Oh yeah. The Palace of Fine Arts. 8:00 pm. Me, Ariela, and Richard Dawkins. Yeah okay, there were hundreds of other people there, and we were but two of the attendees, but we did get in line to ask questions at the microphone.
The Charles Simonyi professor of the Public Understanding of Science, a position that knows no equal in the United States, Richard Dawkins, is charging through the American segment of his book tour. The new book, the God Delusion, is a shining example of lucidity, and I’m not talking about the silvery cover. There are many valid points that he brings up in the book, and he has been getting varying reactions.
Some take him to be venturing outside his domain as a scientist, others suggest that he is painting all of religion with a broad brush of wickedness. If you read a review of the book that suggests anything like this, I suggest that the reviewer never actually read the book. Maybe the fact that the book’s dust jacket acts as a mirror is no coincidence.
After a fun and awfully english parlor conversation between the host and professor Dawkins, the audience was invited to ask questions, and you can bet I got in line. Alas, only five were fielded. I actually didn’t expect much of a question and answer session, so I came unprepared and ready to ask a question that was better suited to an in-person dialogue anyhow. So I got in the book signing line (much relieved knowing there was one).
Book lines never give you enough time for a conversation, and that is understandable - otherwise authors would have no life to themselves! I felt like a witty child, having found a genie in a bottle, and who was offered but one wish. I wished for more wishes.
My meta-wish machine is of course my show, an opportunity to be a part of the ongoing conversation that scientists and other thinkers (and non-thinkers) are having with the world.
Did I invite Richard Dawkins on The Inoculated Mind - Mindcast? Damn straight. He told me where to send an email. And I will. Will I have my chance to set up a couple virtual high-backed chairs and interview Richard? We’ll see. If not this year, then someday.
