9th May 2008 : BBC Radio 4, 'Today', Friday 9th May 2008,
Richard Dawkins interviewed by John Humphrys on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor

9th May 2008 : LOS ANGELES — California has awarded $271 million in grants to build 12 stem cell research centers in the state, even as one of the political rationales for the building program might soon disappear.

8th May 2008 : Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.

8th May 2008 :

8th May 2008 : In this lecture I want to give a personal perspective on Faith in Britain today. And I do so with humility because everything I have, indeed everything I am, comes from how others have lived out their faith in Britain. No one generates their own faith: it always comes to us through the goodness, example and insight of others: that is the meaning of tradition and the roots of this tradition lie in the goodness, example and insight of our Lord Jesus, God's Word made flesh, the Jewish tradition on which he draws and the Christian tradition which he creates by his risen presence.

8th May 2008 :
NASHVILLE — President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and "every human being bears the image of our maker."

In a 42-minute speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Mr. Bush called upon European allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan, and conceded that recent security gains in Iraq "are tenuous, they're reversible and they're fragile." Still, he insisted his troop buildup there is succeeding.

8th May 2008 :

7th May 2008 : In this excerpt from his new book, Matt Taibbi shares his experiences at a Hagee's boot camp for new converts.

6th May 2008 : He may not have been thinking about it at the time, but Pope Benedict, in the course of his recent U.S. visit may have dealt a knockout blow to the liberal American Catholicism that has challenged Rome since the early 1960s. He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his "deep shame" during his meeting with victims of the Church's sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he "gets" this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers — and in the process, neutralized the last great rallying point for what was once a feisty and optimistic style of progressivism.

6th May 2008 : The devil made Dr. William Bradshaw do it.

The retired minister and academic from St. Louis, Mo., recently released Sinister Among Us, a suspense novel about the president of a small American Midwest college who uncovers a group of Satanists at the centre of the school's problems.

6th May 2008 : It was only when Rachel Underhill was lying in a hospital bed, haemorrhaging, that she first realised the way of the Watchtower might not be for her.

5th May 2008 : For those who have the stomach, here's Glenn Beck interviewing Ben Stein from a few days ago. Stein mentions our site in it, which new visitor exp(2*i*pi) says directed him here, so I guess the show served some purpose! I'm sure most of us are a little worn out on the whole Expelled thing, so don't feel bad about quickly moving along to the next post....

5th May 2008 :

4th May 2008 : On April 29th, 2008, Richard Dawkins was interviewed by Fanny Kiefer on Vancouver, BC's Shaw TV.

3rd May 2008 : It starts off with a little boy getting a lesson in "evolution" from his mother. This version of evolution has nothing to do with what biologists teach, of course — it's bizarrely teleological, with everything striving towards becoming human.

3rd May 2008 : 27/4/08 : Devotees believe this ritual is good for the health of the child.

2nd May 2008 : The story of the man who re-grew a finger using "pixie-dust" has captured the imagination of many this week.

2nd May 2008 : Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji are two of the most prominent and outspoken critics of what they and others see as "mainstream Islam." Brilliant, dynamic women — the overused word "charismatic" is not inappropriate for either one — they have each rebelled against a Muslim upbringing to become public figures with large and devoted followings. Both are successful authors: Ms. Hirsi Ali's autobiography, "Infidel," was a New York Times best seller; Ms. Manji's combination memoir-polemic, "The Trouble With Islam Today," has been published in almost 30 countries. They are firm and unyielding in their support for the West, feminism, reason, freedom — and they have paid a price: both have been targets of death threats and have required protection; in Ms. Hirsi Ali's case, around-the-clock protection.

30th Apr 2008 : The Bill Good Show CKNW News Talk Radio AM980

29th Apr 2008 : New York, NY, April 29, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement regarding the controversial film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

29th Apr 2008 : Pat Condell rose to internet stardom in 2007 with a series of topical rants, posted to popular video-sharing websites. With topics usually centering on religion, politics, and current events, each of Pat's videos quickly caused a stir and racked up tens of thousands of views.

RichardDawkins.net has now compiled the first 35 of Pat Condell's videos onto this DVD collection, with an exclusive introduction by Pat. Enjoy this newly remastered collection, totalling 3 hours of video.

29th Apr 2008 : Author of The God Delusion in person is a lot more open-minded than his critics would have you believe

28th Apr 2008 : A 17-year-old Iraqi girl was murdered by her father in an honour killing after falling in love with a British soldier she met while working on an aid programme in Basra, it has been claimed.

Rand Abdel-Qader was stamped upon, suffocated and stabbed by her father, then given an unceremonious burial to emphasise her disgrace. Police released her father without charge two hours after his arrest.

28th Apr 2008 : Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination.

