Ben Goldacre on The Now Show, BBC4

Richard Dawkins: The Purpose of Purpose

During Richard Dawkins' American tour in March 2009, he gave a talk titled "The Purpose of Purpose". I travelled with Richard to these cities and filmed the talks, which I've edited together here. The content of the talk remains intact, while the editing moves between the different locations and Richard's Keynote presentation. (From Richard Dawkins.net via Atheist Media Blog).

Richard Dawkins is interviewed for Australian ABC TV Compass

Video Mixed Bag

Segundo De Chomon - Satan s'amuse (1907)
by Galaxy_Of_Terror

Dawkins on Darwin (with Q&A)

Professor Richard Dawkins delivered this year's Open University lecture at the Natural History Museum on Tuesday 17th March 2009. Dawkins presented to an invited audience and investigated if Darwin was the most revolutionary scientist ever, and examined the evolutionary theories of his contemporaries. Dawkins suggests that there are four "bridges to evolutionary understanding" and illustrates this with four claimants to the evolution of natural selection: Edward Blyth, Patrick Matthew, Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin. The fifth bridge of evolutionary understanding is identified as modern genetics which he terms digital Darwinism.



Via Atheist Media Blog

The Universe

A Dawkins/Darwin double-dose delight!

The first video is Richard Dawkins in an interview on Belgian TV. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp.

The voice-over is not in English, but the interview is.




The second video is "Darwin: The Legacy BBC 1998 Documentary about the historical and future influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection on human behaviour, society and culture. Contributors include evolutionary biologists Edward O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins and John Maynard Smith."

Richard Dawkins at AAI conference 2009

Richard Dawkins at the Atheist Alliance International conference on Atlanta, Georgia.

The talk is divided into four sections: 1. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation / 2. Mining the Eddington Concession / 3. God as Science Ficton / 4. Q&A on dealing with Creationists

You can download the quicktime version (213 mb) here

The Origins of the Universe

Here's a playlist with some really smart people talking about some really cool stuff. Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan discuss the origins of the universe.

Enjoy!

An incredible display of the wonders of science (or, the super-dico-testtube-fandango)

Science, explained so eloquently that your socks will turn into hammers!

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Pt3. Life and Death

This is the third installment of the series, also see part 1 and part 2

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Part 2

(From youtube) Andrew Marr discovers something surprising about his own evolutionary history as this epic series continues with an exploration of Darwin's impact on politics and society. Under the banner of Survival of the Fittest, Darwin's theory of natural selection has been used to justify imperial expansion and the oppression of indigenous peoples; to inform the science of eugenics - the selective breeding of humans which was implemented in the United States in the early 20th century; and to provide a veneer of scientific respectability to Nazi plans to create an Aryan master race. It was also used quite explicitly to explain the twisted logic of the final solution. But Andrew Marr also finds a kind of redemption for Darwin's theory of evolution. After the Second World War, it was a founding idea behind the democratic, anti-racist values of the United Nations. More recently, it has also been used to help eliminate a fatal genetic disease from the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Marr goes on to consider the difficult social and political choices presented by predictive DNA testing - the final frontier of Darwin's Dangerous Idea.

Regulatin' Genes

This bizzle's the shizzle!

Bringin' on some evo-dizzle to explizzle some gene replicizzle to douchebizzles who belivvle in inteligent desizzle.

Respectizzle!

Darwin's Dangerous Idea

In the first episode of the three-part series, Andrew Marr explores how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has taken on a life of its own far beyond the world of science.

He argues that Darwin's theory has transformed our understanding of what it means to be human. Over the last 150 years, Darwin's ideas have challenged the need for a creator, undermined religious authority, and provided new ways of looking at the origins of human morality.

Marr's journey begins following Darwin's footsteps in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America where Darwin first encountered an 'uncivilised' native tribe. This began to raise questions in his mind about the origins of the human race. The answers to these questions would emerge over the next 30 years, culminating in the publication of On The Origin of Species in 1859.

Marr then traces the development of Darwin's idea in the years since then and finds a range of influences that Darwin could never have imagined: from the existential philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche to the battlefields of the First World War; from the Freudian psychoanalyst's couch to the Vatican; and from the genetic logic of kindness to an Islamic creationist's claim that Darwin is to blame for modern terrorism. Darwin's dangerous idea is as influential and challenging today as it was 150 years ago.

