Dan Dennett

An enigmatic poem for Richard Dawkins on his birthday

“Hi, kids, the car is drawn.”
While the kids arch inward,
Raw, rich kids and
I skid ranchward
Hard, sick inward.

“Dick’s in hard war,”
I muse; it makes no sense at all.
Thank goodness for
the evolution of
Richard Dawkins!
He makes sense.

Sam Harris

Happy Birthday, Richard!

Just a note to say that it has been a true honor to fight alongside you in the culture-wars. You are fine company and a genuine inspiration. May we all profit from your wisdom for many years to come.

Best,

Sam

www.samharris.org

PZ Myers

Since we figured Richard Dawkins doesn't need any more consciousness-raising, we thought the best birthday present we could give him was to raise someone else's consciousness. We discovered that our little small town library lacks much of anything in the way of books that challenge the default god-belief around here, so we're donating a copy of The God Delusion to the Morris Public Library.

Let's hope a few more people in our community can read the book and shed their religious baggage.

Michael Shermer

Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer visit the 100-inch telescope atop Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel mountains just above Pasadena, California. This is the telescope through which Edwin Hubble discovered that those fuzzy little patches in the Milky Way Galaxy--so called nebulae--were, in fact, galaxies that are very far away. He later discovered that most of them are moving away from us--shifted toward the red end of the spectrum--and therefore the universe is expanding. I'll never forget Richard's comment he made as we were standing beneath the magnificent dome housing the 100-inch telescope, and reflecting on how marvelous, even miraculous, this vision of the cosmos and our place in it all seemed: “All of this makes me so proud of our species that I am almost moved to tears.”

So on the occasion of your birthday, Richard, please accept my good wishes and thanks for giving science its soul.

Michael Shermer
Skeptics Society
Scientific American

Penn Jillette

Happy Birthday, Richard.

You're changing the world.

Thank you.

Proud to be your friend,

Penn Jillette

Karen Owens

A peek at oldies but goodies of RD through the years from the private album. Karen

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Carolyn Porco

Dear Richard, our great impassioned warrior,

It's been a singular privilege knowing you, and watching up close your noble work to steer the world right.

Thank you for your efforts on our behalf and, even more, for your friendship these past 10 years.

And here, for your birthday, is a little gift from me, dedicated to you ... a sight like no other ... our tiny blue-ocean planet afloat in the skies of Saturn.

We are fortunate creatures, to be surrounded by such soul-filling beauty. If all were free in mind and spirit to take their fill of wonders like this, they would truly understand you.

Happy Birthday!

With great affection,
Carolyn

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Brian Flemming

Professor Dawkins: The tide is turning over here across the pond, and of course we owe a lot of thanks to you for that. Happy birthday, and many, many more.
Best, Brian

Ann Druyan

My birthday message to you, Richard, is, at least in part, a thank you note -- to one who doesn't blow out the candles and make a wish, but instead, uses his prodigious gifts to keep them lit in the darkness.

Happy birthday, Richard.

With love and admiration,
Ann

Helen Fisher

HI there, Richard. I am so delighted that we manaaged to appear on the same planet at the same time. You are a joy to know, clear headed, kind, warm and wildly smart--a pleasure and a gift to so many of us. So, hail to thee, blithe spirit. To many many more years together before we join the stars. Helen Fisher

Margaret Downey

I hope you have a delightful day, Richard. I fondly recall the birthday celebration we had for you in Los Angeles. It was one of the most cherished memories of you. I look forward to seeing you in September 2007 at the AAI convention. In the meantime, stay well and please enjoy every moment of your glorius life. Margaret

Dan Barker

Happy Birthday from Madison, Wisconsin
Birthday greetings from the staff of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Thank you for being a voice of reason, sanity, and kindness.

Dan Barker

Andy Thomson

ODE TO RICHARD DAWKINS ON HIS 65TH BIRTHDAY
(In the style of George Carlin)
March 26, 2007

J. Anderson Thomson, Jr.,M.D.
Charlottesville, Virginia

Richard Dawkins is a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.
No postmodern, politically correct deconstructionist,
He's a diversified, multi cultural, modernist non-delusionalist,
Politically, anatomically and ecologically correct.
He's a high tech high life.
He uplinks, downloads, inputs, and never outsources.
He's a cutting edge multi-tasker,
He'll give you a gigabite in a nanosecond.
New wave, but old school,
His inner child is outward bound,
He's a hotwired, heat seeking, warm-hearted, cool customer.
Voice activated and biodegradable.
Richard interfaces with his database,
And his database is cyberspace.
Richard is interactive, hyperactive, and with faith-heads
he's radioactive.
Never behind the eight ball,
He's ahead of the curve, riding the wave, pushing the envelope.
He's on point, on task, on message and on the money.
No need for coke or speed,
No urge to binge or purge,
Richard is in the moment, on the edge, over the top, and always
on our radar.
He's a high concept, high profile, long range ballistic marvel.
A science wise, top gun smart bomb,
An enthusiastic critical thinker,
An exile from Eden, an African American Brit,
A Darwinian Brahmin, a Brahmin Darwinian,
A selfish-gened, altruistic extended phenotype,
Our boat captain on the river out of Eden.
Richard climbs Mount Improbable with the blind watchmaker,
He unweaves the rainbow, he recounts the ancestor's tale,
He's the Devil's chaplain who punctured the God delusion.
Religious unreason troubled his animal blood,
Like a cool cat he flies here and there,
And the world now spins around like a top,
Reason and science, two close kindred meet,
What better than call it a dance,
Maestro Richard, the choreographer supreme,
With no power ties, no power lies, no power naps,
And no personal agenda.
No personal trainers, no personal shoppers, no personal assistants,
And no personal attitude.
Not a raging workaholic, not a working rageaholic,
He's a totally ongoing, slam dunk, rain maker with outreach.
You can't shut him up, you can't dumb him down,
He's tireless, he's wireless,
An alpha male on beta blockers.
He's a true believer, an overachiever, a laid back
forward activist.
Richard is up front, down home, high rent, and low maintenance, Super sized,
long lasting, high definition, and fast acting.
He's a hands on, foot loose, knee jerk humanitarian.
He's a fully equipped, factory authorized, hospital tested,
clinically proven, scientifically formulated
biology wizard.
He's prewashed, precooked, prepackaged, preapproved,
prescreened, post-dated, freeze dried, and always
prepared.
He's gender specific, capital intensive, user friendly and
pretense intolerant.
He eats fast food in the slow lane,
He's toll free, bite sized, ready to wear, and takes on all sizes.
He's not a rude dude,
He's the real deal.
Lean, but not mean,
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
He's not rough or tough, yet hard to bluff.
He takes it slow, he goes with the flow,
He rides the tide, he's got glide in his stride.
Thinking and writing,
Lecturing and debating,
Confronting and challenging,
Blasting and lasting,
He keeps the pedal to the medal and the rubber to the road,
He parties hearty,
Science time is crunch time.
He's hanging in,
There ain't no doubt,
We're chanting Happy Birthday,
This is for Richard,
Over and out.

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Text Birthday Messages

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List of All Birthday Messages by Name

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