That's the argument of anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists.

28th Apr 2008 : A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.

It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.

The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.

27th Apr 2008 : What a vile little man. I sincerely hope that his career is dead now … and that the rest of his life will be spent eking out speaking fees at Christian fundamentalist conventions, before audiences who will cheer him while dreaming of the day the Jews are exterminated or converted, bringing on Armageddon.

27th Apr 2008 : This is the third in a series of conversations among leading scientists and scholars about the "Big Questions."

26th Apr 2008 : FORT RILEY, Kan. — When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending.

25th Apr 2008 : The Mount Vernon public-school science teacher who won't remove his personal Bible from the top of his desk also is accused of conducting a religious "healing session" during school and burning crosses onto students' arms.

25th Apr 2008 : WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

25th Apr 2008 : NEW YORK (AFP) - Beatle John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is suing two companies over the rights to videos of her late husband, one of which shows Lennon smoking marijuana, composing songs and wondering if he should drug Richard Nixon.

25th Apr 2008 : A US federal court has granted permission for a teenager to wear a t-shirt with the slogan "Be Happy, Not Gay" during a Christian day of action held in response to a gay rights protest.

25th Apr 2008 : For all its appearance as a ferocious predator, Tyrannosaurus rex was just an overgrown chicken, researchers have found.

24th Apr 2008 :

23rd Apr 2008 : Since the publication of Sam Harris' The End of Faith in 2005, the English speaking world has seen a spate of books on atheism, most notoriously perhaps Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (2006). The publication of Christopher Hitchens' God is not Great (2007), Sam Harris' The End of Faith (2005) and Michel Onfray's 'Atheist Manfesto' (2007), among others, have added and expanded the debate. However, despite the popular success of these publications, the 'new atheists' have had a mixed reception, not only among the religious (as is to be expected) but also among fellow atheists and agnostics, who have often accused them of oversimplifying the issues.

23rd Apr 2008 : KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

23rd Apr 2008 : The first generation of World Wide Web capabilities rapidly transformed retailing and information search. More recent attributes such as blogging, tagging and social networking, dubbed Web 2.0, have just as quickly expanded people's ability not just to consume online information but to publish it, edit it and collaborate about it—forcing such old-line institutions as journalism, marketing and even politicking to adopt whole new ways of thinking and operating.

23rd Apr 2008 : NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge ordered a public school system to stop allowing in-school Bible giveaways, saying the practice violates the First Amendment separation of church and state.

"Distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose" and amounts to school board promotion of Christianity, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier ruled in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.

22nd Apr 2008 : Prof Daniel Dennett and Lord Winston present their arguments ahead of tonight's public debate

22nd Apr 2008 : In response to Richard's article 'Gods and Earthlings'

21st Apr 2008 :

21st Apr 2008 :

21st Apr 2008 :
One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

21st Apr 2008 : SPEAKERS at a Doha conference on Mecca's importance said that the holy city, not Greenwich, should become the reference point for world time, reigniting an old controversy that started some four decades ago.

21st Apr 2008 :
PHILADELPHIA - A new exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania about human evolution gives a new meaning to the expression "nobody's perfect."

20th Apr 2008 : Everyone should take the opportunity to see "Expelled" — if nothing else, as a bracing antidote to the atheism-friendly culture of PC liberalism. But it's far more than that. It's a spotlight on the arrogance of this movement and its leaders, a spotlight on the choking intolerance of academia, and a spotlight on the ignorance of so many who say so much, yet know so very little.

20th Apr 2008 : On March 28, 2008, some of the editors of Scientific American watched a screening of Expelled at our offices and had a discussion with the associate producer* of the film, Mark Mathis. This is the entire recording of the discussion, uncut. The first voice you hear is John Rennie, the editor in chief of Scientific American.

20th Apr 2008 : On 18th April, the day Ben Stein's infamous film was released, Michael Shermer received the following letter from a Jew, whose identity I shall conceal as "David J".

20th Apr 2008 :
ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2008) — In 1971, biologists moved five adult pairs of Italian wall lizards from their home island of Pod Kopiste, in the South Adriatic Sea, to the neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru. Now, an international team of researchers has shown that introducing these small, green-backed lizards, Podarcis sicula, to a new environment caused them to undergo rapid and large-scale evolutionary changes.

20th Apr 2008 :

19th Apr 2008 :
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The founder of a Christian school is confronted after 13 Undercover catches him soliciting sex from a parent, who's trying to get her daughter a high school diploma.

19th Apr 2008 : Skepticality interviews Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer.

