1. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163009 by admin on April 17, 2008 at 8:05 pm

This video someone posted as a response to 'Sexpelled' on YouTube is pretty funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwUCXkqn-dM&watch_response

2. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162885 by admin on April 17, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Cartomancer,
I think you've just put the final nail in the Sex Theorist's coffin.

Josh

3. Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss

Comment #161562 by admin on April 15, 2008 at 12:10 pm

* I'm going to add subtitles to the Q&A sections with the bad audio. I hope to have them up later today.

We had a terrible feed from the house sound, which meant that our only source for those Q&A mics was ruined. So I had to use our shotgun mic, which was on the camera as a last resort, for the questions.

Josh

4. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #149486 by admin on March 25, 2008 at 5:44 pm

I've got a mountain of tape to go through, but the full discussion with RD & PZ should be available within a month or two.

Josh

5. The Lava Lizard's Tale

Comment #130939 by admin on February 21, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Steve,
Thanks. I didn't really have anything for the couple of still sections, so I just used what I found online. I know what you mean though, about the youtube slideshow effect. :) I'll try and keep it in mind with the next two.

We have a lot of Galapagos footage, but with this tale I only have Richard speaking to the camera for the beginning and end. Unfortunately I don't have him 'on location' speaking any of it.

Josh

6. BREAK THE SCIENCE BARRIER - Available Now on DVD

Comment #124091 by admin on February 8, 2008 at 10:52 am

Yes, the Google video versions lose A/V sync for some reason. I'm going to try and upload some new versions today.

Josh

7. BREAK THE SCIENCE BARRIER - Available Now on DVD

Comment #123835 by admin on February 7, 2008 at 5:40 pm

I actually just put up a big set of ALL the DVDs in the store:
http://richarddawkins.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=16

8. There Are No Ghosts in Your Brain

Comment #120547 by admin on February 1, 2008 at 11:53 pm

Friend Giskard,
Quicktimes are up!
Josh

9. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #118764 by admin on January 31, 2008 at 12:34 am

Many thanks, Richard, and everyone else. It's always such a pleasure to do something so enjoyable, and that reaches so many people.

Josh

10. Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield

Comment #106187 by admin on January 2, 2008 at 1:11 pm

...and the wacky relentlessness of Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford who spends so much time on his own Web site that it's hard to imagine he has time to do his job.

11. Way of the Master Radio talks about Dawkins' Christmas Comments

Comment #100399 by admin on December 18, 2007 at 3:01 pm

SilentMike,
That was hilarious! :) I thought that too when posting this.
Josh

12. This Week's Flea

Comment #100306 by admin on December 18, 2007 at 1:34 pm

Rtambree,
I think you're right, we've got to give this one to Hitch. The yellow cover puts it firmly in his flea-space. These fleas keep appearing so fast, I don't have time to recreate the flea-orbit images!

Josh

13. The Four Horsemen: on Christmas

Comment #99868 by admin on December 17, 2007 at 5:57 pm

Rtambree,
I agree, it's not The Lord of the Rings or Titanic, with loads of special effects. :) The video was shot and mastered in HD, so (AT LEAST) in a few years when everyone has HD players of some sort we'll be able to release a nice version.

Honestly, if you have a DVD player with 1080p upscaling the DVD looks amazingly like HD. Regardless of your DVD player, the 4H DVD quality is really good.

And in case you missed it, the audio only mp3 option IS available HERE.

Josh

14. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #98962 by admin on December 15, 2007 at 3:14 am

rod-the-farmer,

We definitely want to try and get this on TV wherever we can. We're talking through that now. If you or anyone has any contacts to do this, please let us know through mediacontact@richarddawkins.net .

Josh

15. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #98952 by admin on December 15, 2007 at 1:58 am

Thanks, I'm so glad everyone is enjoying the video. As you can probably tell from the DVD artwork, we are hoping to film many more unmoderated discussions of this kind in the future. Maybe with Ayaan, PZ, Stenger, Shermer, Andy Thomson.... there are plenty of worthwhile people we could round up! And of course it would be great to get in some future rounds with these four!

