1. Comment #137988 by Pentecost on March 3, 2008 at 5:53 pm

I've got my ticket *gloat*. See you this weekend RD.

Other Comments by Pentecost

2. Comment #137989 by Saerain on March 3, 2008 at 5:55 pm

I was really rather hoping he would come to Massachusetts, as I do love attending such things, but I suppose that wouldn't be of much use when he appears to be targetting closer to religious hubs (without going directly into the Belt).

Other Comments by Saerain

3. Comment #137992 by Dr Benway on March 3, 2008 at 6:03 pm

Yeah, wot Saerain said! You could visit yer pal Dennett, too.

Plus you'd find out what Dr Benway is really like.

Other Comments by Dr Benway

4. Comment #137994 by Radesq on March 3, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, NYU closer to the Bible belt? The only one that comes close is Univ. of Texas Austin and that is really hitting below the belt. Which is entirely called for IMHO. :)

Other Comments by Radesq

5. Comment #137995 by mikkala on March 3, 2008 at 6:05 pm

What, no Canadian dates?

Nevertheless, I look forward to all the material that will no doubt, be appearing on RD's website.

Other Comments by mikkala

6. Comment #137996 by Dr Benway on March 3, 2008 at 6:07 pm

Austin is an oasis of rationality in a desert of crazy.

Other Comments by Dr Benway

7. Comment #137997 by Radesq on March 3, 2008 at 6:09 pm

A clear thinking oasis? or like the music group Oasis? I've heard that Austin is nice though...I like to watch Austin City Limits on PBS from time to time.

Other Comments by Radesq

8. Comment #138000 by Crazymalc on March 3, 2008 at 6:12 pm

That's great, but why not head over to South Korea?

TGD delusion has been released here, both in Korean and English and there are a whole swag of Fundies over here that need to hear the message!

For example, the world's biggest Christian church - The Yoido Full Gospel Church - recently invited that charlatan Benny Hinn over.

I am seriously annoyed that I missed the show as I would of been handing out pamphlets!

Other Comments by Crazymalc

9. Comment #138001 by Geoff on March 3, 2008 at 6:13 pm

Looking forward to seeing the videos!

Other Comments by Geoff

10. Comment #138004 by Goodwithwood on March 3, 2008 at 6:19 pm

Please come to Salt Lake City. It would be fun. Pleeeease.

GWW

Other Comments by Goodwithwood

11. Comment #138005 by Tovi on March 3, 2008 at 6:20 pm

I really want to go see Richard when he visits Madison. I'm in Chicago and not a UW student so getting tickets is nearly impossible. Would anyone who is in the area be kind enough to get some tickets for me?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE !!!!

I'll buy you a beer for your help!

Other Comments by Tovi

12. Comment #138006 by Gridman on March 3, 2008 at 6:25 pm

Tempe: Sold out already, and I just read about this 5 minutes ago.

I wish I could be there, but either way, glad it's filling the seats.

Other Comments by Gridman

13. Comment #138007 by Will in Aus on March 3, 2008 at 6:28 pm

We definitely need an Australian University tour! We have our fair share of woo-woos here as well...

Other Comments by Will in Aus

14. Comment #138013 by rthille on March 3, 2008 at 6:36 pm

My sister (works @ Stanford) got me two tickets. I'm planning on taking some copies of TGD in paperback to hand out to people who are interested.

Other Comments by rthille

15. Comment #138014 by HourglassMemory on March 3, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Why do I have to live on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and not even in the Uk????
My only way to enjoy any of his lectures is to watch them through the Internet.
I hope SOMEONE films these talks.

Other Comments by HourglassMemory

16. Comment #138016 by Wolvan on March 3, 2008 at 6:38 pm

I'm gonna be camped outside the Theater at UT Austin for hours ahead of time to get tickets. Can't wait!

Other Comments by Wolvan

17. Comment #138017 by toomanytribbles on March 3, 2008 at 6:38 pm

so i guess beijing is out of the question, e?

Other Comments by toomanytribbles

18. Comment #138018 by Saerain on March 3, 2008 at 6:40 pm

4. Comment #137994 by Radesq on March 3, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, NYU closer to the Bible belt?

Yeah, I realised that about ten minutes later and wondered what I was thinking. I seem to subconsciously include much more of the country in that term than it popularly covers.

Other Comments by Saerain

19. Comment #138021 by Aaron on March 3, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Dr. Dawkins, please...for the love of science, COME TO SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI!!!!!!!!!

Other Comments by Aaron

20. Comment #138023 by Saerain on March 3, 2008 at 6:50 pm

As long as we're naming specific cities, why not Hell, Michigan, just for comedic value?

