Re: George Coyne and Richard Dawkins

On Tue, 21 May 2024 10:54:16 +0100, Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> wrote:

Martin Harran <martinharran@gmail.com> writes:
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On Mon, 20 May 2024 17:16:16 +0100, Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> wrote:
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In this interview, at the point I link to:
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https://youtu.be/68ejfHahFK4?t=254
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Father Coyne offers Neodarwinian Evolution as an explanation for, among
other things, the origin of the universe. And Professor Dawkins agrees
with him. How does evolution of any kind have anything to do with the
origin of the universe? surely it would need something to evolve from?

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I got the impression that he was using "evolution" in a wider sense
than just *biological* evolution, that life itself "evolved" from
chemical reactions.

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I suppose you could interpret "origin of the universe" as "origin of the
content of the universe" and then say that it evolved from pure
energy. But I am not sure if that is evolution strictly, or just
changing from one thing to another. And I am not sure if energy is
different from content, or if universe is different from content of the
universe. In summary, I am not sure.

When talking about a subject in what is essentially a metaphysical
way. I think we shouldn't get too hung up on the precise meaning of
specific words, it's the ideas behind the words that matter.

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A fascinating interview that I had not seen before, thanks for the
link. Whilst I was aware of George Coyne, I never really explored his
ideas before and I was fascinated by how much what he was saying
echoed my own beliefs and ideas - there was nothing he said that I
would argue with and I thought he handled Dawkins extremely well.

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The TV series from which it was excluded was quite entertaining. I think
in that series Dawkins was struggling to keep the lid on his temper at
times, although that could just be his natural expression.

I wasn't aware of that series. Any idea why this episode was excluded?