18th Apr 2008 : This half-hour programme was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this morning. It features several 'child preachers' including Samuel (now 8 years old) who was in that Channel 4 documentary "Baby Bible Bashers" ( http://richarddawkins.net/article,2279,Cutting-Edge-Baby-Bible-Bashers,Atheist-Media ). The radio programme is available via the BBC's 'listen again' service here:

18th Apr 2008 :

18th Apr 2008 : If we were visited by aliens from a distant planet, would we fall on our knees and worship them as gods? The difficulty of getting here from even our nearest neighbor, the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, constitutes a filter through which only beings with a technology so advanced as to be god-like (from our point of view) could pass.

17th Apr 2008 : Anticipating success with their feature film Expelled, Producers Mark Mathis, Logan Craft and Walt Ruloff have already leaked a teaser trailer for the film's sequel.

16th Apr 2008 : Having ruffled feathers in the scientific community, the filmmakers behind a documentary questioning evolution theory have now incurred the wrath of one of the most powerful figures in the popular music business, Yoko Ono, and have generated a blogosphere mini-drama in the process.

15th Apr 2008 :

15th Apr 2008 : Even as he told reporters on his flight to America that he was "deeply ashamed" over the church sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict was accused by victims of protecting some 19 bishops accused of sexually abusing children.

15th Apr 2008 : A senior Anglican education official in NSW has declared that people who believe in the Bible should not expect to be allowed to take same-sex partners to school balls because Christianity frowns on homosexuality.

14th Apr 2008 : Is it important? Well, if you want to stop America's seemingly inexorably decline, it might be absolutely critical.

14th Apr 2008 : A mile beyond the town of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, where the highway is being widened to four lanes, traffic slows down for roadworks. But the workmen who lounge by their bulldozers have their eyes on something else - a cluster of makeshift shelters where girls, several under 18 and at least two younger than 15, can be seen strolling or sitting, in view of the dusty carriageway.

14th Apr 2008 : (From Chapter 9 of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins)

14th Apr 2008 : Man the lifeboats. The idiots are winning. Last week I watched, open-mouthed, a Newsnight piece on the spread of "Brain Gym" in British schools. I'd read about Brain Gym before - a few years back, in Ben Goldacre's excellent Bad Science column for this newspaper - but seeing it in action really twisted my rage dial.

13th Apr 2008 : And so the stellar casting in Doctor Who continues with the news that Professor Richard Dawkins, biologist and bestselling author of The God Delusion, is to appear in the current series as himself. On Outpost Gallifrey, the definitive Doctor Who website, I read that Russell T Davies, the show's executive producer, and all the crew were delighted to see Dawkins. "People were falling at his feet," says Davies. "We've had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins that people were worshipping."

13th Apr 2008 : Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins by Keith Ward

13th Apr 2008 : With all the sophisticated sophistry besieging mass audiences today, there is a need for the study of rhetoric now more than ever before. This is especially the case when it comes to the contemporary assault on science known as manufactured controversy: when significant disagreement doesn't exist inside the scientific community, but is successfully invented for a public audience to achieve specific political ends.

11th Apr 2008 : Richard Dawkins was the guest tonight on Real Time With Bill Maher.

11th Apr 2008 : When the Pope visits the United States next week, he will likely make the case that religion is a force for peace in the world. But a few of his fellow religious leaders are better known for preaching messages of hatred and violence.

11th Apr 2008 : But, after being on the receiving end of a week's worth of public criticism, Davis called Sherman yesterday to apologize.

11th Apr 2008 : David Bolinsky copied me in on this eMail, and I asked his permission to reproduce it on our website. David is the medical illustrator chiefly responsible for The Inner Life of the Cell, the magnificent animation of the internal workings of a cell that was ripped off, first by William Dembski, and then by the makers of 'Expelled', as the following eMail explains.

Richard Dawkins

11th Apr 2008 : Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study
Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain's top science journal.

The overwhelming majority of these med-taking brainiacs said they indulged in order to "improve concentration," and 60 percent said they did so on a daily or weekly basis.

9th Apr 2008 : Not Even Fox Likes It.

9th Apr 2008 : On April 9, 2008, XVIVO, the animation company which produced an award-winning animation of "The Inner Life of the Cell," charged producers of a forthcoming "intelligent design" film with copyright infringement. In a letter to Logan Craft, chairman of Premise Media Corp., the producer of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (featuring Ben Stein), XVIVO claimed that a segment of Expelled portraying the complexity of the cell is patterned upon segments of their well-known animation, produced on behalf of Harvard University.

9th Apr 2008 : (CNN) -- Sweet Jesus! What has gotten into the Democratic Party when it comes to issues of faith?

On Sunday, CNN will broadcast the Compassion Forum, an event hosted by CNN's Campbell Brown and Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham. It will explore issues of faith and morality with Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

9th Apr 2008 : Germany's Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged the extent of its involvement in the use of forced labour during World War II.