The DVD video quality looks great in my opinion, and I hope everyone enjoys that. I recently purchased a DVD player with 1080p upscaling (maybe $80), and it really makes DVDs like this look amazing - worth every penny! I wonder if the upscaling works even better when the footage was originally shot in HD, then compressed down to SD for DVD.

DVD pre-orders are up now as well, so if you want the DVD place your order here:
http://richarddawkins.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=14

Josh

16. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #98886 by admin on December 14, 2007 at 8:32 pm

I think Sam and Hitch were having scotch, and Dan and RD were having Martinis.

Josh

17. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #98875 by admin on December 14, 2007 at 7:46 pm

It was scotch on the table.
Josh

18. Chimps beat humans in memory test

Comment #93669 by admin on December 3, 2007 at 9:58 pm

The videos are just amazing. I think they should be sent to everyone who denies evolution for a little dose of humility.

Josh

19. URGENT APPEAL: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #89000 by admin on November 19, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Fanusi Khiyal,
Yes, thank you.

Josh

20. URGENT APPEAL: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #88990 by admin on November 19, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Nighttripper, Appleby, and the like:

I am horribly sickened and ashamed of many of the comments on this thread. I spend nearly every moment of my waking life working on this website (along with the foundation and related responsibilities), in hopes of providing something good for the world. And then to read this thread today. THIS is the group of self-centered, crude, loudmouths that I work for? REALLY? THIS is the reason I get out of bed in the morning?! I'm shocked.

If you don't want to donate, WHY must you post here and make yourself sound so awful? No one is forcing you to donate. It is simply an opportunity to do so. Just like with the scarlet letter T-shirts, no one is forcing you to do anything. Why boast about your decision NOT to help?! I have a hard time believing anyone enjoys your ugly posts.

If anything, think of the people who might read this website and think that your views represent those of the site or the majority of its visitors. Do you want the world to think that the community here is a bunch of heartless grumps? I sincerely hope that this is not the case.

If you enjoy reading this website, and would like for it to continue to exist, please keep your nastiness to yourself. For my sake. I don't want to read it.

A big thank you to everyone who donated, and to those who at least had the decency to keep their mouths shut if they didn't want to.

Josh

PS: (SilentMike) Appleby's comments were removed. He crossed the line.

21. The New Atheism rocks

Comment #85685 by admin on November 6, 2007 at 8:28 pm

Sorry about that, the edit and delete buttons work again. I screwed up today and had to replace some of the URL rewrites. Missed a couple of them.

Josh

22. I didn't know the FLEA CIRCUS was back in town!

Comment #85278 by admin on November 5, 2007 at 12:00 pm

I don't want to ruin anyone's fun...! Honestly, he's been around the site for so long, and all he does is stir up arguments. I'm sure he'll be back again in a new puppet account, crying about being banned. His intrusion into a thread like this doesn't bother me, but when there is a useful discussion taking place and he butts in with his trolling, then I don't want him around. The fact is that he's been banned for trolling on other threads, and just because he creates a new account doesn't mean he's welcome back. He's abused his commenting privileges enough in the past.

Josh

23. I didn't know the FLEA CIRCUS was back in town!

Comment #85232 by admin on November 5, 2007 at 10:29 am

David Robertson (Wee Flea, Calvin),
I banned you months ago for being a troll, and you must not be smart enough to realize that you are no longer welcome on this website. I've banned your new account as well. If I see you again, you'll simply be banned again.

Josh

24. Sam Harris at AAI 07

Comment #82428 by admin on October 26, 2007 at 10:12 am

Hi everyone,
The videos are going back up right now. We've sorted it out with AAI. Sorry for the confusion. I wasn't able to save the YouTube comment threads, but all of the comment threads on our pages are still here. I just hid them from the front page. You can always click on archives to view a full list of our articles. I just didn't want new people coming to the site and being unnecessarily angry that we had a bunch of broken links on our front page; that was my thought. All of these pages should be fixed by tonight.

Josh

25. Sam Harris at AAI 07

Comment #82251 by admin on October 25, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Trust me, I'm not happy about it. We'll be releasing a DVD of them all soon, but I wanted to have them all online as well. It wasn't our conference, so we have to comply. The videos that Sam just sent out (and have now been taken down) in his email were youtube clips I had posted and forwarded to him... so this has all been a bit of a mess tonight, sorry about that.

