Mr. Dawkins, why was Darwin right? – Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins, the world's most famous atheist and author of numerous best-selling books, decided to abandon the enlightenment of adults, and with his new book “The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True” he focuses on 5-year-olds, claiming that they have to learn the theory of evolution along with their first letters. 

Richard Dawkins is no longer satisfied with his books that challenge the existence of God and which are sold in millions of copies, or with the fact that “liberal” media is placing him among the stars and call him “the most famous atheist in the world”. He is also no longer interested in suing Pope Benedict XVI for "crimes against humanity", because of alleged covering up of sexual abuses in the Catholic Church. Dawkins now has a new target audience, which he wants win and teach them how religion is bad – the kids, preschool kids. 

Richard Dawkins, great intellectual, evolutionary biologist, writer and professor at Oxford University, has recently published his latest book “The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True”, aimed primarily at preschool children. In just as short period, this book raised more dust – and more calls for a ban – than his best-sellers like “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design” (in which he challenged the theory that any invention must have its inventor, and which served to believers as a great analogy and key evidence for the existence of the Almighty),  or The God Delusion (in which he brings many proofs that there is no God that supposedly governs our lives).

Dawkins says that he was annoyed because the opponents Darwin's theory of evolution are occupying too much space in the media, especially in the United States, where nominated Republican candidates for the next presidential elections are regularly competing who will more effectively end successfully challenge the thesis that man has evolved from apes.

Therefore, this scientist concluded that children have to get lessons regarding basic principles of evolution already during kindergarten. And especially in the first grade.

“No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it is surprising how many parents think that it is somehow fun to pass on this falsehood (and others in the same vein) to their children. Evolution is a truly satisfying and complete explanation of existence, and I suspect that this is something a child can appreciate from an early age. But I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic — even more fun — than this myth, or any of the hundreds of creation myths from around the world. And — perhaps surprisingly — evolution could be taught in such a way as to make it easier to understand than a myth. This is because myths leave the child’s questions unanswered, or they raise more questions than they appear to answer.” – said Dawkins

The book begins with a dedication to Dawkins’ father, John Dawkins, who died last year at the age of 95.

„I learned from my father that we need continual reconsideration, skepticism, search for evidence and understanding in order to comprehend what evidence is” – says Dawkins.

Dawkins has actually inherited faith from his father. Although he claims that he had already, at the age of nine, started questioning the existence of God, he says that he was persuaded into it, and that is why he, at that age, wholeheartedly accepted Christianity. However, in his teenage years he concluded that the theory of evolution is a much better explanation for the complexity of life and he ceased to believe in God.

From there, through education at Oxford and the first professorial job at Berkeley, to what his opponents call "militant atheism", it didn’t take long.

“Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are that you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as ``faith.''” – Dawkins wrote in his famous essay “Viruses of the Mind”.

He is convinced that if there was no organized religion, the terrorist attacks from 11 September 2001 wouldn’t occurred. The critics say that when he publicly said that, he became dangerous opponent of religion. And not only Christian, but all the others.

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. – says Dawkins. “Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labeled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

His works are controversial – and the word “controversial” is even an understatement. A large number of Christians - especially educated ones – found it necessary to slap him in his face regarding how wrong he is. Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion and Dawkins' God) claims that Dawkins has no knowledge of Christian theology, and therefore, he can’t possibly intelligently reflect upon religion and faith.

Dawkins immediately fired back:

“Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?"

In 2007, Dawkins had, similarly to the associations of homosexuals who organize parades and insist that people should "get out of the closet" and admit they are gay, founded the "Out Campaign" to encourage as many people around the world as possible to publicly say that they are atheists. According to his opinion, this may well change the mindset of most people – and further, the mindset of Richard’s atheists – who will once again think about their faith.

The biggest "excursion to the mainstream," other than his written word, Dawkins had in 2008. Then, he was one of the first people who supported the first atheist initiative in UK, called the “Atheist Bus Campaign”.

Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine and her colleagues from the "British Humanist Association" decided to raise money in order to place atheist adverts on buses in the London area.

On January 2009, across Britain appeared buses with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

On one occasion he agreed to answer questions from readers of reputable newspaper "Independent". On that occasion, he spoke for the first time about children’s education from the perspective of religion.

Do you consider parents forcing children to accept their religion a form of child abuse?- asked  reader James Macdonald.

Dawkins answered:

“Yes. What would you think of parents who forced their children to accept their politics, or their taste in architecture? Have you ever heard anyone speak of a "Leninist child" or a "Postmodernist child"? Of course not. Why, then, do we all go along with "Christian child" and "Muslim child"? Such labeling of children with their parents' religion is child abuse.”

Dawkins has a solution and for adults:

“People who would laugh at the idea that a pumpkin could turn into a coach, and who know perfectly well that silk handkerchiefs don’t really turn into rabbits, are quite happy to believe that a prophet turned water into wine or, as devotees of another religion would have it, flew to heaven on a winged horse.”

“Without contraception, we will starve”

Besides God and gods, Dawkins is opposed to all those who do not want to think about family planning and control of world’s population. In his book “The Selfish Gene”, he gives the example of Latin America, where the population doubles every few decades. He didn’t of course miss the chance to mention Catholics because their church clearly opposes contraception.

