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Humanist Happenings

Richard Dawkins will be interviewed by conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly on Monday, April 23, at 8.00pm EST on FOX. The program will be rebroadcasted at 11.00pm. Check your local listings for times.For more informations, go to http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/index.html———————————————-New Humanism conference at Hahvahd this weekend with Salman Rushdie http://www.thenewhumanism.org/?page_id=13

40 Responses to “Humanist Happenings”

  1.  vjack says:

    It will be interesting to see how long it takes O’Reilly to cut off his mic.

  2.  Boise Jim says:

    It ought to be interesting to see O’Lielly fuming at the mouth. He always acts like a little baby when someone doesn’t agree with him and he doesn’t get his way.

    I hope Dawkins rips him to shreds.

  3. Tim Ren says:

    It will be like playing ‘How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop’.

    I give O’Reilly two ’shut ups’ and a ‘cut his mic’ before Dawkins gets a complete sentence out.

  4.  reason says:

    Dawkins is wasting his time i doubt if fans of o’reilly will examine their beliefs.

  5.  david715 says:

    Will this be a screaming match like the showdown with Geraldo?

  6.  fathead says:

    From what I’ve seen, it is only very rarely that any atheist ever gets a chance to present his/her point of view on any television show without being interrupted, tag-teamed, or subsequently rebutted by the host or other guests, (all presumably in the spirit of presenting opposing points of view). You will never see an atheist truly have the “last word” as O’Reilly pretends to proffer.
    It is rarer still, that we ever see (and I’ve never seen) the host or other guests actually endorse the atheist position, because whatever their personal views, that might offend their viewer audience or network sponsors.
    To get a fair shake, you really need to have your own show (or network), just like the religious broadcasters do.

  7.  evilatheistconquerer says:

    I just had a thought. Wouldn’t it be bad if we all watched him on Bill O’Reilly since it would just boost his ratings?

  8.  Nodster says:

    Dawkins doesn’t pull any punches, but he is the master of cool and charm. No matter how hot headed O’Reilly gets, Dawkins will completely keep his cool, naturally coming off as the better man. But then again, we’re talking about O’Reilly’s audience..

  9.  aussieatheist says:

    In Dawkins “The God Delusion” he debates senior prelates and fundies quite well. Exchanging opinions and puting his point of view.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if he handles Bill O’Reilly really well – but like everyone is saying here it’s O’Reilly whose likely to spit the dummy. “But but Sir, if we all had your view, we wouldn’t have any morals” “And and what about communism and Hitler?” “Are you really saying 250m americans are wrong?” “Come onnnn now!” “You must be a Democrat”

  10.  aussieatheist says:

    Can someone tape it for me?

  11.  mryder66 says:

    aussieatheist,

    If you check out http://www.richarddawkins.net after the show it will probably be linked from there. That site is an excellent site for such things.

  12.  karen says:

    Looking forward to this one.
    Love to hear Dawkins speak, and the juxtaposition of his calm demeanor to O’Reilly’s vocanic sputterings should prove amusing. I imagine that O’Reilly has heated arguments with himself just tying his tie each day.

  13.  stevedave10 says:

    Off topic, and probably already mentioned, but I wanted to bring this up…

    A professor at VT’s response to very ignorant remarks.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/19/18451/0971

  14.  alexatheist says:

    Mr D’Souza has no shame.

  15.  godfordummies says:

    You have questions for God,
    Good he has answers for you.

    goto: http://www.godfordummies.net

    Think we cant prove God to you? Want a bet?

  16.  alexatheist says:

    Saw the coolest bumper sticker today:

    DOGNOSTIC:Nose there is a Dog

  17.  karen says:

    Mr. D’Souza wants to know what atheists can say to the grieving?
    Have the Professor’s words read aloud. They are very eloquent and moving and truthful. They are the kinds of words I would want to hear in my grief, not some claptrap about pie in the sky and happily ever after.

    Thanks, stevedave10 for bringing this to our attention.

  18.  evilatheistconquerer says:

    Is that website a joke? The whole thing looks like a cult. Even the people in the videos. They also look like trekkies oddly enough. Very odd considering Gene Roddenberry was an atheist.

  19.  what says:

    “godfordummies” – A more appropriate xian moniker I have never seen.

  20.  what says:

    Alex

    “DOGNOSTIC:Nose there is a Dog”

    Diagnostic: Fence sitting to the grave.

  21.  what says:

    I asked a Xian this question today and they were truley baffled:

    If your infallible god tells you he does not exist will you believe it?

