Comments

  3. says

    Yeah, baby.

    Can I borrow it when you’re done? I’ve an autographed copy of Unweaving the Rainbow I can put up for collateral.

  9. LJ says

    Ah, the perks of celebrity and power. What’s next; Grand Marshall of the Morris Syttende Mai parade?

    Maybe you can get Dawkins to do some guest blogging next time you take a break.

  10. Bayesian Bouffant, FCD says

    That’s the problem with being a pseudonomynous lurker; nobody knows where to send all those presents they’d like to give me.

    Clarification: Did Dawkins send this to you, or did some third party obtain a copy and do the sending?

  11. Matthew Heaney says

    Hey Richard, you’re free to send a DVD my way too if you want! (PZ you’re one lucky bastard…)

  13. Hank Alme says

    The green-eyed monster is strong in me.

    Do we know if the show will be either broadcast here in the USA or if it will be available on DVD any time soon (thank Netflix!)

  16. Catana says

    I just turned deep green. Here’s hoping that Netflix picks it up, because it certainly won’t be shown on American tv.

  17. says

    Yes, Dawkins lurks here — I don’t think that often, but you never know when he might read your comment about him.

    <_ < >_>

    Hi, Mr. Dawkins.

  20. Jason Malloy says

    If I pray to Dawkins will the Dawkins fairy or Dawkins Claus leave something special for me?

  24. Bayesian Bouffant, FCD says

    Bouffant, I assume that Dawkins did the sending, as it’s personalized to PZ.

    My experience at book signings is that they will write almost whatever the buyer requests. I have discovered the limits of this by requesting the wording “to my sole heir,”. Hasn’t worked yet.

  25. John M. Price says

    Sadly, I looked at Channel 4, and these don’t seem to be for sale. At least not yet.

    Oh well – I can wait.

  27. Dave says

    Wow. You are a fortunate man.

    Professor Dawkins, if you are reading this, you could make a quick fistful of dollars by selling us Yanks some copies of that DVD.

    Think about it.

  28. says

    That’s an amazing coincidence. I just this morning received a copy of the “stone angel” episode of the Simpsons, with the following inscription:

    “Chris; love your comments at Pharyngula. Just had to pop in from The Mother Of All Non-Overlapping Magisteria to send my kudos. Best Regards, Steve G.”

  30. Joel The Bowebird says

    Wow PZ, *that* is truly an awesome gift. I guess this means that the series is only two total parts? Here’s to hoping this great series does fantastically well on British TV. Such goodness will never be shown over here in Jesusland, USA.

  31. Geral Corasjo says

    [quote]Professor Dawkins, if you are reading this, you could make a quick fistful of dollars by selling us Yanks some copies of that DVD.[/quote]

    I don’t know.. what would be more important to him, making fistfulls of money or getting people to talk about the situation? Hmm?

  32. Anonymous says

    To BBC Channel 4, Richard Dawkins, or whomever has the authority to make this happen:

    I am American. I have money. I want this show. Look, here is money. Give me the show. It’s so simple and makes everybody happy. Thanks in advance,

    Matt Arnold, Oak Park, Michigan

  33. Mike says

    I don’t expect to see “The root of all evil?” on TV here in Poland either, but the programe (both episodes) is available through various P2P software (like Emule and Bit-torrent). They come in excellent quality.

  34. Jim H says

    To BBC Channel 4, Richard Dawkins, or whomever has the authority to make this happen:

    I am American. I have money. I want this show. Look, here is money. Give me the show. It’s so simple and makes everybody happy. Thanks in advance,

    Matt Arnold, Oak Park, Michigan

    Ditto. I’m so jealous of PZ. I’ve been quoting Dawkins regularly and would love to see the shows.

    Any chance they would put it on BBCA?

  35. Ian H Spedding says

    WOW! You lucky dog! I am so envious!

    Is this the atheistic equivalent of Moses being told to take the tablets once a day?

  40. Amos says

    That is awesome. Celebrity mail!

    But my reaction to the programs wasn’t all that positive. His arrogance put me off, even though I’m also an atheist. (I’m not an anti-theist. That might be it.) Most surprisingly, he appears to be a fundamentalist Biblical literalist who just happens to not believe in God. It was very strange to see him repeat their method of thinking about the Bible and interpreting it.

  42. says

    P.S. No chance anyone will put it on BBCA, by the way, because it’s not on the BBC at all, it’s on Channel 4. The BBC is itself mostly pretty ‘respectful’ of religion, no doubt partly because when it’s not (cf Jerry Springer the Opera) its execs get death threats.

  43. gwangi says

    Hmmm. Guess that means I’ll have to watch out for the occasional gene-selectionism badmouthing. Shame, that.

  44. Wetherby Pond says

    The BBC is itself mostly pretty ‘respectful’ of religion, no doubt partly because when it’s not (cf Jerry Springer the Opera) its execs get death threats.

    But they also showed (and made) Jonathan Miller’s superb A Brief History of Disbelief, one of the best things I’ve seen on any TV channel in recent years (and, I have to say, markedly better than Dawkins’ programme, which I thought was preaching to the converted a little too much for comfort).

  45. CJ says

    I’m with Matt Arnold and Jim H. Put in a good word with your new pal Richard to make copies of the program available for us underprivileged Yanks.

  46. says

    Damn, I’m going to have to start kissing up to Dawkins more on my own blog and see if he sends me any cool presents. Or do I have to be a biologist first?