“... leaders who forbid their followers to use effective contraceptive methods ... express a preference for "natural" methods of population limitation, and a natural method is exactly what they are going to get. It is called starvation.”

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Lord knows - Arnaud Amalric and Simon IV de Montfort

During the crusade on Christian heretics (Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade) in the early 13th century, Pope Innocent III led the nobility of northern France.

When they reached the city of Beziers, in the south of France near the Mediterranean coast, they surrounded it.

A question among the crusaders arised: how to distinguish true Christians from heretics who follow the so-called Cathar learning?

Cistercian monk Arnaud Amalric and French nobleman Simon IV de Montfort suggested unusual solution to the pope:

"Kill them all. For the Lord knows them that are His (Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius )."

Unfortunately, the pope and crusaders did as suggested. The entire population of twenty thousand Cathars and Catholics that lived in Beziers were slaughtered.

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Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are at the door

End of the world is certain, but when will this happen, no one knows. Those who believe that the end is near, already see four clear signs: solar flares, self-destruction, mass death of birds and the Mayan calendar.

Prognoses of the end of the world and humanity are not new, they are mentioned practically since the beginning of civilization. Some are looking for the proof of this in the Old Testament books, in various prophecies, but also in the position of stars and planets. And when this fatal day comes, people who believe in that, will probably respond differently. Some will maybe decide to spend their last moments doing what they always wanted to do, but it will be nothing strange if a lot of cases of collective suicides occur. After all, we have such examples in all parts of the world.

However, the fact that nothing lasts forever is something that should worry all of us. Laymen and experts agree that the end of the world is certain, the only question is when will this happen. Judging by the events that have marked the last days of last year, gloomy predictions of scientists, and predictions that are recorded in the ancient prophecies, apocalypse is not far away! It may happen the next year already.

Here are four possible scenarios according to which the life on earth will disappear and "irrefutable" proofs that this will happen soon.

1. Sun will kill us

The Sun is the source of life on our planet, but it is also its potential murderer. In the book "Apocalypse 2012", Lawrence E. Joseph claims that storms and activities on the surface of the Sun are more intense in the last few years than in the past 11 million years, and the last time such thing happened, the last ice age melted. The peak of solar activity can be expected already next year, when the storms will be most intensive and most destructive. Solar flares, as these energy charges are called, could threaten the Earth's magnetic field that protects us from Sun’s radiation. Scientists say that we can already see holes in this magnetic field the size of California. These storms have appeared during the course of human history, but the danger now is much greater, because we ourselves have contributed to it! 

In fact, over the past decades, we have built, around the globe, an electrical high-voltage network that will attract the first strike.  Only one such storm could throw us back in the time before the discovery of electricity. People from the NASA call this storm a switch in the sky, because it is indeed something like that. It will be as if someone turned off every light on the Earth, and, despite huge investments, we will not be able to turn them on for at least next five years. And what consequences could that have, it is not hard to imagine.

The big problem of our planet are overloaded transformers, because more than half of them can not stand the amount of energy running through them. It is just a matter of time, or in other words, one stronger solar storm, for the entire power system to blow in to pieces! More shocking news is that all large power plants depend exclusively on one satellite which is long past its use. Namely, it is the ACE satellite, which is located in the gravitational well, and that is - point of Earth-Sun gravitational equilibrium. Its sole function is to warn, 15 to 45 minutes earlier,  about the arrival of magnetic storms, but these informations are rarely (practically never) used. Theoretically, every time the satellite sends a signal, we should turn off the electricity in the whole world, but each restarting of electricity would cost at least ten billion dollars.

On the other hand, although they are regularly attacking Earth, solar storms are usually ending at the North Pole, which is also the magnetic pole. In other words, because of the huge cost the only security measure we can use against the Sun's attack, which could go a little further than expected, consists of just four words –preying that it won’t! 

2. We will kill ourselves

There are thousand ways how we can kill ourselves, and to be honest, with every new day, we are more persistent and dedicated to that work. However, what can really exterminate us are scientific experiments with all manner of things. Supporters of conspiracy theories long believe that HIV is invented in a laboratory, just as Ebola or swine flu. According to them, mad cow disease is a secret experiment with the aim to turn human brains into mush, and to make them slaves without emotions and thought. What can we say about the development of nuclear and biological weapons that are developing faster than the means against their destructive force? Yet, what worries the most the conspiracy theorists is "tampering" with God's particle.

It is a scientific experiment that runs near the Swiss-French border, and which aims to create black holes in artificial conditions. The whole experiment is called “The hunt for the God particle”, and it comes down to causing collisions with the power of incredible 14 billion electron volts. Will this really create a black hole, and if it does, will this black hole suck us all in, is what scares the lay people throughout the world. After all, whatever we discover, or invent, there’s always a lunatic who will misuse it.

If we disregard someone's paranoia and panic, the fact still remains that the fear of scientific inventions and their abuse is not unfounded. While the production of nuclear weapons requires a large plant that is easy to detect, biological weapons can be made without any problem in a small, hidden laboratory. And what can one sick mind do, its not hard to imagine.

