1. Richard Dawkins on The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke

Comment #109872 by borthers on January 10, 2008 at 1:37 am

ADH: Has your TV/PC not got an on/off switch then?

I think it's great to see RD getting some exposure on mainstream TV, humour is such a great way of getting a message across without seeming to "preach", especially with younger audiences. IMO humour could be a very fertile channel for pro-science and pro-atheism messages, especially since most religious people I know seem to be completely devoid of a good sense of humour or at least it's seriously stunted by their ridiculous hang-ups about most normal bodily functions etc.

It would be really cool to see a line up of Marcus, Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, Paul Merton etc. doing something "QI like" with RD, for charity or something, helping shift the zeitgeist so that being smart is seen to be cool, rather than at the moment when being as stupid as possible seems to be revered by many (Jane Goody et al).

I might suggest relaxing the outfit a bit for a show like that though ;-)

2. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109463 by borthers on January 9, 2008 at 5:22 am

I'm not quite sure anyone should be hoisting the "Mission Accomplished" banners just yet. However IMO Professor Dawkins is to be congratulated for showing much needed leadership and for frankly having the "balls" and the tenacity to stand up and defend (with much aplomb!) his world-view.

In doing this RD has crystallised (at least for me) a set of ideas and feelings that clearly have huge numbers of supporters around the world, even some that perhaps didn't even realise they had the same perspective, or have shifted towards the same POV over the course of the debate so far.

On a book related subject, I would love to see something for children as I think I heard RD saying he was thinking about in a past video clip. This is a critical battle-field in this intellectual war IMO. Personally I find it quite challenging to introduce my 4 & 6 year old's to evolutionary concepts at a sensible level, education is (as always) the key I feel.

3. Another critic who hasn't read the book

Comment #109429 by borthers on January 9, 2008 at 3:43 am

As I said on PZ's blog, good ol'Xenophobia may possibly explain this comment, i.e. Hitch is now a US citizen and RD isn't, i.e. not only is RD a God bashing scientist but a foreign one to boot!

Or perhaps its the usual arts vs. science thing as previous posters have eluded to, I suppose it could be said that Hitch is "one of them" in that regard.

Otherwise it seems completely baffling to me.