Dawkins and McGrath Interview

[cfmonkey45]

It's an interesting interview between Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath (PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Doctorate in Divinity); it was made for Dawkins' documentary "The Root of All Evil?", and is uncut and unedited.

+ Google Video

I thought that it was, so far, since I'm still watching it, a rather interesting interview. At about 9 minutes it gets a little drab as the two men begin regurgitating their original points, but within a few minutes it picks up. At about 25 minutes, they begin talking about Christianity.

I'm not entirely sure on this fellow, McGrath, but, as I have said before, this is a bit of an interesting interview, and I wanted to hear your thoughts. Already, I have a few complaints with McGrath's apologetics, but I wanted to hear your opinions on this matter.

[Tankbuster]

I'll definitely be watching this video, because I've also seen a debate between Christoper Hitchens and Alister McGrath which you can find here.

Just wanted to mention that. Both are rather interesting thinkers.

[iudas]

Got bored to death 15 minutes through. I guess it doesn't get anywhere, since one debates fantasy while the other debates science.

[Zenith Darksea]

Got bored to death 15 minutes through. I guess it doesn't get anywhere, since one debates fantasy while the other debates science.

From the first paragraph of McGrath's academic biography:

Alister McGrath was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1953. He grew up in Downpatrick, Co. Down, where he attended Down High School. In September 1966 he became a pupil at the Methodist College, Belfast, majoring in pure and applied mathematics, physics and chemistry. He was elected to an open major scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford University, to study chemistry from October 1971, where his tutors included Jeremy R. Knowles and R. J. P. Williams. He gained first class honours in chemistry in June 1975, and began research in molecular biophysics in the Oxford University Department of Biochemistry under the supervision of Professor Sir George K. Radda, FRS, who is presently head of the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at Oxford University. He was elected to an E.P.A. Cephalosporin Research Studentship at Linacre College, Oxford, for the academic year 1975-6, and to a Domus Senior Scholarship at Merton College, Oxford, for the period 1976-8. He also spent three months as a European Molecular Biology Organization visiting fellow at the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands. During the years 1975-8, he carried out scientific research, leading to the publication of a number of peer-reviewed research articles, alongside studying for the Oxford University Final Honour School of Theology. In December 1977, he was awarded an Oxford D.Phil. for his research in the natural sciences, and he gained first class honours in Theology in June 1978.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mcgrath/biography.html

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Got bored to death 15 minutes through. I guess it doesn't get anywhere, since one debates fantasy while the other debates science.

And that is why you won't fully understand anything.

[PacSubCom]

And that is why you won't fully understand anything.

And you can't tell us.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

And you can't tell us.

Yet I just did.

[PacSubCom]

Yet I just did.

But not why.

[iudas]

Haha, the butthurt ones are here. Oh please... 10 minutes through, McGrath began to ramble about how everything made sense if God existed. I was honestly expecting some revelation, instead I got schizophrenic BS.

[Taiji]

Nice discussion, very enjoyable.

I feel that neither provided suitable examples of the best thinking we can produce on the subject.

But at least they were reasonably civil