Richard Dawkins in Auckland – update

I reported recently that Richard Dawkins will speak in Auckland next March.

Looks like there has been an overwhelming demand for tickets. To accommodate everyone the organisers have  now arranged a live screening of Richard Dawkins’ only Auckland appearance in 2010. Tickets for the screening are now on sale.
Details of his appearance are:

7.00pm to 8.30pm
Saturday 13 March 2010
Theatre 098, level 0
The University of Auckland Business School

The screening will take place in Theatre 098, which is below the Fisher & Paykel Appliances Auditorium where Richard Dawkins will be speaking. People attending the screening will have the opportunity to get their books signed by the author in the Fisher & Paykel Appliances Foyer following the lecture.

To book tickets go to: RICHARD DAWKINS LIVE ON SCREEN – iTICKET.

Richard Dawkins in Auckland next March

This guy leads an extremely busy life. I know he is promoting his recently published books The Greatest Show on Earth and consequently gets into book tours. But his publishers certainly work him hard.

Next March (Wednesday 10th) he is speaking in Wellington during the Writers and Readers Week at the NZ International Arts Festival (see Richard Dawkins in Wellington next March). Just announced is an appearance in Auckland on Saturday 13th March. But on Sunday 14th March he will also be speaking at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne!

I am a little bit younger than him but I couldn’t stand that pace.

Anyway, details of the Auckland appearance are:

Saturday 13th, march, 2010

The University of Auckland Fisher & Paykel Auditorium, Owen G Glenn Bldg, 12 Grafton Rd, Auckland

Richard Dawkins LIVE! The Greatest Show on Earth

The University of Auckland is pleased to present one of Britain’s foremost science writers Richard Dawkins in his only Auckland appearance.

Richard Dawkins will be introduced by Brian Boyd, The University of Auckland’s Distinguished Professor of English. He teaches a course in Literature and Science that includes Richard Dawkins’s The Blind Watchmaker.

About Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins will present evidence for his argument that evolution is an incontrovertible fact. In his new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, the renowned evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist takes on creationists, including followers of “intelligent design” and all those who question evolution through natural selection.

Tickets will be available from iTicket (go to RICHARD DAWKINS LIVE! – iTICKET). The Auckland Alumni pre-sales have sold out but you can pre-register for sales to the general public starting November 30th.

I wonder where else in New Zealand he will speak?

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Why Evolution Is True

Here’s another great video from the recent AAI Convention. It’s a presentation by Jerry Coyne based on his recently published book “Why Evolution Is True.”

I haven’t read it yet but it has had great reviews. Jerry describes it as complimentary to Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth.

The video is great. Jerry Coyne does present a lot of very convincing information. I don’t see how anyone exposed to this could possible believe that evolution is not true.

Thanks to Richard.dawkins.net: ‘Why Evolution Is True” by Jerry Coyne, AAI 2009

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Richard Dawkins in Wellington next March

Auckland got Richard Dawkins by video this year when he announced the winner of the inaugural Royal Society NZ science Book of the Year award.

Next March Wellington will get him in person. Dawkins will be speaking during the Writers and Readers Week at the NZ International Arts Festival.

Details (evening of Wednesday March 10 at the Wellington Town Hall) are at the Arts Festival website. Tickets can also be booked from there.

Something to look forward to?

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Promoting confusion

A great feature of the scientific endeavour is that our ideas, hypotheses and theories are usually tested against reality. In fact we get very worried when we can’t do this. Consequently there has been some philosophical discussion and concern around speculative ideas or hypotheses like string theory (really hypotheses not theories) and the multiple universe ideas.

But, in some areas of philosophy and theology reality can safely be ignored. And here all sorts of weird and wonderful preconceived ideas can get justified  using a logic which basically boils down to mental gymnastics. I have always found debate with post modernists and theologians is a bit like jelly wrestling. Without reality to fall back on anything goes.

The philosopher of science Daniel Dennett gave an interesting talk, “The evolution of Confusion,” on theological justification at the Atheist Alliance International convention last month. Its based on his new project interviewing clergyman who secretly don’t believe anymore. Atheist clergymen are probably far more common than we might think. And all clergymen have problems in their profession which require theological arguments to resolve, or at least to patch up for the moment. This leads to a weird style of logic and argument – hence my feeling of jelly wrestling.

This is a fascinating talk. I understand the research will be published soon. Hopefully it will also be available in a popular format like a book.

Dan Dennett is the author of many excellent books, including “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon” and “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea“. He is also featured in the video “The Four Horsemen” along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens.

