory of evolution be rebranded as the Law Of Evolution?

Why is there religiously-motivated opposition to the teaching of evolution?

Will you be writing a book aimed at children? RD: yes - my next one.

And more...

Zamboni

ironingbored wrote: »

b) the time wasted on him not hearing the questions from the floor

I've actually noticed this occur frequently in his lectures on youtube.
I actually think he has difficulty with accents and blames the sound.

ChocolateSauce

Anyway, two boardsies said hi to me, sorry for not being very talkative, I was up since 5.50 this morning so that I could poster for our first event in UCD. I'm now lying in bed dozing off....

Speaking of which, I got a poster signed, and Dawkins is now the proud owner of a copy of the UCD Secular Humanist Societies' first ever event poster!

Ronanc1

Ha seen chocolate sauce and his stylish hat, altogether was good, something to do of an evening and we were lucky too, got our own heckler.

Heckler "Your too serious You dont let your hair down!"
Dawkins "You Dont know me!!" :pac:

liamw

Hopefully someone recorded it

imokyrok

TheManWho wrote: »

I thought his elitist remark was directed at the Irish Times spokesperson.

And the prof and all the audience apparently. He was just a couple of rows behind me and even I had trouble making out what he was saying his accent was so broad. Dawkins hadn't a chance but he certainly tried hard enough coming down from the stage as he did. By the time he got down to the aisle mind you he seemed to have realised it might be better to keep his distance!

Calibos

While I did actually profile that guy and nudge my brother before the show even started that that guy would be a trouble maker, likely a damaged individual with fundamentalist leanings etc etc and I was kinda proved correct in that he was fundamentalist...in the past..suffers from depression...and he did end up in a rant which got him F$&ked out.

However I think he was slightly mis-understood which wasn't helped by the sound quality of the mic, which turned the MC and audience against him. They were expecting a fundamentalist rant, they thought they were witnessing one and reacted accordingly.

However my theory and take on it given that I was sitting 2 rows back from him and might have picked up a little more of what he was saying than most is thus....

The previous question was about whether evolution will keep on producing more intelligent people or something like that. Dawkins used a funny example of how that might not necessarily be the case. That without much further selective pressure for big brains, selective pressure for the opposite might actually take over, that selective pressure being the stupid clumbsy people who can't put on a condom right will produce more children....:D

This guy who mentions he was the last of 13th children takes that personally and interprets this as elitist and insult to his family background. However while Dawkins is obviously talking about the Pyjama wearing Jacintas with 5 kids by 5 different fathers, he takes it personally not realising the example doesn't apply to his family of 13 where it was not necessarily lack of intelligence or condom fumbling that led to 13 kids but merely adherance to a religious doctrine of not wearing a condom at all. Folling a religious doctrine does not mean someone is stupid. UNfortunately this guy didn't make that distinction.

So he gets up to question Dawkins about his Elitism. He tells us he is from a family of 13, suffered from Depression in the past, was a fundamentalist but is one no longer, fully accepts the theory of evolution, agrees with all the science Dawkins talked about, but wants to question Dawkins about his Elitist attitude. I know its an old chestnut but I didn't mind hearing it again and would have liked to hear Dawkins robustly rebuff the elitist accusation. Unfortunately, the guy accussed the sponsors the Irish Times of Elitism and mentioned the elitist pushing through NAMA. When the MC heard NAMA he worried this might go totally off topic, waved his hands that we were not going down that road.

However instead of ending his tangental rant and simply asking Dawkins to comment on the perception of his Elitism, he assumed he was being told to shut up completely, most of the audience only hearing mumbles assumed he was on a religious rant and started sniggering or tut-tuting, and in turn the guy felt everyone was turning against him and went on a hand waving rant at all of us Irish Times reading elitists as he was led out.

I feel it starteddue to his misinterpretation of comments by Dawkins, it escalated due to the MC's and audiences (who couldn't hear him properly) misinterpretation of his comments, and ended in him being ejected due to his reaction.

I felt sorry for him when some buffoon shouted, "Go back to the Pub". He was neither a drunk nor a religious fundamentalist, just highly strung.

imokyrok

liamw wrote: »

Hopefully someone recorded it

I didn't notice anyone recording it and I'm guessing he won't want the lecture out on the net until he's finished his current book tour. Someone might have made a sneaky audio though.

Calibos

Stylish Hat???