Josh

26. Sam Harris at AAI 07

Comment #82247 by admin on October 25, 2007 at 11:41 pm

Diacanu,
Sorry about having to take down the AAI videos. Politics!

Josh

27. AAI 07 DVDs by RDFRS are Now Available!

Comment #82155 by admin on October 25, 2007 at 7:01 pm

I've still got Matthew Chapman and Richard Dawkins to upload, hopefully very soon.

Josh

28. A Rational Universe Implies a Creator, Science points towards Theism

Comment #81309 by admin on October 24, 2007 at 3:07 pm

thirdchimpanzee writes:

I propose three distinct grounds for rebuttal:

1. The Universe is not very rational
Whenever I've seen this argument put forward (as D'Souza did) - its usually buttressed by a simplistic understanding of the science. So D'Souza talks about the inverse square law of gravity, but has no idea that Einstein spent the rest of his career trying to reconcile gravity with the other forces, and failing. I don't think anyone wrestling with 11 dimensions, two of which may be time, would call their world very rational.

2. The Universe is not really "comprehensible" to us
This is a bit harder to explain, but if understanding is connected to the ability to predict consequences, then in many areas of physics, climatalogy, astronomy etc. we are basically reliant on computers processing models to generate visualisations or other "conclusions" that we can then "understand". Our evolved brains are simply no longer capable of performing the mathematics or other modelling required to come up with detailed predictions. Obviously we created the computers and the programs to do the analysis - but in the future we will probably have AI's doing scientific discovery on their own, and "keeping us posted". Either way, the argument that the Universe was strangely made comprehensible to us falls away - our brains simply can't handle 11 dimensions!

3. A Universe that follows laws implies a law giver
Maybe its time to ditch the word "Law" from the the scientific lexicon. There's no "Law of Gravity" - and its an 18th Century concept that looks increasingly suspect. What we have are "models" of various aspects of the Universe, and insofar as the models continue to generate useful predictions, we continue to support them. When they start failing, we refine the model to the point where it might have to be replaced. Our actual legal system (at least the Common Law variety) follows this same pattern - these "Laws" reflect transient understandings of how society or the Universe works. This has nothing to do with "immutable" laws drawn from the Bible or any other religious source - and therefore carries no implication of a "law giver"

29. The greatest debate

Comment #80387 by admin on October 21, 2007 at 3:34 pm

You can send me articles at design@richarddawkins.net for consideration. Thanks!

Josh

30. Response to My Fellow 'Atheists'

Comment #77118 by admin on October 8, 2007 at 1:43 pm

Eventhorizon,
I am importing tapes as we speak. I imported and edited Andy Thomson's talk first as a test run before importing the rest. I will have Sam's talk (and Q&A) up on the site soon.

Josh

31. 'Root of All Evil? The Original Program' available now on DVD

Comment #72126 by admin on September 20, 2007 at 11:52 am

notsobad,
The DVD is for all regions, so it is not restricted at all in that way. The only limiting factor is if your DVD player is PAL-only. Most newer PAL DVD players are also capable of playing NTSC DVDs. All computers with DVD players can handle both NTSC and PAL. The reason we do NTSC is because most (about 75%) of our website visitors are from the US (which is NTSC only), and our office is in Los Angeles. At this point in time it doesn't really make sense for us to create both a PAL and NTSC version of each DVD we make, but perhaps as we grow it can become feasible. I hope some of this helps.

Josh

32. 'Root of All Evil? The Original Program' available now on DVD

Comment #71909 by admin on September 19, 2007 at 11:52 pm

Roy_H,
It's fixed.
Josh

33. 'Root of All Evil? The Original Program' available now on DVD

Comment #71743 by admin on September 19, 2007 at 3:01 pm

rthille,
All proceeds (minus royalties to IWC, who own the program) go to The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. I've added it to the top article as well. I'm pretty sure no money ever gets to Haggard's pockets! It certainly doesn't get there from us.