Other Comments by Saerain

21. Comment #138027 by aznxscorpion517 on March 3, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Richard should come to San Francisco! Berkeley is close by but that event starts so late!

Other Comments by aznxscorpion517

22. Comment #138029 by freethnkr on March 3, 2008 at 6:53 pm

are there going to be videos of these events?

Other Comments by freethnkr

23. Comment #138030 by mintcheerios on March 3, 2008 at 6:55 pm

I'm so driving to Austin.

Other Comments by mintcheerios

24. Comment #138034 by rhlong on March 3, 2008 at 7:03 pm

I wish he would have found time to stop by vegas, since he was coming out west.

Other Comments by rhlong

25. Comment #138035 by Radesq on March 3, 2008 at 7:06 pm

RE: 21. Comment #138023 by Saerain on March 3, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Tomorrow's headline on every Creationist Blog everywhere:

"RichardDawkins.net member asks - why doesn't the Professor go to Hell?"

Other Comments by Radesq

26. Comment #138040 by aporeticus on March 3, 2008 at 7:44 pm

I'll be at UC Berkeley 3/6 but not 3/8. :(

Other Comments by aporeticus

27. Comment #138043 by Minium Jones on March 3, 2008 at 7:54 pm

Didn't think we really needed Dawkins here in Oz but Kevin Rudd's first act as our new Prime Minister was to go to church. So, dear Richard, I really hope you do consider dropping by.

Other Comments by Minium Jones

28. Comment #138044 by ImagineAll on March 3, 2008 at 7:55 pm

I'll be flying *through* the San Francisco area on the eighth. I do always seem to miss things like this.

Other Comments by ImagineAll

29. Comment #138048 by Ed-words on March 3, 2008 at 8:05 pm

Why not Las Vegas? (I know,bad PR)


It has the 2nd-largest collection of Mormon specimens in the U.S.

Other Comments by Ed-words

30. Comment #138050 by debaser71 on March 3, 2008 at 8:18 pm

My wife and I are going to the CFI New York City stop. I hope it's not sold out before we arrive. I'm also hoping that it's not just a reading from the book or a lecture similar to the ones we've already seen (like the video that was played on C-SPAN). I'm hoping the talk is more about why it's important to speak up about atheism and secularism (fighting the larger battle of reason vs. superstition) and/or maybe some interesting sciency stuff; something similar to Richard Dawkins TED talk "Queerer than we can suppose". That "life is like a wave" blew my mind!

Other Comments by debaser71

31. Comment #138057 by Fire1974 on March 3, 2008 at 8:34 pm

Damn!!! I'm going to be out of town when he's in NY.
I hate to miss it. Oh well, I'll just have to be another lonely atheist
in Florida that weekend. I never can find many fellow, free-minds down there. : (

How about a stop in South Florida Professor?

Other Comments by Fire1974

32. Comment #138068 by ic0n0clast on March 3, 2008 at 8:50 pm

I wish prof. Dawkins would come to Colorado :(

Other Comments by ic0n0clast

33. Comment #138075 by MaxD on March 3, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Dr. Benway!
That avatar of yours says the funniest things in the onion.

Other Comments by MaxD

34. Comment #138076 by Teratornis on March 3, 2008 at 9:20 pm

In reply to comment #138014 by HourglassMemory:

My only way to enjoy any of his lectures is to watch them through the Internet.

What more could anyone need?

Seriously, exactly what additional information could you possibly gain by sitting in a room and listening to the same lecture, that you don't get just as well by watching the video?

YouTube videos don't have the best resolution (yet), not that it matters for a lecture, but give Moore's law another 20 years to exponentiate. Those of us who are ancient enough to recall what the world was like 20 years ago give thanks every day to DARPA, Tim Berners-Lee, and all the other deep pockets and creative geniuses who brought us the World Wide Web.

Online videos have the potential to provide a better hypertext experience than is available in a primitive lecture setting. For example, every time a speaker mentions something you don't know (a jargon term, a concept, a scientific reference, a literary allusion, a British idiom such as "whip-around"), if you are sitting in the audience at a lecture hall, you are pretty much screwed. The best you can do is jot some notes and then look things up when you get to a computer. How Pleistocene is that? Even if you have a PDA with you, you don't want to go browsing off to do background research when you're trying to follow the lecture. You can't "pause" a live speaker. Unless you are paying the lecture fee.

With a well-implemented "Multimedia Dawkins" you could watch his lectures straight through, or pause to click on the related links, and read more information about all the background bits he merely touches on in his talks.