Was Chocolate Sauce the V for Vendetta guy??

Rb

Damn, am disappointed to hear people could just walk in and get a seat, would have re-arranged work had I known it would be possible

If anyone knows how to get a ticket for tomorrow night's late late, please let me know.

Calibos

Just walking in might have been an option very early but when I arrived at about 7.05pm there was 2 'Crew' on the door, a security guy and inside about 6 or 7 people at tables checking names off the lists as people walked in. That said I did head back outside for a smoke after 'checking in' and did just walk straight back into the auditorium after I finished me fag without being stopped by anyone.

Twas a nice suprise that even though I drove in the wrong gate and ended up outside the door where there were only 4 parking spaces, 2 of them were free No Reserved signs, no disabled signs and no sign of parking ticket attendents. Free parking and free entry to the lecture which was a nice suprise too. Thought we were just prebooking tickets by text and would have to pay at the door.

astroguy

liamw wrote: »

Hopefully someone recorded it

There was a guy pretty much beside me who seemed to be recording it on a dvr and had a small notebook in his hand, figured he was a reporter of some sort

Ronanc1

Stylish Hat???

Was Chocolate Sauce the V for Vendetta guy??

yeah that was him i recognized him from the a&a get together thread

Calibos

I admire anyone who can pull off an individual fashion style like that and has the cahones to be individual in the first place. Me, I'm a sheep Dude needs to grow a moustache to finish the Vendetta look though.

pinksoir

Yeah, that was pretty sweet. Arrived about 7.45 and just strolled in. Plenty of free seats, quite unlike the Noam Chomsky lecture I attended there last.

Have to say, I thought the strange fellow had a point to make, albeit, as Calibos says, one born from a misunderstanding or misinterpreting of what Dawkins had said earlier, re large families. It was a shame people were so quick to jump to the conclusion he was some sort of religious nut, especially the mediator/MC. Indeed, the mediator came off as a bit of a pratt as a result. Not to mention a certain element within the audience. Seriously, there was a woman near me kept vocalising her agreement, quite often, with what Dawkins was saying. For whose benefit was that? I also agree. Does that mean I should also say "yes" and nod each time he says something? Makes my skin crawl.

It has to be said, a lot of what he covered in the reading is very much repetition of material from The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. Obviously I can't comment yet as I haven't read the book (I bought a copy, mind) but it sounds like a condensed, more pop science version of that material. I can't help but get the feeling that he's trying to sell books to the choir on the back of The God Delusion...

Enjoyed the lecture though.

darjeeling

pinksoir wrote: »

It has to be said, a lot of what he covered in the reading is very much repetition of material from The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker.

Actually, having just thumbed my copies of both, the new book really does cover quite different ground. Both 'The Selfish Gene' and 'The Blind Watchmaker' describe how evolution happens. 'The Greatest Show on Earth' shows - from the extracts I've read and heard, and a run through the chapter headings - how we know that it has happened. It's a similar book, then, to Darwin's 'Origin of Species', or Steve Jones' 'Almost Like a Whale'.

I've not read many of Dawkins' other books, so I couldn't say if he's tackled the same subject there.

Edit: 'The Ancestor's tale' would probably be closer kin to the new book. From a quick skim (prior to getting round actually to reading it), I see it deals with distributions of living animals and their fossil ancestors, a major theme in TGSOE.

Calibos

Oh yeah, Thanks to whomever said there would be no book signing!! GRRRRGGHHH!!
My brother who I gave my other 'Ticket' to, brought his copy of the new book while I told him he was wasting his time and didn't bother to bring my copy of the GD. The brother also got to shake his hand while getting his book signed while I stood to the side disgusted that I had missed my chance for six dgrees of separation from world leaders and celebrities that RD has come in contact with....

Calibos

Anyone remember the Thomas Aquinas guy. After asking his question he waved his sheet of paper with the Aquinas evidence tauntingly at Dawkins as if to say," Na Na nanana, ya didn't know that fact Mr fancy pants Dawkins did ya".

WTF??

Yes indeed Sir, a medieval monk possibly hints at natural selection(according to your interpretation of some random obscure quote from Aquinas) and thats supposed to somehow validate the belief that the creator of the universe knocked up a 12 year old girl from a tribe of bronze age goatherders from the eastern mediterrainian circa 2000 years ago????

Maqnus

Whats this fiends story? I wouldn't mind goin for a gurch.