 After the terrorist attacks in America and the destruction of the twin towers, in this part of the world the panic doesn’t stop at the thought of what Al Qaeda maid have at its  disposal, and what can acquire at anytime. According to one doomsday scenario, it all ends with an eruption of a mega volcano. If it is going to be like that, what are the chances that Al Qaeda already has a thermonuclear bomb that will wipe America from the map of the world in a split second?

3. Mass mortality of birds

Birds that fell dead from the sky at the end of last year, but also the mortality of entire animal species around the world, is a reliable sign, according to many, that apocalypse is at the door. To reiterate, at New Year's Eve, residents of Arkansas town were hit with a true rain of dead birds, which were pouring on the roofs of houses and cars. It is estimated that on this occasion at least five thousand red-winged blackbirds died.

Just days earlier, Arkansas River threw out tens of thousands of dead fish. A flock of 500 birds also fell in Baton Rouge, and the same has happened in Sweden and New Zealand. At the end of the first week of the New Year, near Kent in the UK, the sea washed up 40,000 dead crabs. Similar examples have been recorded and in other parts of the world.

Why do animals die en masse? Ancient prophecies are offering an answer. They say that animals will be the first who will feel the impending disaster and react in two ways: with mass suicide or natural death that science can not explain. 

Many supporters of conspiracy theories accuse the U.S. government (Its secret researches, to be exactly) even for these unusual cases. While some claim that Americans are testing a new biological weapon, others believe that it is a laser beam, a type that can cause heart attack and lead to immediate death. In all this mess, many tend to see and some other reasons, also not very encouraging. For example, many believe that the switch of the Earth's poles is well underway, and since birds are orienting by them, it is not entirely surprising that they are blindly flying into icy clouds or being entangled in electric cables.

Scientists themselves are stunned. They are trying to provide any kind of explanation, even one that will maybe cause disbelief or mockery. Thus, the biologists are explaining the death of fish with some kind of disease and blame cold for the death of crabs. Allegedly, such cases occurred even before, but now, due to New Year holidays, they were far more covered by the media. To stem mass hysteria, the U.S. authorities did not hesitate to find some truck driver who allegedly ran into a flock of birds on the road, and hit and injured most of them. If we are to believe the explanation of local authorities, New Year fireworks have caused mass mortality of birds in other three separate incidents. 

The logical question is why such phenomena wasn’t reported in other places where shooting at air is something like a tradition.

4. Mayans have predicted all

Judging by the ancient Mayan calendar, the end of the world will occur on December 21, 2012. However, whenever it comes to prophecy, there are at least two problems: first, will it really come true, and second, is it an authentic record or document or was it, as usual, amended or edited during the past time.

These ancient people inhabited the area of today's Guatemala, Honduras and Yucatan.  They were known as an advanced civilization of astronomers and scientists. They were obsessed with measuring time. They measured everything, sun phases, pregnancy, growth of crops and the like. They created twenty different calendars, and in one, they even measured the development of civilization and the planet by dividing it into periods.  Each period was 5125 years long, and when compared with the Gregorian calendar, it turns out that the period in which we live began in 3144 BC and ends exactly on December 21 next year.

 The Mayans depicted transition between periods as bloody and extremely difficult. After that comes a turn, when we enter into a new period, which is full of optimism and enlightenment. What is disturbing is the fact that this date, which is depressing by itself (it is a day with the longest night), is also the date when the Sun will found itself at the center of the Milky Way. Some scientists claim that this could cause a switch between magnetic poles on Earth, and this would definitely have tragic consequences on the life on our planet.

Americans have again tried to calm the public. Allegedly, according to the official NASA press release, issued last year, there is no scientific evidence that Mayan calendar is correct at all! According to them, the world will not end in 2012, because, at this point, we are not threaten by a collision with a meteorite, which, if existed, would already have been visible in the sky. In addition, the agency said that none of the relevant experts has found any cause of some potential disaster. Therefore, NASA knows that the end will not occur next year.

End of the world is certain, but when will this happen, no one knows.

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Stick to your own business – Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards

During the shooting of the film comedy "The Return of Pink Panther", in the middle of the night the phone rang in the room of director Blake Edwards. It was Peter Sellers, lead actor who, for several days, couldn’t do right a certain scene...

"Imagine what happened to me!" Peter Sellers shouted, all excited, into the receiver. "I just talked to God and he told me exactly how to do that damn scene!"

The next morning, on the set, Sellers was even worse than the day before...

"Peter, the next time you talk with God, tell him to stay out of our business, " Blake Edwards said, tapping him on the shoulder.

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War of Goddesses!

Angry because Themistocles demanded of them to pay taxes, allies of Athens once refused to do so. Themistocles was furious and sent envoys on the island of his allies in order to deliver them a threatening message.

Two powerful goddesses, the goddess of power, and the goddess of persuasion, will force the allies to comply and pay the tax to Athens - threatened the Athenian statesman.

Islanders, however, answered with the same measure.

We are unable to pay - the people answered to Themistocles. Two goddesses that are more powerful do not allow us: the goddess of the poverty and the goddess of despair.

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