The Unbelievers Page #7

my intelligence."

Well, yes, maybe you are

insulting my intelligence.

I deserve to have

my intelligence insulted.

People get...

In fact, there's a lot of...

There's a lot of research

that says pedagogically,

the only way you can

really get people

to learn

is by confronting

their own misconceptions

and using them.

I use it in physics

all the time.

Kids learn stuff on...

You write stuff on

the blackboard, it goes in

one ear and out the other,

but if you confront

a belief they have

and show them immediately

that they can see

for themselves it's crazy,

then they remember it.

Yes.

This weekend, the "reason" rally

took over the national mall

here in Washington, D.C.

Billed as the largest gathering

of the secular movement

in world history,

national mall parks service

estimated that over 30,000

people were in attendance.

And despite the rain,

the participants

waited for hours

to see speakers

like Lawrence krauss,

Richard Dawkins,

Adam savage,

so we have to ask

what the largest gathering

in history of atheists,

humanists, secularists,

free thinkers, skeptics...

What does it really mean?

Hi, I'm David silverman,

president of American atheists,

and I would like to

welcome you all to this,

the largest atheist gathering

in world history.

But I don't believe in God.

I have two proofs

for not believing in God...

first of all, God,

if you're there,

we're here in Washington.

Come down now.

If you're there,

this is a pretty good time.

I'm sure fox news

would love it.

Just come down, say hello.

We are the people

who believe in this life.

We are the people

who believe in morality.

If you are doing something

for reward or punishment,

you do not have morality.

Let's make it

so they're as embarrassed

to say something bad

about atheists

as they are to say

something bad about mormons.

Mormon.

Mormon.

Thank you, God,

for fixing the cataracts

of Sam's mom

I didn't realize

that it was so simple

but you showed a great example

of just how it can be done

they only need to pray

in a particular spot

to a particular version

of a particular God

and if you pull that off

without a hitch

he will fix one eye of one

middle-class white b*tch

they are ruled by fear.

That's not my style,

and it's not yours either.

Folks, it's certainly time

that we all grew up.

Instead of forging ahead

into the 14th century,

we should be embracing

the 21st by writing fini

to the belief

in the bigoted,

capricious, cruel,

deceitful, genocidal,

homophobic,

misogynistic, racist,

vindictive and violent bully.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

Folks, Professor

Richard Dawkins.

Richard! Richard!

Richard! Richard!

What a magnificent,

inspiring sight.

I was expecting great things,

even in fine weather.

In the rain, look at this.

This is the most

incredible sight I can

remember ever seeing.

How is it necessary

to have a rally

for reason?

How could anyone rally

against reason?

I am often accused of

expressing contempt

and despising

religious people.

I don't despise

religious people;

I despise what they stand for.

There are too many

people in this country

who have been cowed into fear

of coming out as atheists

or secularists or agnostics.

We are far more numerous

than anybody realizes.

What I want to

suggest you do when

you meet somebody

who claims to be

religious, ask them,

"do you really believe

"that when a priest

blesses a wafer,

"it turns into

the body of Christ?

Are you seriously telling me

you believe that?"

Don't fall for the convention

that we're all too polite

to talk about religion.

Religion is not off the table.

Religion is not off limits.

Religion makes

specific claims

about the universe

which need to be substantiated

and need to be challenged

and, if necessary,

need to be ridiculed

with contempt.

Thank you very much.

Lawrence?

Yes, yeah?

Do you mind

if we get a picture?

No problem.

Hi.

It is so good

to meet you.

Can I get a picture

of you real quick?

Sure, yeah.

I seen you on the TV.

Yeah.

Hey, Dr. krauss.

Hi.

Could I shake

your hand too?

Sure.

Can I shake

your hand really quick?

Your universe of nothing

speech started my road

to atheism.

Hi, how are you.

I'm Kenny hibb

from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Oh, okay.

Went back to school for science.

I'm a big fan.

It's not like a pancake.

It's like the space...

With the x-y axis,

just remain perpendicular.

And light travels

in a straight line.

Oh, okay.

Hi, everybody

out there on the mall.

It's a great honor to be

addressing the reason rally.

And when you look at

the who's who lists

throughout history

of people who were either

declared atheists

or who voiced publicly

their opinion that

religion was bullshit,

you can feel a swell of pride

as you stand out there

on the mall today.

Let's let everybody know

that they can come out of

the closet if they're afraid to,

because we're here

to support them

and embrace them

because this is

an amazing community

of people

who are non-believers,

and I think it's wrong

that the religious right

and various belief systems

have gotten a monopoly

on morality and patriotism.

We are Americans,

and we're moral

and righteous Americans,

and we don't need

a God to prove it.

Come on out and join us.

I have concluded, through

careful, empirical analysis

and much thought that somebody

is looking out for me,

keeping track of what

I think about things,

forgiving me

when I do less

than I ought,

giving me strength

to shoot for more than

I think I'm capable of.

I believe they know everything

that I do and think,

and they still love me,

and I've concluded,

after careful consideration,

that this person

keeping score is me.

Immanuel kant was asked,

"what is the enlightenment?"

"Dare to know."

The age of reason, then

was an age when humanity

was born again,

not from original sin

but from original ignorance

and dependence on authority.

Never again!

Folks, you're in for a treat.

The author of

the New York times bestseller

a universe from nothing,

Please welcome physicist

Dr. Lawrence krauss!

As was just pointed out,

a few years ago,

my friend Richard Dawkins

asked me to give a talk

at a meeting

called the universe

from nothing,

so I did.

Today I want to

talk about something

that's equally plausible

but much more tragic:

How to get nothing

from something.

It's happened

a number of times

in human history.

It happened during

the medieval era,

when religious dogma

erased the enlightenment

of the greeks.

Measuring the circumference

of the earth, all of that,

was forgotten.

It happened in the arabic world

in the 11th century,

when what was then

the center

of culture

and mathematics became

an economic and intellectual

backwater because of

islamic fundamentalism.

And it can happen today.

But the 21st century

is placing challenges

on us like we've never had:

Global climate change,

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