God: "at best a superfluous hypothesis and at worst a highly unparsimonious one"... what a line!
re "superfluous or unparsimonious": "Do both of those mean you surrender?"
And this was nice, too: "Let's say your book is intelligently designed--"
"It is, by the way."
I like the way Colbert conceded that believing "God did it" is just easier than thinking...
Dawkins and Colbert are both genius, but I was a bit disappointed with the interview. The only really good lines of the night were those The Ridger mentioned. Not everyone works well with Colbert's style and Dawkins just didn't. Not that it wasn't somewhat entertaining, and I am glad to see Dawkins get all the publicity he can. It just didn't measure up to normal Colbert standards in my opinion.
Sometimes I wonder whether Colbert is actually a Catholic. Not to insult the man or anything but for a religious person he seems awfully well aware of the nonsense it amounts to via his humor.
Dawkins did get the basic idea out there though.
-God is highly improbable, though not disprovable.
-The opposite of intelligent design is NOT random chance, but rather the process of natural selection.
-If the universe needs a creator, then the creator must also need a creator.
-We're all atheists about all those other gods. Some of us just go "one god further". :)
He covered a lot of ground in this informal format, with a few good laughs as well. I'm impressed by that.
BTW: is Colbert really a believer or is he just being sarcastic?
I think that Colbert, believer or not, was being sarcastic. He provided a nearly perfect parody of many of the Dawkins opponents for it to be anything but.
The humor was impressive, by getting an interview like this Dawkins can reach a lot of fence sitters without seeming too threatening.
God: "at best a superfluous hypothesis and at worst a highly unparsimonious one"... what a line!
re "superfluous or unparsimonious": "Do both of those mean you surrender?"
And this was nice, too: "Let's say your book is intelligently designed--"
"It is, by the way."
I like the way Colbert conceded that believing "God did it" is just easier than thinking...
Dawkins and Colbert are both genius, but I was a bit disappointed with the interview. The only really good lines of the night were those The Ridger mentioned. Not everyone works well with Colbert's style and Dawkins just didn't. Not that it wasn't somewhat entertaining, and I am glad to see Dawkins get all the publicity he can. It just didn't measure up to normal Colbert standards in my opinion.
Sometimes I wonder whether Colbert is actually a Catholic. Not to insult the man or anything but for a religious person he seems awfully well aware of the nonsense it amounts to via his humor.
Dawkins did get the basic idea out there though.
-God is highly improbable, though not disprovable.
-The opposite of intelligent design is NOT random chance, but rather the process of natural selection.
-If the universe needs a creator, then the creator must also need a creator.
-We're all atheists about all those other gods. Some of us just go "one god further". :)
He covered a lot of ground in this informal format, with a few good laughs as well. I'm impressed by that.
BTW: is Colbert really a believer or is he just being sarcastic?
I think that Colbert, believer or not, was being sarcastic. He provided a nearly perfect parody of many of the Dawkins opponents for it to be anything but.
The humor was impressive, by getting an interview like this Dawkins can reach a lot of fence sitters without seeming too threatening.
Colbert, on being a catholic and a comedian:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/01/colbert-and-dissonance-between.html