I forgot to add that I tried to ask a supplementary question off Dawkins but
time had run out. It would have been: 'Do you think that we are programmed
in our DNA for religion'.
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 7:28 PM
Subject: The Dawkins in Bath etc
> The Bath Literature Festival has started and I will be very busy for the
> next week. I thought I would report my meeting with history this
> afternoon!
>
> Richard and Lalla gave a reading in tandem from his new book 'The
> Ancestors
> Tale' in Bath this afternoon.
>
> A couple of weeks ago I read Michael Ruse's 'Darwin and Design' and also
> listened to a BBC Radio4 discussion with Simon Conway Morris so I had a
> question in my mind which I asked Richard when he was accepting questions
> after the reading (which I didnt pay much attention to). The question was:
> 'What do you think of the idea that evolution is a random walk to
> complexity?' and I added 'Do you see progress in evolution?' He
> immediately
> replied that he did see progress in evolution but not as a random walk to
> complexity. I couldnt really make out what else he continued saying as I
> couldnt extract any coherent meaning. My fault..sorry about that.
>
> And that was my ten seconds of fame. I thought I should report it here.
>
> Then Nikolai Tolstoy gave a brilliant account of the life of his
> stepfather
> Patrick O'Brian. Speaking without notes for an hour he totally discredited
> the existing biography which he has felt necessary to replace by his own
> book. He emphasised that Maturin and O'Brian are the same person but he
> couldnt find a particular model for Aubrey other than an eccentric
> Welshman.
> He was very revealing about Patrick O'Brian's early life. Patrick didnt
> have
> an easy time of it but was not as wicked as he has been painted. As to
> Nikolai Tolstoy I have always had a great respect for him since I read his
> book on Merlin which had some remarkably original ideas.
>
> Tomorrow I have Karen Armstrong, all of whose books I love, and Richard
> Fortey for some education.
>
>
>
> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
>
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