Robert Winston criticizes : : "I actually think that it's a fundamental error for a prominent scientist to suggest that there's a vast number of the population, who are as intelligent as the author, who are deluded because they have a different belief from themselves. " me - ... No that's what Galileo said and he was right, the majority are sometimes wrong ...if they are wrong they are wrong
"Winston doesn't really believe in God : he likes the tradition" ... sort of cultural afterglow,

Lot of anti-religious writing these days. mentions : Sam Harris' and Christopher Hitchens' and Dan Dennett's also good to see Robyn Williams writes sgainst religion (pity his religion is GW).
Kind of a backlash against the oppression of freethinkers in America and dominance of Christian Fundamentalism saying we don't have to prove our decisions we can use faith and it's above criticism.

- Admitting your an atheist is a very difficult thing in US

- Yes religious moderates are bad. cos their message is it's OK to be irrational "it's faith". That faith is a virtue. So the extremists can be crazy irrational and say "it's faith" . They provide a shield to extremists who think it's OK to believe without evidence.

- Isn't Religion natural ? It has evolved in every place - many advantages one it's an easy way to control people "do this or you'll go to hell" - evolves becomes more enforced, more elaborate with every generation, more crazy, more above criticism

me- Before religion provided answers, but now we have something better "science" !

Williams idea - conformity has evolved cos it works like the highway code : conforming can be seen as good for society as then you drive with the traffic not against it ie so in a Muslim country be a Muslim, in a voodoo society be a voodoo. But most countries are mixed now and diversity is good.

- labelling of children - if your dad plays cricket or if he is a communist then you don't apply this label to the children. Me - here I think he is wrong. I wish adults didn't force their religion on their kids, but as long as long as the religion is lawful you can't stop them. Yes, Freedom of religion is is UNDHR, but actually only people in the west get to choose their religion. Islam has cheekily made it a rule that if a parent is Muslim then the children cannot change religion.
You don't get to choose your nationality or your race, and most brainwashing religions have convinced people their religion is part of their race and normal customary behaviour like not murdering people. If you are 100% genetically Malay but a non-muslim if you emigrated into Malaysia the government would call you non-Malay.

For a child all rules are dogma. What would you do if your children came home and said "I'm part of the I don't want to go to school religion" ?

... and if you your Mum and Dad are West Ham supporters then they'll take you to the match so if they are Christians they'll take you to church - surely you can't exclude your children if it's part of your life ? Yes it is brainwashing - but what can you do ? You might think all other religions are evil, so it's rational to protect your children from them All a state can do is try to make sure children can find out about other religions, and ensure when they are adults they have freedom to choose their religion. Religion should have no compulsion. This is part of Islam, but contradicted by it's you can't leave rule.

- been criticized for not being an expert on theology - but, you don't need to been an expert on clothes to see the emperor has no clothes.

- don't churches do any good ? only cos 1.after death brownie points 2. there's a a lot of charity money sloshing around ... the same people could do more good if they weren't religious

you have morality without religion : indeed morality tells you to disobey the bible ie not to stone people to death for working on Sunday

morals are getting better - We used to accept sexism, slavery and racism .. religion didn't give us these rules
improves with time Science (and rational thinking) GETS BETTER wheras religion doesn't improve you get the same old answers. Most religions say the are divine and perfect. That's as if GM said we don't need new cars, we designed the perfect one 60 years ago.

- There are various Islamic radio stations in Britain .. wow

'barking mad idea' - Jesus dying for our sins

false impression by TV editing - he puts up the full videos on his website richarddawkins.net

So non-overlapping magisteria -idea that religion and science are 2 different worlds - Is a kind of political tactic to get liberal religious people, get bishops and things on our side .. it's complete nonsense. If religious could prove stuff they would, but they can't.

me - just say "We don't know" science doesn't give us all the answers yet, but that doesn't mean we need religion.

why speak up ? - real tragedy that people are being led astray by an alternative view which is not merely wrong but which is petty, parochial, inadequate, demeaning.
- "I haven't even started on the effects that religion can have ..bombing, wars etc "

new TV - The Enemies of Reason

Aren't you religious about science ? - no science is great - it's really been proven to work : it's self improving - it's not a dogma