Even the not-so-well-implemented "YouTube Dawkins" makes this manageable. Just keep Wikipedia open in another browser tab, along with your favorite search engine in another tab, etc.

I hope SOMEONE films these talks.

It appears someone will indeed be SANE enough:

Two upcoming events in California will be filmed
http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37899

So, given that atheists are supposedly disproportionately more likely to be clever techno-wizard types, when are we going to videoconference/simulcast a Dawkins lecture?

Other Comments by Teratornis

35. Comment #138078 by babrock on March 3, 2008 at 9:33 pm

Paging Dr. Benway
Paging Dr. Benway
MY wife is enuf of Buroughs fan that she laffs at any reference. Tho we are both too new to t internet to have yet seen it at t Onion.

Other Comments by babrock

36. Comment #138079 by MelM on March 3, 2008 at 9:35 pm

Put in a good word or two for freedom of speech.

I don't think I'll be able to attend the Berkeley talk, but I may be able to walk over and check out the makeup of the crowd going into Wheeler--a large auditorim. The weather forecast looks good for Saturday.

This isn't Florida or Texas or...
The people of California voted to spend 3 billion on stem cell research and about two weeks ago, some "abstinence only" nutters were caught teaching sex education classes in some S.F. Bay Area schools. Somehow, they contracted to do the work and even administrators didn't know who they were. Finally, they were exposed because some alert mom found out her son wasn't learning what she expected and wanted him to learn. An investigation uncovered the situation. This abstinence only nutter stuff for sex ed is illegal in California. So, if Dawkins runs into any barking mad nutters here, it'll be far fewer than I'd expect elsewhere.

Anyway, I think that talking to young people who are still on the fence or who are just a little bit religious is very very important. Talks at both UC and Stanford is a real win since they are the two big top ranked schools in Northern California and are important nationally.

Oh, pass out some "A" buttons so I won't feel so lonely when I walk around town with my new "A" lapel pin when it comes.

Comment #138068 by ic0n0clast:

I wish prof. Dawkins would come to Colorado :(

Yes, go to Colorado; the state needs a lot of work.

Other Comments by MelM

37. Comment #138080 by aznxscorpion517 on March 3, 2008 at 9:35 pm

I find it interesting that 4 days earlier on March 4th, Dr. Tim Keller is going to be at Berkeley in the same auditorium Richard will be, only he will be presenting his book The Reason for God. He'll supposedly be answering questions as to why God created hell and why there is so much suffering.

Other Comments by aznxscorpion517

38. Comment #138082 by HumanisticJones on March 3, 2008 at 9:49 pm

I'd really love to see Prof. Dawkin's come to Atlanta. By the time I heard about the event in Alabama a while back it was both too late to request the time off from work to make it in time.

Other Comments by HumanisticJones

39. Comment #138086 by MelM on March 3, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Comment #138080 by aznxscorpion517,

What a revolting development this is!

Yes, the event was moved to Wheeler. I'll try to walk over and snoop around. If this nutter fills Wheeler, I'll know the country is in a lot more trouble than I'd thought.

Other Comments by MelM

40. Comment #138089 by Uhtred on March 3, 2008 at 10:21 pm

No chance that RD will visit New Zealand, I suppose :(

The Rolling Stones did and came to my town, which Mick Jagger called it the "arsehole" of the world.

It's really not that bad, RD.

Other Comments by Uhtred

41. Comment #138091 by MelM on March 3, 2008 at 10:37 pm

I see Keller's new book "A Reason For God" claims that it "Uses Presuppostional Apologetics with postmoderns." I don't know about his particular views but, as I've commented before, "presuppositional apologetics" is a really nasty bunch of brain cracking crap that attempts to undercut rationality right at it philosophical root. I'm inclined to believe that it's the main support for the fanaticism we're seeing today; it allows people to "presume" the bible and lock out any disagreement whatever. Down the road, it will work like a polylogic system that leaves only one way to deal with those who don't agree: force. And that makes if quite scary. Religion can't survive without supporting some form of unreason.

Other Comments by MelM

42. Comment #138094 by William Sierichs Jr. on March 3, 2008 at 10:50 pm

Professor Dawkins really needs to come to New Orleans, Louisiana.
First, it has an active secular humanist group (NOSHA)(all of whom survived Katrina, even though that was sent to punish N.O. of its sins -- I guess secular humanism and atheism are not sins).

