November 24th marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Ray Comfort released plans to distribute thousands of free copies to students of the "50 top U.S. universities" on November 19th. His edition includes a 54 page introduction (PDF) written by Comfort. Apparently to thwart protest distribution was moved to today (according to the comments). The National Council for Science and the Environment has set up the website dontdissdarwin.com to counter Comfort's claims. via. previously. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen on Nov 18, 2009 - 74 comments

Richard Dawkins, the English biologist and public intellectual well known for his passionate defense of a gene-centered view of biological (organic) evolution, and the introduction and development of the meme-concept and a meme-centered view of social-cultural evolution, to say nothing of his strong stance as an atheist has put out a new book on evolution…
posted by JL Sadstone on Oct 22, 2009 - 147 comments

Noted religious thinker Karen Armstrong and noted atheist thinker Richard Dawkins face off - sorta kinda - in the WSJ: We commissioned Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins to respond independently to the question "Where does evolution leave God?" Neither knew what the other would say. Here are the results. Previously.
posted by fleetmouse on Sep 25, 2009 - 310 comments

Alan Turing , one of the men responsible for computers as we know them today, was persecuted by the British government for being a homosexual. [more inside]
posted by idiopath on Aug 19, 2009 - 209 comments

Richard Dawkins releases his uncut interview with Derren Brown (50 mins +), originally conducted for the Enemies of Reason show - available in six parts on YouTube.
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar on Dec 11, 2008 - 210 comments

Roger Ebert gives Ben Stein a spanking. [more inside]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Dec 6, 2008 - 173 comments

"We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers." Evolutionary psychologist Andy Thomson analyzes suicide terrorism from the perspective of evolutionary biology. The presentation was part of the Atheist Alliance International convention in D.C. last month.
posted by McLir on Oct 13, 2007 - 19 comments

Episode one of controversial evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins' new series Enemies of Reason premieres on Channel 4 tonight. Here's a list of topics.
posted by chuckdarwin on Aug 13, 2007 - 310 comments

The night's event featured speakers Daniel C. Dennett, Matt Ridley, Sir John Krebs, Ian McEwan, and -- the man himself -- Richard Dawkins. It was, as you might suspect (based on the title), an event celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Dawkins' seminal work. If you didn't get a chance to attend, you can still read the full transcript or stream/download the audio of it in MP3 format (many thanks to Helena Cronin, founder/director of Darwin@LSE, for hosting the file). Thanks to 3QD for the link.
posted by Moody834 on Mar 26, 2006 - 20 comments

Creationists argue that the complexity of the human eye could not have arrisen by random Darwinian natural selection, since it "must be perfect to work at all". The Nilsson and Pelger computer experiment refutes this with a method of awesome beauty, showing that a human-quality eye is not just possible under Darwinian evolution, but nigh-inevitable. This is from Do Good By Stealth, chapter 3 of River Out of Eden, which is maybe the greatest thing I've ever read.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Dec 10, 2004 - 67 comments

The Dawkins FAQ. Interesting Q&A session about evolution, biology, genes, etc with an expert. Dawkins claims no final answer on the "gay gene" or a Darwinian explanation of homosexuality.
posted by skallas on Nov 27, 2004 - 56 comments

Richard Dawkins discusses religion with a Darwinian outlook. RD: Could religion be a recent phenomenon, sprung up since our genes underwent most of their natural selection? Its ubiquity argues against any simple version of this idea. Nevertheless, there is a version of it that I want to advocate. The propensity that was naturally selected in our ancestors was not religion per se. It had some other benefit, and it only incidentally manifests itself today as religious behavior.
posted by skallas on Sep 3, 2004 - 35 comments

Does atheism sound too gloomy? Has the word 'freethinker' been co-opted by too many organizations? Some think so and now the world has a new social group: the "Brights." Also of interest is Daniel Dennett's "The Bright Stuff." The official brights website is here.
posted by skallas on Jul 14, 2003 - 109 comments

The 5th Annual Edge.org Question is: What is your question? Read answers from Brian Greene, Brian Eno, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Howard Gardner, Daniel Dennett, and, yes, Alan Alda (and many others).
posted by mattpfeff on Jan 18, 2002 - 13 comments

Reason redux. This does not sound like the "media ideologue" or one-trick publicity hound that some of you tried to portray him. Or is it all just clever posturing?
posted by rushmc on Jul 7, 2001 - 29 comments

A hero for the 21st century. Brilliant or just possessed of plain ol' common sense? In today's world, perhaps having the latter qualifies someone for the former adjective. One has to admire a relatively high profile person who doesn't shy away from telling the truth despite the pressures to hedge and equivocate.
posted by rushmc on Jun 25, 2001 - 13 comments

Memes are past their prime.

Richard Dawkins first coined the term meme towards the end of his 1976 book The Selfish Gene initially as an instructive analogy and a way of illustrating the concept of replicators. Memes were just like genes but they replicated themselves through minds and culture rather than cells and bodies. Of course, the meme, like any good self-replicating idea, caught on and spread like wildfire and has been used to illuminate studies into subjects as diverse as the memetics of music and the memetics of suicide. There is an alternate view however that sees the grand project of memetics as completely misguided.
posted by lagado on Jun 12, 2001 - 13 comments

A Lament for Douglas Adams by his close friend, Richard Dawkins.
posted by Jongo on May 14, 2001 - 11 comments

Essay by Richard Dawkins (the scientist, not the game show host) on the supposed convergence on science and religion.
posted by Optamystic on Oct 19, 2000 - 47 comments