i'm very pleased to be joined by a british apologist and evolutionary biologist professor richard dawkins is a scientist and author whose life work has educated millions and challenge the popular beliefs of a generation professor dawkins is best known for the ideas laid out of his landmark book the selfish gene and develop further in the extended phenotype which is the radical notion that darwinian selection happens not at the level of the individual but at the level of our d.n.a. implies that humans evolved for only one purpose to serve our genes he's also equally well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design is an atheist and humanist and vice president of the british humanist association and supporter of the rights movement professor dawkins is becoming has become a leading figure of new atheism english language version of his groundbreaking book the god delusion argues that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion sold more than two million copies have been translated into more than thirty languages is in americ

dawkins foundation for reason and science he joins me now from our studios in miami professor dawkins welcome it's a pleasure thank you it's a pleasure and an honor to have you with us in the selfish gene you shook up the discussion of natural selection you coined the term selfish gene as a way if you correct me if i have this wrong please as a way of expressing the gene centered view of evolution as opposed to views focused on group selection given that you also say that genes just are that they can survive independently of the cell the cell can survive in a part of the organism how do you reckon to reconcile the need for biological cooperation with your hypothesis of a selfish gene. cooperation takes place at the level of the individual individuals cooperate genes selfish the whole point about the selfish gene is not that individuals are selfish but individuals may well very well be ultra risky uncooperative as a result of their genes being being selfish and obviously that takes a book to explain but it does not mean that individuals are selfish still less that they should be selfis

and pete fitzsimmons and tannish col -- hollins and camille dawkins. camille is over here.one of this happens. so let's give them a round of applause for their wonderful effort. the society's primary mission is to enlighten, to inform, to inspire and to empower. we achieve that mission in a variety of ways. almost always in partnership with others. through our current partnership that trevor spoke to with the finance -- kinsey foundation shall the san francisco public library, and the california council of the humanities, we are now hosting an incredible exhibition of art and artifacts from the kinsey collection, the kron -- that chronicles the story of people of frick desnent america. if you haven't done so you owe it to yourself and particularly to your children to visit and see this important exhibit which is at our library in the frake american -- african-american art and culture complex at 762 bolton street. the posters you see here are examples of elements in that exhibit. these are actual objects that are part of the kinsey collection that are on display in our exhib

this neighborhood nine hundred seventy one just five years after howard levy and john dawkins lone acts of protest thousands of vietnam veterans against the war converged on washington d.c. and threw their medals on to the capitol steps. we had to fight to take the stand. you know it's kind of a unique opportunity it's very it's very rare i think it in anybody's life that you have an opportunity to really think that you are changing history that you're a part of history at first we couldn't voyageurs approach us in a war that. we had a thousand years in nineteen so they thought they did know our reactor there because they thought there were a bunch of them they got out of there and probably all just thought it was a money of martyr i will learn. so much so just spent a day after day after day you know just people talking about you know what it's all about how we're going to deal with this stuff and how we will go forward change the world that's what we want to do course wouldn't change the world we're pretty sure this sucks you know we're pretty sure those deserve to be here and so that

after the break author and evolutionary biologist richard dawkins joins me for a special edition of conversations with great minds. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's time to break through that sort of a good mate who can you trust no one who is in view with that global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

talking, and i have been talking to matt and trey for years about this, and when they did the richard dawkins episode of "south park" one of the things that we talked about was that idea of bitterness and the y of the anger that comes from that. i am a huge fan of proselytizing and a huge fan of speaking your mind, but the only way that we can share the universe, the only way that we can share humanity is by talking very strongly about what we believe. >> you are the chief atheist out there. how did you get here? how did we get here? >> well, let me ask you, how did we get here? >> i believe in this superior being, a god. >> of course. >> and therefore the questions which always baffle atheists, the hard reality of life, i believe there is something greater out there. there is a greater entity which is a spiritual being that allows comprehension on a scale that we could never understand. >> exactly, but the comprehension -- >> but you don't believe it. so what do you believe happened? >> if it is comprehension on a scale that we can't possibly understand, then aren't you done? why do you need

so as i was beginning to look at the process that created us i reread dawkins self exchange, reread darwin and began to despair that perhaps we were selfish, short-sighted, ruthless entities forged by an amoral and utterly cruel process, but it was this man here that really gave me hope that may not necessarily be the case. alfred russel wallace lived a full life dying at the age of 90. at the age of 80, he was still writing and in fact i would argue is most important work was published in 1904 in his eighth decade. that is the title page of it there, man split on the universe, the study of research in relation to the unity or plurality of worlds. a very strange title indeed. what this book really is a summary of wallace's understanding of what the evolutionary mechanism had created. he wasn't like darwin. he wasn't interested in drilling down with the reduction of science ever more finally in terms of understanding the evolutionary mechanism. he had done that in 1958. what he wanted to know was what was created and being a holistic thinker, his field of endeavor was the entire planet. and

donald dawkins of the atf in detroit is joining us by the phone.bout this car bomb? >> we're not sure. we're right in the middle of the investigation. what we do know it seriously injured an ad cult and two -- adult and two children. the children are in really serious condition right now and we have an active investigation going on. atf, michigan state police and monroe city police here in michigan, monroe, michigan. and we're trying to determine exactly what kind of explosive device it was, kind of put the pieces together. we're still going over the vehicle and trying to gather all the evidence we can from the vehicle. we are interviewing and reinterviewing and, we hope it will take us in the direction that we need to get in. jenna: some reports saying this is an attorney and his sons. can you confirm that for us? >> i can not confirm that. there are questions, so many things we're trying to keep close to the vest because that may factor into which way we go in this investigation. jenna: certainly understandable right now. our viewers want to be r