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We are going to die and that makes us the lucky ones Dawkins speech.. long version from 90s

GraculusTheGreenBird

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GraculusTheGreenBird
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I am after the full text for the classic Dawkins speech for my father's humanist funeral, that is along these lines:

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die, because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here but who will never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of the Sahara, the atoms in the universe. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, greater scientists than Newton, greater composers than Beethoven. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people.
<Bit I cant remember and am after>
In the teeth of these stupefying odds, it is you and I that are privileged to be here, with eyes to see where we are, and brains to wonder why.”

Note this is different to all the video/text versions I can see online, which are all much later from the 2000s, are shorter, and miss out the reference to atoms in the universe and Beethoven, and eyes and brains at the end. This original speech was far longer and better than the abridged version.

I had it as a .WAV file but its long gone. Don't suppose anyone has a copy of the text, or a link to the audio?

Thanks!
 
This one is from 1996, has the atoms and Beethoven, but still doesn't contain the bit that you are missing:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been standing in my place but who will never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara -- more, the atoms in the universe. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Donne, greater scientists than Newton, greater composers than Beethoven. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I that are privileged to be here, privileged with eyes to see where we are and brains to wonder why.
Click to expand...
That's quite the end of a longer speech, you can find it here:

https://www.edge.org/conversation/richard_dawkins-science-delusion-and-the-appetite-for-wonder
 
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My condolences on the death of your father. I'm sure you'll deliver a fitting eulogy, and that those in attendance will find the Dawkins material an apt honoring of your father and his values.

---

As a philosophical treatise, however, it makes no sense at all to me.
 
GraculusTheGreenBird said:
You are a star, thank you so much! That is exactly the full speech I am after, and its clear that there is no missing bit at all.
Click to expand...

You are welcome!
Well, I was at my job and wanted to do something useful for a change :).

When we buried my father more than two years ago I would not have been able to give a speech.
Hopefully you have the strength and it works out as you want.
 
theprestige said:
My condolences on the death of your father. I'm sure you'll deliver a fitting eulogy, and that those in attendance will find the Dawkins material an apt honoring of your father and his values.

As a philosophical treatise, however, it makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
In the context of a funeral recitation, I think it's a nice thought. Mortality is a condition of being a person, and some people seem to get hung up on lamenting that, so as a homily I think the statement has a certain quality, a reminder that we should be glad of what we have rather than mourning. What has happened has happened, and cannot be undone.

But as a philosophical treatise, it comes dangerously close to the mystical sin of attributing being to nonbeing. Language has its limitations, but to speak of our existence as luck implies that there is bad luck in not existing. The people who do not exist are only things we imagine. They are not people. They are not unlucky. They are not anything.
 
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