In view of past conversations on the grammatics of this subject, I submit the following video:
Full Text
I was speaking in one of the West Coast
0:03
universities and while I was speaking
0:05
there I'd been invited to speak on a
0:07
philosophical theme and I arrived there
0:08
and this fellow who picked me up was
0:10
really quite intimidating and he took me
0:12
to a health food restaurant before I
0:14
began to speak I've got nothing against
0:17
health food restaurants it's just that
0:19
I've never seen too many healthy people
0:20
in health food restaurants you just go
0:23
in there and you wonder what's gonna
0:24
come after the sunflower seeds are over
0:26
maybe more seaweed or something like
0:29
that and it was about 80 82 degrees and
0:32
there was a fella sitting in the
0:33
restaurant with a black cape a black
0:36
woolen cape that started at the top of
0:39
his neck and went down to his knees and
0:41
where the Cape ended his leather boots
0:43
began and I said oh my where have I come
0:47
and I'm cynical enough to look in his
0:50
direction and mutter to myself I wonder
0:52
whether he's a student or a subject you
0:54
know it just looked so strange I don't
0:56
know what kind of a place I'm going into
0:57
till finally the fellow across the table
1:00
looked at me and said I hear mr. Zakaria
1:03
is that you do not believe in evolution
1:05
I said do you mean a theistic evolution
1:08
he said yes I said no I don't believe in
1:10
it he said you don't I said no sir I
1:13
said if you're telling me that matter
1:15
has caused mind I don't believe it he
1:18
said you don't I said no he said I can't
1:21
believe that a professor would find it
1:23
hard to given to such evidence and I
1:26
said do you believe in evolution and he
1:28
said absolutely I said a theistic
1:31
evolution he said yes I said I can't
1:33
believe that an intelligent fellow will
1:35
I said tell me something
1:37
do you believe time plus matter plus
1:39
chance has produced your brain you know
1:42
any force for a moment I said you know
1:44
time long range of time and I said
1:48
matter you know bouncing up and blah
1:50
blah blah over eons of who lots of
1:53
matter bouncing over lots of time and
1:54
chance I said I really don't know what
1:57
chance means to you I said I've read
2:00
books on the philosophy of chance I said
2:02
but frankly I've come to the conclusion
2:04
that chance is just a catch word to
2:06
explain what you don't understand I said
2:09
if I were to ask you to show me chance
2:11
we can't stand
2:12
window together and you say there goes
2:14
chance see chance doesn't have a body
2:16
I said maybe you take a coin to toss it
2:18
into the air nine times in there oh it
2:19
comes down heads the possibility of it
2:21
coming tails the tenth time is 50-50
2:23
I said chance doesn't have a body
2:25
doesn't have power I said frankly I
2:27
believe chances nothing chances no thing
2:31
I said in just in case you don't know
2:33
what nothing means Aristotle defined
2:36
nothing as that which rocks dream about
2:43
it's a pretty good definition of nothing
2:45
unfortunately had to bring rocks into it
2:48
but it's a pretty good definition of
2:50
nothing you can't conceive of it in your
2:52
mind I said but I'll give it to you time
2:54
plus matter plus chance has created your
2:57
brain
2:58
he said the eye I have to say that I
3:01
said if time plus matter plus chance has
3:03
created your brain then truth as an
3:06
absolute category no longer exists
3:08
because truth by nature is absolute time
3:11
is changing matter is changing chance
3:13
whatever it is is changing you never get
3:16
time matter and chance remaining the
3:18
same if time plus matter plus chance has
3:20
created your brain truth as an absolute
3:22
category no longer exists because if it
3:24
is absolutely truthful statement with
3:26
the Givens it's true on Monday - on
3:28
Tuesday - on Wednesday so on and so
3:30
forth but with the fluctuation and flux
3:32
of time plus matter plus chance truth as
3:34
a category no longer exists he said I
3:37
believe that to be correct I said if
3:40
that is correct how do you know it is
3:42
true that time plus matter plus chance
3:44
has created your brain do you know what
3:48
the boy said to me he said let's get up
3:51
and go he says my field is science not
3:54
philosophy
3:56
I said hey wait a minute wait a minute I
3:59
said we I got you now I'm gonna listen
4:01
to you a little longer I said if I
4:03
looked at you and said my field is
4:05
theology not science you reserve the
4:07
right to laugh at me but when you look
4:09
at me and say my field is science not
4:11
philosophy I'm supposed to accept that
4:13
as a very brilliant response
4:14
I said you spent seven years studying
4:16
one insect in a San Francisco stream in
4:20
order to get that high level
4:21
sophisticated education to produced in
4:24
your dissertation
4:25
you've spent seven years studying that
4:27
tiny little object and you're telling me
4:29
you're not a philosopher I said maybe
4:31
you should read Einstein who said the
4:34
problem with us scientists is that we
4:36
are very poor philosophers and somewhere
4:39
in the foundations of science somewhere
4:42
in the foundations of mathematics
4:44
somewhere in the foundations of physics
4:46
and chemistry and geology and theology
4:49
at the foundation of all of these
4:51
systems are some philosophical
4:53
assumptions which you cannot deny to
4:56
deny them is to assert them when you
4:58
assert them you prove them and you
5:00
cannot deny it without asserting it