Josh

34. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #68778 by admin on September 8, 2007 at 2:20 pm

Lionspoint,

IWC is the company that created ROAE. I believe they had a lawsuit threat from Haggard before, and are just protecting themselves. I know that Haggard was a popular piece of ROAE, but aside from the entertainment value, I don't think there is much to be learned from any 'uncut' footage with him. At this point he has been exposed as a hypocrite, and is now completely marginalized. On the other hand, extended interviews with people like Alister McGrath, Richard Harries, Michael Bray and the Hell House pastor can help expose the more common tendencies of the religious mind. Plus, I don't think there was very much 'extra' footage of Haggard, since he DID run Richard off the property! Also, the interviews with non-religious people like Jill Mytton and Ian McEwan are VERY interesting, and I enjoy these the most. Watching these interviews feels more like being a lucky fly on the wall, listening to a well thought out, high-level conversation. I had hoped we'd get some extra Haggard footage, simply to quell the obvious desire for it, even if it wasn't very substantial. But once I did get a chance to watch all of the other interviews in their entirety, I realized where the real value was: Not in the crazies and the extremists, but in the details of the extended, more courteous discussions.

Josh

35. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #68344 by admin on September 6, 2007 at 11:52 pm

Lionspoint,

What part of "We were not allowed to have the Haggard footage" doesn't make sense? IWC wouldn't give it to us. And we state very clearly that THIS IS NOT THE ORIGINAL PROGRAM. This is a collection of uncut interviews filmed for Root of All Evil? in their extended form.

Josh Timonen

36. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #67946 by admin on September 5, 2007 at 10:15 am

Cregaune,
A fee was paid by us to IWC to obtain and use the raw tapes. As for the other videos you are referring to on youtube, these are NOT public domain, and very frequently DO get pulled down if spotted by the copyright holders.

We are offering two of the interviews free on the website (see the article above), so please enjoy these if you don't want to pay for the DVD.

Josh

37. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #67855 by admin on September 5, 2007 at 2:28 am

If you check the documentation for your PAL DVD player, it most likely plays NTSC DVDs as well. If your PAL DVD player does not support NTSC (some older PAL players may not), all computer DVD players can handle both NTSC and PAL DVDs.

38. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #67851 by admin on September 5, 2007 at 2:08 am

For legal reasons, we weren't allowed to use the Ted Haggard footage. Sorry about that. Even without this, the interviews on this set are really great. I especially enjoy the Ian McEwan and Jill Mytton segments.

Josh

39. The God Delusion One-Year Countdown

Comment #67681 by admin on September 4, 2007 at 10:38 am

Richard Morgan,
Sorry, a little backwards sometimes my grammar coach is. :)
- Josh

40. Interview with Richard Dawkins on 'The Selfish Gene'

Comment #60628 by admin on August 2, 2007 at 1:57 pm

Sorry about that, the link has been fixed.

41. OUT Campaign Launched, 'Scarlet Letter' Shirts Now Available!

Comment #59416 by admin on July 29, 2007 at 2:30 am

The other day I was at a bookstore purchasing Ian McEwan's new book "On Chesil Beach" while wearing a 'Scarlet Letter' T-shirt. Here is a rough version of the conversation I had with the cashier, who was a young guy in his twenties:

Cashier: (pointing at shirt) "Isn't he a science guy?"
Me: "Richard Dawkins? Yes, he's an evolutionary biologist. You might have heard of his most recent book The God Delusion, it's been a bestseller now for almost a year. It's actually about Atheism.
Cashier: "That's a really great shirt."
Me: "Thanks, it's sort of a play on the scarlet letter, but instead of adultery it stands for atheism. It's part of a campaign to improve the image of Atheism, to show people we don't have horns and a tail."
Cashier: "That's really cool, I might have to get one."
Me: (Pointing to RichardDawkins.net) "They'll be up here on the RichardDawkins.net website in a couple of days!"

I've also had several long stares from people at restaurants and on the street. I'm sure some people have no idea what it is, but maybe they went home that night and checked out the website.

Josh

PS: Thanks Corylus.