‘The Evolution of Confusion’ by Dan Dennett, AAI 2009.
From RichardDawkins.net: ‘Dan Dennett talks about purposely-confusing theology and how it’s used. He also describes his new project interviewing clergyman who secretly don’t believe anymore, and introduces a new term: “Deepity.”‘

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Defending science and reason

Book Review: The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason by Victor Stenger

Price: US$12.92
Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books (September 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591027519
ISBN-13: 978-1591027515

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This book is timely. The “New Atheism” hit our awareness in the mid-part of the decade when Sam Harris’s book “The End of Faith” became a best-seller. This was quickly followed by more best-sellers from the authors Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Victor Stenger (the author of this book). And then there was the response. Many books have been written, mostly be theists, attacking the “New Atheists.” Although none of the later was a best-seller they did suggest that a new stage in the religion-atheism debate was underway.

Stenger’s new book is also useful because it helps put this whole debate in context. He summarises that nature of the “New Atheism movement” (although it is hardly a movement as there was no coordination in publishing these books). He briefly summarises the arguments of the “New Atheism” and the arguments employed by those attacking “New Atheism.” Then he shows the fallacies in the arguments employed by the “New Christians.” In some cases he reveals the way many of the “New Atheist” positions have been distorted and misrepresented. In others he deals with the substance of these arguments – particularly those dealing with scientific issues.

As an Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado Stenger is an ideal person to write on this subject

Books in prisons

I came across some information on the programme for the LIANZA (Library and Information association of NZ Aotearoa) conference which opens in Christchurch today. The paper by Susan Smith and Judith Wenborn caught my eye. Entitled ‘Take a walk on the wild-side’: library service at the margins: the challenges of prison librarianship it discusses prison library services and how these and other libraries can engage with marginalised users.

This is something I hadn’t thought too much about before. I am well aware of the huge importance of books for children and adults. How they can even play a redemptive role – similar to education. The help people arrive at life purposes and the appreciation of reality and our participation in it.

So it’s obvious, really. The provision of good books in prison libraries should be seen as important to their role in correction.

The naked emperor

It’s interesting how a simple word, a name or a book title can cause twitching in the knee area. I predicted we would see a rash of this syndrome with the publication of Richard Dawkins new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. We are going to see more of the syndrome as the book reviews and other publicity appear in our newspapers and magazines.

One of the most common symptoms of the knee jerking goes right back the Terry Eagleton’s early review of Dawkins’ previous book, The God Delusion. That is the charge that Dawkins had no right to produce that book because he is not a religious philosopher or theologian (see Do you believe in a god?).

Charles Darwin – Art & science

These videos are very interesting. They are the Darwin Special edition of Newsnight Review on BBC 2. It discusses the cultural and philosophical legacy of the seminal work On the Origin of Species.

But they have gone wider than science to include the arts, film, theatre and literature. The panel inclusive  scientist Richard Dawkins, Man Booker prize-winning author Margaret Atwood, Reverend Richard Coles, and poet and descendant of Charles Darwin Ruth Padel.

Richard Dawkins explains his need to make the case for Darwinian theories in his new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Margaret Atwood talks about on her new novel  The Year of the Flood which meshes together evolutionary and religious ideas about the foundations of the natural world. And Ruth Padel describes some of the family stories of Charles Darwin and his wife.

Dawkins bashing season upon us?

Prepare yourself for another round of Dawkins-bashing. That’s not to imply there isn’t plenty of that already. And it does get pretty farcical. A commenter on a local apologetics blog recently claimed Dawkins “must be hopping mad and upset because we are hearing so little of him of late. He has been exposed as the emperor without clothes.” And this on a post which was devoted to repeating Micheal Ruse’s recent attack on Dawkins! These apologists will use anything, won’t they. And an atheist like Ruse becomes a valued ally when he is spouting his professional jealousy of Dawkins in this illogical manner (see Why I think the New Atheists are a Bloody Disaster).

This new round of attacks will be a response to Dawkins new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution- out next month. In fact the attacks have already started pre-publication (see Is Richard Dawkins a stage magician?). Nothing new – such hostile reviewers usually never bother reading the book anyway. So look forward to a deluge of such “reviews.”

I am sure this new book will sell well. And it looks like it will be very informative about evolutionary science and helpful in raising awareness of its attackers and their arguments.

If you want a preview – have a read of the extract from The Greatest Show on Earth at Times On-line. Its the first part ofg a serialisation of the book (see The truth dogs reveal about evolution for the second part)

There are also three audio files of Dawkins and His Wife Lalla Ward reading from the introduction (Part 1; Part 2; and Part 3).

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