  47. Chance says

    ‘fundamentalist Biblical literalist who just happens to not believe in God’

    The reason is it IS the most consistent way to delve into the religion. If your going to make things up as you go along you might get around this fact but he simply goes to the root. And in that respect he is correct.

  48. Siamang says

    Oh man. That’s cold. You got that, and you just scanned it and put it on to make us envious.

    Well it worked. Hope you’re proud of yourself.

  50. james says

    The torrent for episode two is available here.

    http://greylodge.org/gpc/?p=339

    (I drive and bicycle around various small towns and suburbs in the Northwest USA for my job, the megachurches are everywhere)

    I saw Richard Dawkins speak and read for his last book release. His clear headed perceptions came out especially in the question and answer period. If you get a chance to see him on his next tour, don’t miss it.

  52. SEF says

    I just received a little present in the mail

    That’s nice. I found out that Richard Dawkins answers email too. Nice and approachable is pretty much what you want from a “Professor in the Public Understanding of Science”. He’s not doing badly as an advert for geekdom either – by bagging Lalla Ward. ;-) Then again, she’s displaying rather good taste too.

    Anyhow, your scanning of the DVD as a picture reminds me a little of something that happened at one place where I worked…

    Someone had asked the office bunny (ie female gofer with no apparent qualifications) to send copies of some floppy disks (yes, it was a long time ago that I worked!) out to a customer. They thought to explain to her that the master disks were kept in the fire-safe. What they didn’t think to explain was that putting the masters in the photocopier and just sending off those images of the outside of the disks wasn’t going to be acceptable.

  53. says

    You lucky [phrase deleted]

    I think the Dawkins show was great. I’ve spent many many years hanging around Christians and have learned to take their eccentricities in my stride. The dark side is that I’ve trained myself to not notice the bizarre nature of their faith. It was almost a spiritual experience to hear someone stand up and point out that a large portion of the human species is systematically training itself to believe crazy stuff in defiance of all reason. During the course of the show, I could actually feel the cognitive dissonance I’d set up over the years just melting away.

    Mr Dawkins, you have my utmost respect. Good on yer :)

  54. Jamie says

    Thanks to the commenters w/ the BitTorrent links. I’ve downloaded both, but all I’ve got is audio, no video. Suggestions?

  56. James says

    Jamie:

    You are having some kind of codec problem. I can see the video using Winamp, and I am using the K-lite codec pack. (all free and googleable) (I cannot see the video portion using windows media player)

    You need to see the video, it is so worth it to see the slow burn come on the evangelist’s face when he starts to realize he is talking to an atheist freethinker who doesn’t fall for his smooth talk.

  57. Anonymous says

    Thanks, James. Windows MP didn’t play it, but the Winamp download and whatever the hells “k-lite codec pack” is I just downloaded did the trick. Surely Jesus is rolling in his grave right now. No god bless you for your kind advice!

  59. says

    Hmmm, perhaps when I met him at a book signing in Denver last year I should have said that I run a website that is on PZ Myers’ blogroll and would he please send me a copy of the DVD when he, in the future, decides to do the same for the aforementioned PZ Myers.

    Or something.

    Guess I’ll go looking for the torrent linked above instead…

  60. SEF says

    would he please send me a copy

    All the more reason for the universities* to get together and somehow acquire a satellite channel. Then they could broadcast things like this which are of educational or philosophical significance but which the US networks wouldn’t dare to touch.

    * Universities seemed like the obvious organisations to me who might be prepared to create and show such material. Though I had originally been thinking more in terms of how to get high quality science programmes made and shown, eg ones which aren’t afraid to use the e-word. I haven’t heard of the US even having anything similar to the UK’s Open University.

  61. Ian H Spedding says

    SEF wrote

    Someone had asked the office bunny (ie female gofer with no apparent qualifications) to send copies of some floppy disks (yes, it was a long time ago that I worked!) out to a customer. They thought to explain to her that the master disks were kept in the fire-safe. What they didn’t think to explain was that putting the masters in the photocopier and just sending off those images of the outside of the disks wasn’t going to be acceptable.

    That sounds like an anecdote from one of the Dilbert books. A fax machine ran out of paper so a secretary ordered some more from the stationery department. When told that it would take a day or so to deliver it, she asked them if they could fax over a few sheets to keep her going in the meantime.

  63. SEF says

    I stayed up late last night to make sure the video recorder was at least attempting to record them. Some time I’ll have to see if I can now catch up on the bits I missed the first time round. Eg missed because people will insist on phoning me during the few TV programmes I’m trying to watch – and then, in this case, complaining that they would have watched it themselves had they known. Hmph! If the tape has worked at all, I’d better save it for any other UK acquaintances who complain that they missed it … again …

  65. Anonymous says

    fortunately, i’m in england for business, and i got to watch it. it was pretty good. i had a few small problems with it though

  66. Anonymous says

    channel 4’s sister cable station had a program on right afterwards about how the “enlightenment” was the beginning of the end of morality and values. it was on too late tho, i couldn’t stay up and watch

  67. SEF says

    i had a few small problems with it though

    Yes, as I’ve said before/elsewhere, it was a little disappointing in that there were bits that could easily have been done better. It doesn’t look like this is the place for detailed critique. However, starting to watch the re-run had me wanting to say “yes, but” at it in the same places again.

    So, PZ, have you watched it yet or are you still just gloating over the presentation of it? :-D

  68. Alopex Lagopus says

    Thanks for the link to ‘Brief History of Disbelief’. It also seems to be available on BitTorrent.

    BBC should host their own Torrents… I would even subscribe to (as in pay money for) some of their quality stuff.