Second, it just had its ninth annual Darwin Day event. NOSHA started it, but the event has been taken over by staff members at the University of New Orleans. The latest Darwin Day speakers included Barbara Forrest and Michael Shermer. Many people will recognize Shermer's name. If you don't ID Barbara at once, she's a La. philosophy professor who was an important witness on Idiot Design at the Dover, Pennsylvania, trial and helped persuade the judge to bar ID/creationism from the schools. The event drew 200 people on a Saturday afternoon.

Third, New Orleans is desperate for good publicity, so they might give Professor Dawkins the key to the city or at least issue a welcoming statement. NOSHA has gotten Mayor Nagin to issue some humanistic declarations in the past.

Fourth, for all N.O.'s problems, it still has lots of great food and music.

Other Comments by William Sierichs Jr.

43. Comment #138095 by JamesDB on March 3, 2008 at 11:03 pm

Hey how about a trip to Vancouver B.C. Canada. There are a whack load of us who would show up to see him talk. If you are going to do US tours you might as well slip to the kickass part of North America. (No offence to any americans, George Bush makes you not kick ass, well maybe just "terrorist ass"):)

Other Comments by JamesDB

44. Comment #138097 by Matthew 10:10 on March 3, 2008 at 11:25 pm

Richard will be here in three days. Can't wait!

Other Comments by Matthew 10:10

45. Comment #138100 by Bonzai on March 3, 2008 at 11:39 pm

Some of you people sound like a bunch of groupies, get a hold of yourself. It is embarrassing just to watch you.

I am sure you all know Dawkins' arguments so well that you can probably regurgitate them better than he himself. So I am not really sure what you will learn from his talk that you haven't known already.It seems that the fan boys and girls just want to admire their idol up close so that they can chatter for days on how handsome and well spoken he is.

I don't think this kind of mini personality cult is healthy for supposedly rational people.

I am probably going to be blasted for blasphemy.

Other Comments by Bonzai

46. Comment #138103 by TheTrueScotsman on March 4, 2008 at 12:08 am

Teratornis

...a British idiom such as "whip-around"

At the risk of being seen as a pedant extraordinaire, I'll correct you for the sake of accuracy. It should be "whipround" or just to "have a whip" if used in the appropriate context.

I can only imagine it comes from impromptue, and illegal, street entertainers passing a hat round an audience for a collection very quickly (hence "whipped") before being lifted by the rozzers (or arrested by the constabulary to you!).

Other Comments by TheTrueScotsman

47. Comment #138104 by Matthew 10:10 on March 4, 2008 at 12:14 am

I know none of his arguments. I know my own. I am my own groupie. I cannot wait to hear Bonzai speak. He, like us all, has so much to say. Some of us can just live with this. Others must work on it. Obviously easier said than done. We will see. <(o)><(o)> Take care all and stay tuned. Things are just getting warmed up.

Other Comments by Matthew 10:10

48. Comment #138109 by Steven Mading on March 4, 2008 at 12:27 am

To Tovi who asked about tickets for Madison:

If you see this reply, please go read this thread I made on the forums:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=37492&p=725318#p725318

I will know tomorrow if this is feasable.

Other Comments by Steven Mading

49. Comment #138111 by sarah95 on March 4, 2008 at 12:34 am

Bonzai said:

It seems that the fan boys and girls just want to admire their idol up close so that they can chatter for days how handsome and well spoken he is.

I don't think this kind of mini personality cult is healthy for supposedly rational people.

I am probably going to be blasted for blasphemy.

I think you're exaggerating a bit. Just because I happen to think that Dawkins IS handsome and well-spoken, doesn't mean I think it's a fact. It's my opinion, and I'm not ashamed of it, as you obviously think I should be. And there's no blasphemy worries on this site.

Yes, I'll go to see him when he comes to Minneapolis for the American Atheists conference on March 21st, but he's not the only reason I'm going to that conference. Even if he was, I would go to enjoy hearing RD speak. Enjoying something doesn't make you irrational.

And as for "regurgitating" RD's arguments, I would concede that most of us here agree with his arguments, but not on a "blasphemy" basis. There is quite a lot of spirited debate on this site, on various subjects, if you haven't noticed.

I wouldn't say there's really a "cult of personality" around RD, but if there was, it would only be irrational if this was a site where debate was frowned upon, which it obviously isn't.

Other Comments by sarah95

50. Comment #138150 by sornord on March 4, 2008 at 2:03 am

Too bad he's not going to Florida. There's another ID bruhaha in the Board of Education going on down there. Some state senators in Tallahassee are putting out the "it's just a theory" babble on evolution.

Sometimes I think Homer Simpson is right: Florida is America's wang.

SW

Other Comments by sornord