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Richard Dawkins has posted a video of his October 23 speech at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. The speech contains excerpts of his latest book “The Good Delusion”, but what makes this video particularly interesting is how Dawkins answers questions from several students from Liberty University, a conservative Christian university that shamelessly teaches young earth creationism (and apparently displays dinosaur fossils dated approx. 3000 years ago…).

I haven’t seen the entire video (113GB quicktime), but the following website contains some great excerpts:

• Not a trivial error
• Blind faith
• Quantum Theory

Salon.com posted a very good interview with Richard Dawkins (this link goes to the more readable printer friendly page).

As usual, Dawkins comes across as sharp and non-compromising on his views. He also defends his confrontational position on religion – after all, he has been characterized as “Darwin’s Rottweiler” and is certainly one of the most famous atheists in the world.

One quote I particularly liked (even though I have heard this in similar form before):

Everybody nowadays is an atheist about Thor and Apollo. Some of us just go one god further.

This finally prompted me to order Dawkins’ latest book, The God Delusion. Of course now I really need to make some progress to catch up on the stack of Dawkins and Sam Harris books I’ve accumulated…

Speaking of Richard Dawkins: He’s currently on tour to promote his new book, and according to his calendar he’ll be in the SF Bay Area October 29 (Menlo Park) and 30 (San Francisco). I hope I’ll be able to make it to one of these events.

Last not least, Dawkins recently formed the “Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science”. A 12-minute video on their Mission page outlines the noble mission of this foundation. I’ll definitely keep them in mind for any future charity donations.

I just came across SkepticWiki – the Encyclopedia of Science and Critical Thinking.

This looks like a comprehensive resource for all skeptics out there, and the articles on the Wiki debunk such popular myths as UFOs, alternative medicine, pseudohistory (such as Holocaust Denial), and of course religion. The amount of information on the site (both in terms of breadth and depth) is very impressive!

This weekend I’ve watched an amazing movie: The God Who Wasn’t There. It critically explores many aspects of Christianity, and in particular the myth of the existence of Jesus. It accomplishes all this in a manner that is both convincing as well as having many funny moments. Sadly, I doubt that this movie will manage to strike sense into any Christian fundamentalists, but any open minded person, religious or not, should do themselves a favor and see this movie.

You can buy the DVD directly at the website above, or from Amazon.

Not all that unexpected I guess, but in yesterday’s vote, the Kansas Board of Education actually approved the teaching of Intelligent Design in Kansas schools.

Damn, I’m glad I live in California. Still, this is a blow against all sane people in this country. Looks like we are slowly going back in time towards the Dark Ages…