42. OUT Campaign Launched, 'Scarlet Letter' Shirts Now Available!

Comment #59406 by admin on July 29, 2007 at 1:06 am

In response to all the Union Jack flag comments, that is just a built-in piece of the Zen Cart template. Amin and I, who both put the store together, live in LA. We didn't think anything of it.

Apparently I need to spell this out: Having "RichardDawkins.net" on the front of the shirt helps identify what the 'A' means (atheist, as opposed to adulterer). This design combines an advertisement for the website with an identifier for the 'A.'

What website did you come to today that allows you to spew venom back at its new projects? Do some of you really think that it is embarrassing to advertise it on a T-shirt? If you enjoy the discussion here, spread the word about it! Or don't, just don't waste comment space telling everyone else you won't. And if you have so much free time, please, get busy and start your own campaign!

Josh Timonen

43. LA Church 'agrees abuse pay deal'

Comment #56412 by admin on July 15, 2007 at 4:40 pm

Great Teapot,

I strongly recommend that you watch the documentary 'Deliver Us From Evil.' It isn't as simple as "cruel people hiding under the wing" of the Catholic church, the church CREATES pedophiles. The requirement of celibacy for priests was introduced so that the church could inherit the priests' estate when they died, as opposed to their family. Young boys are also groomed for the priesthood from a very young age, usually before they reach puberty, and before they develop any sexual maturity. So the system is set up to create sexually stunted grown men, officially committed to celibacy, who are then attracted to the sexual immaturity they see in children. Then add in the power structure and trust placed in the priests, and I'd say this has a lot to do with The Catholic Church, NOT just human frailties.

Josh

44. The Myth of Secular Moral Chaos

Comment #47512 by admin on June 4, 2007 at 7:36 pm

Mithraman, have you read this?

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/response-to-controversy2/

45. Should Science Speak to Faith? A dialog between Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins

Comment #47411 by admin on June 4, 2007 at 12:37 pm

In case some commentors were wondering, I've moved some comments to the new 'Alternate comment thread,' which can be accessed by clicking on the link right below the main article. I've done this just as an attempt to keep this main article comment thread on topic, NOT because any of your comments weren't worthwhile.

Thanks,
Josh

46. Growing Up in the Universe: 2-Disc DVD Set

Comment #46992 by admin on June 2, 2007 at 3:00 pm

burn0gas:

RDF now has the rights to the program, so you won't have to answer to anybody else but us, and we're more than happy to let you show it to groups.

47. Lou Dobbs Interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #37429 by admin on May 4, 2007 at 12:28 pm

CruciFiction,

I've updated the info, and moved the link to your youtube video. I didn't receive a notice from you, in the future please email links to design@richarddawkins.net. Thanks.

Josh

48. The Damned

Comment #36918 by admin on May 2, 2007 at 7:28 pm

"Smile, there is no hell" T-Shirts:

http://www.k-state.edu/freethought/shirtframe.html

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/atheist/-/pv_design_details/pg_8/id_17660379/opt_/fpt_/c_360/

49. NEXT MONDAY: Bill O'Reilly interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #33191 by admin on April 19, 2007 at 2:33 pm

I think it's important to remember that Bill O'Reilly won't want to come off as the aggressor with someone as respected and well-mannered as Richard. He's blown up on guests many times, but usually these are people who don't have the class that Richard has. I think you can see in Sam's interview that Bill is making an effort to come off as a reasonable host. He's certainly going to talk over Richard, but I suspect we'll see a more adult Bill than was present in the recent Heraldo interview.

And Richard is so good with short, solid, quality soundbites, I think he'll do fine. It may take O'Reilly 30 seconds to say something, and Richard will reply with clarity in 10 seconds. Let's not forget that Richard confronts people with opposing views ALL THE TIME. Yes, the format is short, but this is Richard's bread and butter.

This interview is worth doing if only to reach a new audience. Some viewers will come here to RichardDawkins.net, and some will pick up The God Delusion. That's enough.

Josh

50. The Most Hated Family in America

Comment #29593 by admin on April 3, 2007 at 2:18 pm

Fred Phelps and his family are for real. Here's a clip from Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth" TV show a few years back with the Phelps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-_9nOX8KM