A 700-page report says 1,000 prisoners of war and some 5,000 civilians were forced to work for the Nazis in support of the German war effort.

8th Apr 2008 : Richard Dawkins was joined by his wife Lalla Ward at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival to talk about the books that inspire him and shape his thinking.

8th Apr 2008 : Well said Mr. Olbermann.

8th Apr 2008 : "Christopher and Peter Hitchens, throughout a long estrangement and recent reconciliation, have clashed in print on many issues. On April 3, 2008, the Hauenstein Center, with support from the Center for Inquiry and the Interfaith Dialogue Association, will bring the two together on a stage for the first time to debate numerous issues, from the Bible to the bomb."

8th Apr 2008 :

8th Apr 2008 : The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday gave a partisan passing grade to the bill critics say is designed to challenge the teaching of evolution in Florida classrooms.

8th Apr 2008 :

8th Apr 2008 : Nicky Campbell hosts a series of moral, ethical and religious debates live from the West London Academy, Northolt. Panellists are: writer and broadcaster, Cristina Odone; The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark; Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet from the Mill Hill Synagogue; and the winner for this year's Costa Prize for Fiction, AL Kennedy. The special guest will be the renowned atheist, scientist and writer, Professor Richard Dawkins.

8th Apr 2008 : Science is all about big ideas. But few come bigger than the 'Higgs bosun' – a theory that may unlock the universe's deepest secrets. Steve Connor reports on the experiment of the century

7th Apr 2008 : The governor of Illinois has been playing some games with state money, shuffling a million dollars to benefit a Baptist church, and an atheist dared to testify to the legislature against this. The response from one legislator was unsurprising: she shrieked at the atheist to get out.

7th Apr 2008 : The number of school students in Britain who believe in creationism is becoming a growing concern for science teachers, according to Professor Richard Dawkins.

6th Apr 2008 : Nearly 150 years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, evolution has been widely accepted by scientists -- and, except for a few religious dogmatic types, the public -- as the blueprint for the engine of life.

6th Apr 2008 : By Cole MoretonHe is the creator of galaxies, saviour of Saturday night telly and the most influential gay man in Britain, but Russell T Davies can still shriek like a starstruck fanboy. "Richard Dawkins!"

4th Apr 2008 : GOD does not exist, people who believe the earth is 6000 years old are "loonies and idiots" and teaching children to fear the fires of hell is plain evil.

4th Apr 2008 : Author of The God Delusion appears despite sore throat.

An outspoken atheist said he was more worried about a sore throat than protests against his appearance in Inverness yesterday.

3rd Apr 2008 : The leader of a Russian doomsday sect has attempted to kill himself as his followers continue to emerge from a cave where they have been waiting for the end of the world.

Pyotr Kuznetsov was in hospital yesterday after he was discovered hitting himself over the head with a log. Members of his religious group have been hiding in a cave since November, believing that the world would end in May.

3rd Apr 2008 :

3rd Apr 2008 : Author and pastor David Robertson said he was concerned the event, hosted by the UHI Millennium Institution (UHI) in Inverness, would not be balanced.

Prof Dawkins, a specialist in evolutionary biology, will speak on the theme of Science and The God Delusion.

3rd Apr 2008 : Supporters rally behind Republican caught up in YouTube controversy

2nd Apr 2008 :
From Rochdale to Bideford, the practice of saying prayers at local council meetings is under attack. In Rochdale, councillor Robin Parker announced that when he took over as mayor he would dispense with the prayers, making the point that they are often followed pretty boisterous argument once the substantive business gets under way.

2nd Apr 2008 :
Comedian Ben Elton has accused the BBC of prohibiting jokes about imams and said the corporation was too "scared" to allow gags about Islam.

He told Third Way, a Christian culture magazine: "I think it all starts with people nodding whenever anyone says, 'As a person of faith ...'

2nd Apr 2008 :

1st Apr 2008 : Two followers of a fundamentalist Christian church that favours faith healing over conventional medicine are to be prosecuted for manslaughter after their daughter died of a treatable infection.

Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted by a grand jury in Oregon's Clackamas county following the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava in March.

1st Apr 2008 :
WASHINGTON -- If a city allows a monument with the Ten Commandments to be erected in a public park, must it also allow other religions and groups to display monuments of their choosing? The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up that question in an unusual dispute over the reach of the 1st Amendment and freedom of speech.

1st Apr 2008 : Last week, irked by what I saw as the use of wild exaggeration by church leaders in the embryology Bill debate, I challenged one of them - the Bishop of Durham - to justify one of his more outrageous claims. Tom Wright had accused the "militantly atheist and secularist lobby" behind the Bill (a Bill, as it happens, supported and sponsored by many practising Christians) of believing "that we have the right to kill unborn children and surplus old people."