Dawkins in Toronto
September 30th, 2009
Yesterday, Richard Dawkins passed through Toronto promoting his new book The Greatest Show on Earth. It was a good thing the wife got us tickets a few weeks ago because the line up wrapped around the street an hour before the start time.
The talk was more interesting than I expected. When I caught him in Montreal a few years ago I found Dawkins to be superficial and boring so my expectations were low this time. Although he basically just read from his book, he made it interesting and had plenty of extras to keep me awake.
The book is another attempt to prove that evolution is fact so I don’t see why I need to read it and Dawkins didn’t attempt to try to convince me to buy it (which I thought was the point of a book launch). Dawkins explained that his book is targeting religious people on the fence which I suppose it an admirable goal but I doubt those people are going to be convinced by sciency sounding logic and reason so the book will likely end up as just another atheist book taking up space on our increasingly obsolete bookshelves. Since the audience was almost exclusively hardcore atheists, I expected Dawkins to tailor his talk towards his fans who likely won’t see him again anytime soon. I think Dawkins’ fanboys got their fix since the hour was filled will plenty of religious jabs and other assorted blasphemy but the rest of us were expecting something a little bit more intelligent.
I’ve never had an interest to read science books, especially ones that likely aren’t arguing anything new but I’m glad Dawkins seems to have stuck to the science this time, without trying to pretend to be a philosopher or a sociologist like in some of his previous talks and books.
The audience was a typical crowd for an atheist event. Half the people were students in their early 20’s, the other half retirees well into their 60’s and beyond. For once, I noticed a few very well dressed couples which, to me, indicates we have some potential local donors for future campaigns (if we can figure out new ways to find them and convince them to support the cause).
Indigo Books hosted the event and they clearly underestimated their target market. I was disappointed since they could have done a lot better had they co hosted with CFI. The theatre had a capacity of only 500 which was too small given the army of experienced event coordinators who could have easily filled Convocation Hall (capacity 3000) had they been consulted. Oh well. Overall, the evening was worth the trek to the city and I’m glad I attended, if only just to say I was there.
