Richard Dawkins lets Deepak Chopra take down himself
    By Hank Campbell | September 13th 2010 03:00 AM | 10 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
    Richard Dawkins has an irrational hatred of religion and zealotry is always creepy but when he remains rational, like in this talk with Deepak Chopra about Chopra's claims that quantum theory can heal people, there is no one better.

    "It's a metaphor," Chopra says, before backtracking and speaking some mumbo jumbo about the observer effect and that physicists say it's possible to do ... well, I don't know what it will do.  And neither does he.


    Comments

    Aitch
    Just seems like Dawkins aloofly talking to someone as if to swallow him as a subject for his next after dinner speech Conflict of Egos, perhaps....or places at the after dinner table? Aitch
    Henry Cox | 09/13/10 | 04:36 AM
    vongehr

    Hat tip for Hank – courageous of you to rip on R. Dawkins. You make yourself immediately unpopular with a large part of especially the semi-sciency crowd. I personally and for a long time just went along with the accolades D. Dennett and S. Pinker heap on him. D.S. Wilson is a good counter weight.

    Wish I could watch the video (inaccessible in China). Sure he will give it to Deepak, but Dawkins does not understand quantum mechanics either, and wrong arguments back fire eventually.

    Sascha Vongehr | 09/13/10 | 05:13 AM
    Hank
    The benefit to being 'outside' the blogging community, who are invariably militant, is that we can take correct yet blogger-unpopular positions without worry.   The blogging cliques hated us from moment one anyway and it made no difference in our popularity because the audience for blogging is 2% of the actual science audience and the science audience feels the same way we do.  They are very loud so they seem bigger than they are.

    Marcus du Sautoy, who succeeded Dawkins as Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, even said the mission he had been given was to "concentrate more on science and less on religion" because Oxford was tired of its named being used to legitimize a culture war that had little to do with science.    As I always say, religious people and Republicans can get a little smarter about science here, because we have no agenda.  In other places they have to hide and be stereotyped as stupid or evil.

    Dawkins (in this video) is not arguing physics, he is just asking the awkward questions and letting Chopra make himself look silly.  I agree he likely doesn't grasp it as others do but, as Feynman said (and is quoted in the feature), 'if you think you know quantum theory, you don't know quantum theory' - physicists are just knowledgeable enough to know what they don't know whereas Chopra thinks a knowledge gap means anything can be thrown in there.
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    Hank Campbell | 09/13/10 | 09:59 AM
    vongehr
    "'if you think you know quantum theory, you don't know quantum theory'"

    Hmm, that is now a rather long time ago. We do make progress, you know, slow, but still.

    It is the same with this misconception that nobody understands relativity. Yes, at the time, but now? Thousands of people understand it, and by now, thousands of people do understand quantum mechanics quite a bit. Not that there are no questions left, but ...
    Sascha Vongehr | 09/13/10 | 22:57 PM
    No, it really works! My cat took Chopra's training course and now it always comes out of the box alive.

    Bill K (not verified) | 09/13/10 | 08:53 AM
    I wonder how you all can explain why Leonard Mlodinow and Chopra have become friends? Why are Leonard and Chopra discussing putting a book out together? Chopra may not have had a formal education in physics but has been exposed to some of the greatest minds of this and last centuries and seems to be trying to bridge a gap the exclusive club can't.

    Patrick Brauckmann (not verified) | 09/13/10 | 10:00 AM
    Hank
    What's to explain? Bill Maher and Ann Coulter are best friends too, but they don't agree with each other professionally on anything at all. Saying that Chopra has made friends and that means he can claim positive thinking is curing people through quantum mechanics makes no sense.



    Mlodinow schools Chopra in this video on the same issue:



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    Hank Campbell | 09/13/10 | 10:12 AM
    Deepak is cool and smart. The physicist is arrogant and haughty.

    Jason (not verified) | 02/25/11 | 18:26 PM
    The unfortunate confrontation with mlodinow almost ruined Chopra's reputation. Chopra is fake and it seems like he is all set to be the successor of Sai Baba.
    His confusing explanations about consciousness is intentional. It creates an impression like since it is equally confusing like quantum jargons there might be some kind of connection between them.

    Anonymous (not verified) | 09/14/10 | 00:34 AM
    It is interesting to hear the nonsense B.S. of Mr. Chopra answering - better- interrupting Leonard Mlodinow comments.

    Anonymous (not verified) | 09/17/10 | 13:26 PM