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Richard Dawkins vs Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The God Debate

UnHerd

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At the UnHerd-sponsored Dissident Dialogues Festival in New York, Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Hirsi Ali discussed her recent conversion to Christianity, and whether the whole ‘New Atheism’ movement of which they had both been key members had done more harm than good.

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// TIMECODES //

00:00 - 05:34 - Ayaan Hirsi Ali's conversion from atheism to Christianity, with Richard Dawkins' reaction
05:34 - 12:50 - Faith, religion, and personal experiences
12:50 - 21:54 - Christianity and its impact on society
21:54 - 31:34 - Faith, reason, and the role of religion in society
31:34 - 38:40 - Faith, religion, and truth
38:40 - 46:45 - The decline of Christianity and the rise of Islamism
46:45 - 55:27 - Morality, religion, and the role of Christianity in society
55:27 - 1:01:18 - Religion, atheism, and Islam
1:01:18 - 1:07:19 - Islamism and its impact on society

#UnHerd #AyaanHirsiAli #RichardDawkins

20 Comments

@ronburg8544 2 years ago

I just love how they embrace at the start and finish. Nothing moves me more than two people who still care for each other deeply despite having differing opinions. This is how civil discourse should be done.

@RayTechUniverse 1 year ago

Her saying "I chose to believe" pretty much summons the whole debate

@sizesmall1756 1 year ago

Big hug at the start, bigger hug at the end. Brought tears to my eyes. Long live dialogue.

@SergeyBadaev-t9b 3 weeks ago

I was a member of an organised international secular humanist movement. I found them infected with wokeism, bureaucracy, lack of rationality, not really open to debate but rather having a comfortable bubble for lazy existence. So I left.

@rahulbats 2 years ago

people in debates like this should be banned from clapping and cheering

@NtandoNeshi-zc5xy 1 year ago (edited)

Man, well done to the Christians who have met Dawkins and treated him with so much love and respect that he said, ' I've never met a vicar that I didn't like. They're always very, very nice people.' 16:50

@wesleytilley 2 years ago

The obnoxious clapping when each side thinks their team has scored a point is annoying and a sign of the times. I’d be curious to know how many people in the crowd were actually open to having their mind changed that day or if they were there just to confirm their bias.

@MLGadget 7 months ago (edited)

The captions are good. They're NOT just automatically generated, but have been edited. In some places, they complete a sentence that the speaker doesn't finish, which could be controversial.

At 52:24 there's a mistake: should be “Temples of reason …”.

@thomaswashington2127 2 years ago

This was an awesome conversation between 2 friends. I wish we could get more of these types of debates

@JBiri 1 year ago

Hope, Faith, Love.

and the greatest is love!

@evilblasteroid2320 10 months ago

A respectful conversation between friends who agree to disagree... Man i miss the days when ppl were capable of doing this more often. Thank you for this beautiful conversation!

@MrAhuapai 2 months ago

This is a very powerful statement about personal experience in contrast to rational critical thinking. Ayaan Hirsi Ali to my mind rightfully notes that deep humility is the starting point towards understanding.
As TS Eliot so beautifully put.
"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

@samdung5630 1 year ago (edited)

Her humility really is apparent, and it's inspiring to me, as a Christian who needs to be more humble. Lord help me! Also, I love how she articulated why miracles or supernatural occurences are no big deal if you choose to believe a powerful being like God exists. She's doing better than I am at explaining Christianity, and I am 20 years in.

@wisdom2713 1 year ago

The hugs ( at the beginning and the end) are SPEECHLESSLY THE BEST segment of the entire show , it shows warmth friendship between the twos .

@appawin9331 1 year ago

Her ability to express her faith for such a young believer is amazing. She expresses many things I have in my heart about God yet didn’t know the words. I will listen to this over &over again. Thank you!!🙏🏼 ❤❤️🙏🏼❤️

@MaryMcDonaldLewis 2 months ago

I was fortunate enough to be in the third row for this. At the time, I leaned more toward Dawkins. Since then, I have joined Hirsi Ali's side of the discussion, and am the happier for it, and completely content. This was a conversation for the ages!

@luizacampos6417 2 years ago

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

@JorgeSilva-uw1jt 1 year ago

Well said Ayaan, you are being a living example of the builder's rejected stone becoming the essential corner stone!!

@JBrewfromthepew82 1 year ago

The amount of ads that disrupt this video are so obstructive you can barely stand to watch the video.
Having said that, thank you to UnHerd for hosting this debate and dialogue and for sharing it online.

@sunrae5116 3 months ago

I wish each and every household, each and every school and higher learning of education would make this dialogue between Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Ali Hirsi a mandator watch. How wonderful that they still maintain a respectful friendship while agreeing to disagree. Dawkins surprised me quite a bit.