11th Jan 2008 : Science and religion both make claims about the fundamental workings of the universe. Although these claims are not a priori incompatible (we could imagine being brought to religious belief through scientific investigation), I will argue that in practice they diverge. If we believe that the methods of science can be used to discriminate between fundamental pictures of reality, we are led to a strictly materialist conception of the universe. While the details of modern cosmology are not a necessary part of this argument, they provide interesting clues as to how an ultimate picture may be constructed.

10th Jan 2008 : This week's New Scientist has an article by Daniele Fanelli announcing an apparent change of mind by E O Wilson. This has been picked up by the Daily Telegraph under the headline Scientist renounces insect 'kin selection' theory and by the Independent under the headline Evolutionists at war over altruism's origins . New Scientist asked me to reply, but they gave me a very tight limit of 650 words. I decided that I could fit into this limit only with references to other publications, and I took great care to upload those publications to the web, and asked New Scientist to publish the url:

9th Jan 2008 : New York, Jan. 9, 2008—Ann and Ben (not their real names) have asked us not to disclose their true identity because, only a year out of Jehovah's Witnesses, they still fear the repercussions from the their parents and what they call "The Organization."

9th Jan 2008 : Comedian Marcus Brigstocke interviews Richard Dawkins on The Late Edition, BBC Four. The program was recorded on Thursday 18th October 2007.

9th Jan 2008 : Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? Mathematician and bestselling author John Allen Paulos thinks not. In Irreligion he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into twelve chapters that refute the twelve arguments most often put forward for believing in God's existence.

9th Jan 2008 : Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris will tomorrow table an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill calling for the abolition of 'blasphemous libel'. Here, Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society explains why such a crime has no place in a liberal society

9th Jan 2008 : This is probably too expensive for most people, but maybe it's something to recommend for university or local libraries?

8th Jan 2008 : How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so emotional and irrational when it comes to money and business decisions? Bestselling author Michael Shermer believes that evolution and evolutionary psychology provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics.

8th Jan 2008 : This ad will be running in the New York Times Book Review on this coming Sunday, January 13th.

8th Jan 2008 : Pat Condell on Pat Robertson's 2007 prediction.

8th Jan 2008 : The City Pages, the arts and entertainment newsweekly in Minneapolis, had an article on the best artists of the year. One of the entries is jarring in its strange conclusions, the award to Christopher Hitchens:

7th Jan 2008 : US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists
A day after ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee finished first in the opening round to choose a Republican candidate for the White House, scientists warned Americans against electing a leader who doubts evolution.

7th Jan 2008 : The theory goes that dinosaurs were wiped out after an asteroid smashed into the Earth 65million years ago.

But now it has been suggested they were sent into eternity by an equally catastrophic but somewhat smaller threat - biting insects.

7th Jan 2008 :

5th Jan 2008 : Six Reasons to be an Atheist from The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by Andre Comte-Sponville

5th Jan 2008 : Parasitic caterpillars show local evolution as never before.

5th Jan 2008 : Psychologists at Harvard University have developed a new method to study extrasensory perception that, they argue, can resolve the century-old debate over its existence.

5th Jan 2008 :

4th Jan 2008 : Does God Exist? A debate between best-selling authors Rabbi David Wolpe and Sam Harris.

4th Jan 2008 : After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency. Since the Burkes were young, scandal-free and solvent, they had no trouble with the New Jersey Bureau of Children's Services—until investigators came to the line on the application that asked for the couple's religious affiliation.

3rd Jan 2008 : God and rock'n'roll were invoked by the Republican Mike Huckabee in his final campaign rally in Iowa, with quotes from the Book of Isaiah and calls for tonight's caucus-goers to get on their knees to ask for God's wisdom.

2nd Jan 2008 : Does your local schoolboard look like this?

2nd Jan 2008 : Although the initial idea originated from Mr. Richard Dawkins' campaign ( http://outcampaign.org/RichardDawkinsIntroduction.html ), the concept that I would like to draw from is much different. In contrast to Mr. Dawkins, I would like to ask the Christian to:

2nd Jan 2008 : More-modest voices are reclaiming the debate over faith from the bomb throwers.

2nd Jan 2008 : Mitt Romney crafts a solution that, if nothing else, works really well for him.

2nd Jan 2008 : Near the end of his life Charles Darwin invited for lunch at Down House Dr Ludwig Büchner, President of the Congress of the International Federation of Freethinkers, and Edward Aveling, a self-proclaimed and active atheist. The invitation was at their request. Emma Darwin, devout as ever, was appalled by the thought of entertaining such guests and at table insulated herself from the atheists with an old family friend, the Rev. Brodie Innes, on her right and with her grandson and his friends on her left. After lunch Darwin and his son Frank smoked cigarettes with the two visitors in Darwin's old study. Darwin asked them with surprising directness: "Why do you call yourselves atheists?" He said that he preferred the word agnostic. While Darwin agreed that Christianity was not supported by evidence, he felt that atheist was too aggressive a term to describe his own position.

1st Jan 2008 : Like many people, I once trusted in the wisdom of Nature. I imagined that there were real boundaries between the natural and the artificial, between one species and another, and thought that, with the advent of genetic engineering, we would be tinkering with life at our peril. I now believe that this romantic view of Nature is a stultifying and dangerous mythology.

1st Jan 2008 : When a politician changes his mind, he is a 'flip-flopper.' Politicians will do almost anything to disown the virtue – as some of us might see it – of flexibility.

31st Dec 2007 : This video covers the rise of Intelligent Design through the lens of the Dover trial. Interviews the major players on both sides, and features brief appearances by Richard Dawkins and David Attenborough. Includes some interesting pieces not seen before, such as a short interview with the Director of the Vatican Observatory (an astrophysicist who thinks Intelligent Design is anti-scientific nonsense).

30th Dec 2007 : I realized we hadn't posted this video yet on RichardDawkins.net. It's the 10-minute short film created by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Theo Van Gogh, highlighting the oppression of women in Islam.