Richard Dawkins in Bournemouth


Photos: Crabsallover

BHA Vice President Professor Richard Dawkins spoke on 21 September at the joint British Humanist Association (BHA) and Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats’ (HSLD) fringe event at the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Bournemouth.

Richard Dawkins read excerpts from his book - 'The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution' then took 20 minutes of questions including one from Dorset Humanist Dennis Banister on the likely origin of life on earth. Life may have originated from a precursor of DNA:- RNA, that had both enzymic and replication properties.

A member of the audience asked Richard Dawkins to sign a petition about child education. Given a choice between children being taught Statistics or Philosophy he preferred they were taught Statistics.

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2 comments:

Andrew said...

Why is there anything rather than nothing?

RussellsTeapot said...

You need to watch this!
http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,4490,A-Universe-From-Nothing-by-Lawrence-Krauss-AAI-2009,Lawrence-Krauss-AAI-RDFRS-Josh-Timonen

It explains how 'nothing' is actually unstable and has to turn in to 'something'. The maths goes whooshing high over my head, but this is a funny and interesting talk aimed at the non scientist, and aimed at answering exactly your question. Enjoy!