What's in the news?

Obama has lifted funding restrictions on stem cell research which is good, seeming that there is very little reason to cut funding. It seems to be more of a religion vs medicine controversy than a controversy amongst medical ethicists.

More suicide bombings in Iraq it's sad that we are hearing this kind of news so regularly these days. "Person from (x religious group) had killed (#)people from (y religious group)". I know that there's more politics to it than that, but it seems that religion plays a major role in this kind of nonsense.

Man shoots a pastor mid sermon it'll be interesting to find out more about this as it develops. I wonder what the guy's motivation was? Was he just mad, or was he a fan of the Insane Clown Posse?

Percentage of non-religious Americans rises which isn't too surprising. This has been happening steadily over the last few census'. It seems that the numbers in most denominations are dropping off, but pentecostalism is remaining steady. I guess more people just want to sing and dance than sit solemly in pews.

Spiritual assessment in British hospitals condemned they wanted to put a question of spiritual belief on the intake survey, so that your spiritual needs could be catered for. I see that as an opportunity for allowing discrimination. I'm glad there's a backlash.

Worshiping Darwin can be dangerous though I'm not sure that worship is the right word, and I wonder who it's dangerous to? Probably the intelligent design crowd most of all.

9 year old's abortion causes controversy for church little kid gets raped, becomes pregnant, needs abortion or she will die, gets abortion, family and doctors excommunicated from church. This is completely ridiculous! The social support falling out from under them when they need it most. More on this here

Australia wasn't mentioned in the bible, so it doesn't exist! well, I guess you can't argue with that logic!

Teaching atheism in English schools in religious education is to be introduced. Terrific. It would be great to break down the barriers of misconceptions early in the piece so that children are given the information they need to make an informed decision about their religious stance.

February's Podcasts

Looking back over February, there were a lot of really good podcasts produced throughout the various freethinking groups, and here's a showcase of some of the cream of the crop

American Freethought spoke to:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (awesome science and astronomy communicator),
Ken Miller (literally wrote the book on evolutionary biology) and
Phil Plait (hyper excitable skeptic extraordinaire)

Astronomy Cast spoke to Bob Novella of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe

The Atheist Experience had a double show with a call in theist Matt Slick (#592 & 593), as well as their usual terrific 'Live Calls' show (#590)

Freethought Radio spoke to Charles Darwin's great great grandson, Matthew Chapman (Feb 14)

The Infidel Guy spoke to Neil Shubin, author of 'Your Inner Fish'

Skepticality spoke with Ben Radford

The Skeptics Guide interviewed Massimo Pigliucci as well as their always interesting 5x5 mini show


Other shows worth checking out include:
(I haven't hyperlinked them... I'm heading off to work and don't have time. Just google them, they're out there. If you can't find something, I can provide links)

Australian Shows

Here's Why
Hunting Humbug
Brains Matter
Diffusion Science Radio
Here's Why
Ockham's Razor
The Psuedo Scientists
The Skeptic Zone
G'Day World
Dr Karl (Great moments in science, and the naked scientist, on Triple J)
Sunday Night Safran


International Shows

Another Goddamned Podcast
Are We Alone?
Ask an Astronomer Videos
Atheist Talk
Bad Science
Beyond Belief
Dogma Free America
Geologic Podcast
The Good Atheist
The Non-Prophets
Nova Vodcast
Pat Condell's Godless Comedy
Point of Inquiry
Quackcast
Rearview Radio with Rick Wood
Reasonable Doubts Podcast
Secular Nation Podcast
Skeptoid
Slacker Astronomy
Star Stuff
This Week in Science
Scientific American's 60 second podcasts (Earth, Psych, Science, Video)

James Randi on Carl Sagan

There's not much to say. A great man speaking about a great man...

Phil Plait vs Carl Zimmer Diavlog

Over at Bloggingheads, Phil Plait and Carl Zimmer have a chat about... science stuff I guess (I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure it'll be good!)

Evolution. It works, bitches!

Moohummad Schwarzenegger, the Super Cow!

Wow, I'm not sure what to say about this... It kind of encompasses a number of ideas that we have been discussing lately. Meat production, intensive farming, artificial selection and advancement in science. The result is... well, just see for yourself!