  22.  bud says:

    never having heard eawkins speat i’d love to see this and am unable to find it in my tv guide. can anyone help me on this?? someone suggested this might enhance o’rilly’s ratings?? i’d think it would more likely enhance dawkins’s. o’rilly’s audience being basically static & irretrivable in their ignorence with or without him.

  23.  bud says:

    thanks alex. i’m checking these out.

  24.  spanders says:

    I asked a Xian this question today and they were truley baffled:

    If your infallible god tells you he does not exist will you believe it?

    what, isn’t that Epimenides paradox? And, of course, this came out of Cretans denying Zeus’ immortality. Some parallels there.

  25.  alexatheist says:

    I just watched the Dawkins interview on O’Reilly and must say that both men showed calmness and respect. Predicatbly O’Reilly stated that atheists are the ones who must make a larger leap of faith to which Dawkins calmly refuted this tired old claim. O’Reilly also made a connection between atheism and people such as Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot to whicj Dawkins calmly expalined that their atheism was not the reason for their actions but rather it was their political dogma. Very short but excellent piece.

  26.  the_queen says:

    I was thrilled to see Richard Dawkins ON The O’Reilley Factor but I would have been truly elated if he’d been able to speak a full sentence without being interrupted.

  27.  Apple_Christmas says:

    I was sort of impressed by the civility of the interview. I just wish they had gone on a bit longer. It was all of about 4 minutes, and they didn’t really get to go into too much depth. Oh well. That’s commercial television for you.

  28.  mryder66 says:

    A link to the interview for those like me who missed it

    http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/04/richard_dawkins_9.html

  29.  rna2dna says:

    alexatheist,
    Thanks for the updates on things like this :)

    the_queen,
    Christians must think that if they talk over the truth it will somehow go away.
    Silly christians.

  30.  alexatheist says:

    I agree with Apple that it was a very short interview but it was an excellent plug for Dawkins book “The God Delusion”

  31.  aussieatheist says:

    O’Reilly is a dickhead (Aussie term, possibly international term, for “idiot”) Didn’t I say he would raise the spectre of Hitler Stalin Communism, and the like. How pathetic are these xians that they can’t come up with a good foil for our atheist facts & truths.
    “Off Topic”. Tomorrow, 4/25, is veterans day down under for us Aussies and Kiwi’s/ Anzac Day. Like your Veterans Day.(?) Tribute to our secular societies, we treat this as our most sacred holiday (sorry for the terms) and all shops close – even liquor stores damn it – unlike Good (Bad) Friday and Xmas Day when no-one cares and opens anyway. We have a USN destroyer in our city (Brisbane) and they interviewed the skipper on TV and he is attending a Dawn Service and 70 of her crew (her the ship I mean) are marching in our parades. They then go on to northern Aus to mark the battle of the Coral Sea ceremonies. Now that’s a secular activity !!

  32.  rna2dna says:

    HeatheNZ, thanks for the link.

    Everyone should check the note that James McDonald wrote to O’Reilly (in the comments to the link that HeatheNZ provided).

  33.  aussieatheist says:

    James socked it to him but I’m afraid ‘a man convinced by force, remains yet unconvinced’ (apologies to whoever wrote that)
    O’Really ? has a wide audience and he’s not about to destroy that by taking on “opines” that show his viewers to be dickheads.

  34.  what says:

    Spanders

    “isn’t that Epimenides paradox”

    I don’t know. Just good clean fun.

  35.  spanders says:

    what, this is one of the reasons I don’t have a lot of friends. Mentioning Epimenides usually has people looking at me like I’m out of my mind. I don’t think they’re far off ;-)

  36.  reluctantatheist says:

    spanders:
    Hey, I love tidbits like that. Thanks! Epimenides – wow, what a cool little factoid.
    Once, I rented a room from these folks, we’re all watching Jeopardy, Trebec asks who wrote ‘Oedipus Rex’. None of the 3 contestants knew. I found myself shouting “Sophocles! Sophocles! Sheesh, where do they GET these people?”
    Got some odd looks on that 1, lemmee tell ya.

  37.  what says:

    Spanders

    Mentioning Epimenides usually has people looking at me like I’m out of my mind.

    Maybe they thought you said epididymis paradox.

  38.  Boise Jim says:

    I’m really frustrated that Dawkins let O’Lielly slip that old “Hitler was an Atheist’ in there, when in fact, he was anything but. All anyone has to do is read Mein Kampf and do a little bit of research and find that Hitler was a Catholic, and a devout one at that.
    Damn, why did he let that slide.