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In other news: Richard Dawkins on Al Jazeera TV?

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English language division.

FORA TV notes that Dawkins appeared recently on Arabic language news network Al Jazeera TV – not the place you’d most expect to find him. We learn,

Is there room for religion in science? That’s the question producers at Al Jazeera’s program “The Stream” put to Oxford professor and evolutionist Richard Dawkins recently. Dawkins quickly set the producers straight on the topic at hand: “Is there room for creationism (not religion) in science.”

The Friendly Atheist at Patheos notes

Here’s a discussion question for you: At the beginning of the interview, Dawkins calls himself an Agnostic (saying he can’t definitively prove God doesn’t exist) and then adds that he’s an atheist in the same way he’s an a-fairy-ist. Is Dawkins getting away with something we didn’t let Neil deGrasse Tyson get away with?

Meanwhile, in a surprise move, Jerry Coyne announces that Dawkins was “particularly eloquent.”

Comments
I used to watch the English language Al Jazeera on satellite. It was better than Fox or CNN.Diogenes
July 12, 2012
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englishmaninistanbul, your comment about "the English language news network Al Jazeera English" is certainly valid. One journal article I have here somewhere shows Al Jazeera really has twin talking heads, one speaking what they really think, in Arabic, and the other, the Western friendly version, in English.Christian-apologetics.org
July 12, 2012
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Interviewer: What are your views on how children should or should not be educated in the public school system? Dawkins: Once again, children, like adults, like anybody else should be taught how to think critically, should be taught to question, should be taught to seek evidence, should be taught to ask 'Is that plausible, is that the likely... What is the evidence for it?' The child should never say, 'Oh, that adult told me X therefore X must be true.' The child should say 'Wait a minute, what's the evidence for that?'
Well said, Professor Dawkins, well said. PS: Just a small quibble, it wasn't an interview on the Arabic language news network Al Jazeera, it was on the English language news network Al Jazeera English.englishmaninistanbul
July 12, 2012
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We think it's a fudge. Don't forget, Dawkins told Ben Stein that space aliens might be responsible for the origin of life here, but not God.News
July 11, 2012
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Thanks for sharing this. I'm also somewhat of a materialist (philosophically). Everything in the universe eventually gets down to something that's simply "magic" or "just works that way", such as the fundamental forces. In a way, after applying Demksi's filter, I see teleology as a required property of the universe's first cause since, in the words of Freeman Dyson on fine tuning, "The universe must have known we were coming." As someone whose doubts about evolution led me to become a Christian, I would love the chance to spend an afternoon with Richard Dawkins.JoeCoder
July 11, 2012
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This definition of atheism as a "no belief in God" as opposed to "belief in no God" seems to be a trend. However if we allow atheism to be defined as a lack of belief in God, similar to how agnostics might define themselves, then how are we supposed to define the definite, "belief in no God?" I can't make sense of it.Chance Ratcliff
July 11, 2012
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