Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme, helping found the field of memetics. In 1982, he made a widely cited contribution to the science of evolution with the theory, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that phenotypic effects are not limited to an organism's body but can stretch far into the environment, including into the bodies of other organisms. He has since written several best-selling popular books, and has appeared in a number of television and radio programmes concerning evolutionary biology, creationism, intelligent design, and religion. In addition to his biological work, Dawkins is well-known for his views on religion. He is an outspoken antireligionist and atheist; a secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and a supporter of the Brights movement. He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. As of November 2007, the book had sold more than 1.5 million copies in English and had been translated into 31 other languages, making it his most popular to date.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Richard Dawkins (BBC Documentary).
Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme, helping found the field of memetics. In 1982, he made a widely cited contribution to the science of evolution with the theory, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that phenotypic effects are not limited to an organism's body but can stretch far into the environment, including into the bodies of other organisms. He has since written several best-selling popular books, and has appeared in a number of television and radio programmes concerning evolutionary biology, creationism, intelligent design, and religion. In addition to his biological work, Dawkins is well-known for his views on religion. He is an outspoken antireligionist and atheist; a secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and a supporter of the Brights movement. He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. As of November 2007, the book had sold more than 1.5 million copies in English and had been translated into 31 other languages, making it his most popular to date.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Lost Gospels
Aired: March 15, 2008 on BBC 2 Anglican priest Peter Owen Jones explores the huge number of ancient Christian texts that didn't make it into the New Testament. Shocking and challenging, these were works in which Jesus didn't die, took revenge on his enemies and kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth. Pete travels through Egypt and the former Roman Empire looking at the evidence of a Christian world very different to the one we know, and finds over seventy gospels, acts, letters and apocalypses all circulating in the early Church.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Lillehammer 1994 CC - Samaranch's Speech
The best winter Olympic ever. We will never see this Winter Olympic enthusiasm again - unless it goes to Norway again...
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