BBC Focus - 09.2019

INTERVIEW FEATURE

which is pretty silly, but doesn’t have the same

capacity to be manipulated in this cynical, really

disgraceful way.

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE PERSON TO FOLLOW
ON TWITTER?
Well, I don’t follow anybody at the moment, because
I no longer do Twitter myself. It’s done for me, I don’t
even have my own password. But when I did, I liked
Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, quite a few others.
People who do it with good humour.

AND HUMOUR CAN BE USED TO HELP
DISCUSSIONS...
It can, yes, and sometimes I tweet things that are
really designed to get a conversation going.
Something that’s maybe been puzzling me a bit, or
I think that this scientific point is interesting and
worth discussing.

A LOT OF YOUR BOOKS AIM TO START
A CONVERSATION, DON’T THEY?
Very much so, yes. They do.

WITH OUTGROWING GOD, WERE YOU HOPINGTO
PROVIDE PEOPLE WITH A KNOWLEDGE THAT
ALLOWS THEM TO STEP OUTSIDE OF THEIR
COMFORT ZONE OF RELIGION?
Yes. Well, if it’s a comfort zone, then I don’t
apologise for destroying it if I do destroy it. I mean,
I do actually think truth is ultimately the most
important thing.
Having said that, I definitely think that you can
find a much better comfort zone than religion. I don’t
just mean destroying comfort zones for its own sake.
I hope that science will provide a much better

comfortzone.It’s such a privilege to live in the 21st

Centurywhenwe do know so much. There’s a lot we

don’tknow.But, compared to our ancestors, we are

hugelyprivileged to know how old the Universe is.

Toknowwhere we come from. To know we’re a

productof evolution. To know about the chemical

elementsthatwe’re made of. It’s just a wonderful,

wonderfulprivilege, and I think it’s such a shame to

denychildrenthat privilege, which I fear is what so

muchof religion does.

So,therealreason why I’m opposed to religion is

thatit stuntsthe understanding by children, and by

anybodyreally,of thewonderfulworld,the

wonderfulUniverseinwhichwelive.

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DISCOVERMORE

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You can listen to our full interview with Richard in an

upcoming episode of the Science Focus podcast

sciencefocus.com/science-focus-podcast

Tune in to BBC Sounds to listen to Richard Dawkins on

Trust Me, I’m A Scientist talking about the disconnect between

science and society bit.ly/Dawkins_science

Richard Dawkins’s latest

book, Outgrowing God

(£14.99, Bantam Press), is out

on 19 September. It

challenges creationism,

intelligent design and the

idea that one must have

faith to be good.

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