Joe Rogan Asks Richard Dawkins About Heaven, Psychedelics

And a hope of an afterlife as well. Yes, that is the purpose and meaning, right? Yes, I suppose that's right. Yes, I think that's right. I can understand why people might want to believe a priest who comes along and tells them you don't have to worry about death because you're going to survive it. I'm less understanding of people who make up stories to comfort themselves or other people. I mean, a made up story should not be comforting. I don't understand how a made up story can be comforting. Of course, if you make it up and persuade somebody else, then they could find it comforting. On the other hand, is an afterlife really all that comforting when you think about half of them believe they're going to go to hell. So is anything but comforting? And also, even if you're not going to hell, if you're going to heaven, eternity in heaven, I mean, sitting in heaven for not just billions of years, but trillions of years. I mean, these are time spans beyond our comprehension. How unbelievably boring it would be. Would it though? I mean, I don't know. I enjoy life, but if I had to live my life over and over again, infinitely, if I had an infinite number of this exact lives, I don't know how I'd approach that. In the moment, I can enjoy it. I could do with maybe 200 years, but after that. I mean, I think that eternity is what's frightening about death and eternity is best spent under a local, under a general anesthetic, which is what's going to happen. Right. Gonzo, alcohol, the lights, maybe. Yeah. Or maybe not. Have you had any experience with psychedelics? No. Do you have any interest in that? I've been offered to be accompanied on a trip by a very nice woman friend. Yeah. And I've never so far dared take her up on it. How come? I asked advice of a cousin of my father who's just recently died who was a major expert on psychedelics. And I think he was the one who introduced Aldous Huxley to Met Mescaline, for example. And he judiciously advised against, he said that the horrors of a bad trip are so awful that he wouldn't advise somebody to go into it. My friend who's offering me this trip says it would be a relatively low dose and she would take another low dose so she could kind of accompany me. Yeah. And stop me jumping out a window or anything. Well, there's so many stories in so many ancient religions that seem to originate with the consumption of some sort of a psychedelic. Yes. And, you know, there's many, including John Markle, Ledgroves, the sacred mushroom. Jesus was a mushroom. Yes. I mean, you could see the connection if you were a primitive person with no access to science and you found some mushroom growing under a tree and consumed it and had this unbelievable experience. You would assume that you've transcended this life and gone into this other realm where where God exists. I once thought that I would try a psychedelic when I was on my deathbed. That's it. But what if it was amazing and you're like, I could have gotten so much done with this. If I had tried this out when I was 30. Yes, maybe. Right. I don't you know, I don't think anybody should do anything. I mean, I used to. I used to encourage people to do things all the time. Now my thought is do whatever compels you whenever you feel like it. But I would think that a person like yourself who has this sort of rigorous belief that the lights go out and then that's it. I would think that that would be attractive to just at least dip your toes in. Yes. Yes. Well, don't you think the lights go out? I don't know. You know, I don't know. I've had some pretty profound psychedelic experiences that make me wonder what what thoughts are and what what consciousness is and whether or not there's some way that it transcends. Well, I wonder what consciousness is, but it's pretty clear that it's to do with brains and brains decay. And so I wouldn't know that much hope for you. Well, you might be right. Yeah, you might be. Well, certainly consciousness does have to do with brains. We know brain damage severely perturbs consciousness. But there's some interaction with certain chemicals. And that makes this experience far different than what it is when we're on the natch. I believe that's still brains, though. Yeah. Still brain. But that's it reductionist. Nothing wrong with reductionism. Nothing wrong with it. Not saying there is.