Richard Dawkins Award
Richard Dawkins Award | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Publicly proclaiming "the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead."[1] |
Presented by | Center for Inquiry |
First awarded | 2003 |
Currently held by | 21 individuals |
Website | centerforinquiry |
The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual prize awarded by the
The Richard Dawkins Award is named in honor of the British evolutionary biologist. In a 2013 poll conducted by Prospect magazine, Dawkins was ranked first in the list of "world thinkers" rankings. He is famous for his atheistic beliefs,[5] and has written books including The God Delusion and Outgrowing God: A Beginner's Guide.[6][7] The first Richard Dawkins Award was received by James Randi, a magician who investigated and debunked various paranormal claims.[8][9] In 2005, Penn Jillette and Teller, jointly as Penn & Teller, received the award.[10][11] In 2009, Bill Maher received the award; due to his views on vaccines and his criticism of evidence-based medicine, oncologist David Gorski referred to him receiving the award as "inappropriate".[12] In 2020, Javed Akhtar became the first Indian to receive the award.[13] In 2021, Tim Minchin received the award.[14] In 2022, Neil deGrasse Tyson received the award saying it was an honor that he would hold above all others.[15]
List of recipients
Year | Portrait | Name | Notes[a] | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | James Randi | Randi was a magician who investigated and debunked mind-reading, ghost whispering, fortune-telling, and other paranormal claims. Professionally known as "Amazing Randi", he was a recipient of the MacArthur award.[9] | [8] | |
2004 | Ann Druyan | Druyan is a film producer, director, lecturer, and a writer. She is an agnostic, and asserts that religious faith is "antithetical to the values of science".[16][17][18] | [1][10] | |
2005 | Penn & Teller | Penn Jillette and Teller, jointly known as Penn & Teller, are an Emmy Award winning magician duo. Both identify as atheists.[11][19][20] | [1][10] | |
2006 | Julia Sweeney | Sweeney is an actor and writer, notable for her work in Saturday Night Live. She has written My Beautiful Loss of Faith Story explaining her atheism.[21][22] | [1][10] | |
2007 | Daniel Dennett | Dennett served as a professor and the director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He has authored various books including Consciousness Explained, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Kinds of Minds.[23] He argues that we "must not preserve the myth of God – it was a useful crutch, but we've outgrown it."[24] | [25] | |
2008 | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Ali is a | [4] | |
2009 | Bill Maher | Maher is a political satirist and the host of Real Time with Bill Maher. He starred in the 2008 film Religulous, which the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science referred as "the most prominent film against religion in the United States" of 2008.[31][32] | [12] | |
2010 | Susan Jacoby | Jacoby is an author and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She is an atheist, and has authored various books, including The Age of American Unreason and Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion.[33][34] | [4] | |
2011 | Christopher Hitchens | Hitchens was a journalist who authored the book God Is Not Great, which writer Susan Sontag called "the small world of those who till the field of ideas".[35] | [36][37] | |
2012 | Eugenie Scott | Scott is an anthropologist who served as the director of National Center for Science Education. She is an atheist.[38] | [39][40] | |
2013 | Steven Pinker | Pinker is a linguist, psychologist, and a professor at Harvard University; he has authored How The Mind Works. He is an atheist.[41][42] | [43] | |
2014 | Rebecca Goldstein | Goldstein is an author with a Ph.D. in philosophy. She is a recipient of 2014 National Humanities Medal. She authored the fictional book 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, which The Guardian writer Jonathan Beckman referred as "[mocking] the delusions of both the godly and the godless".[44][45][46] | [47] | |
2015 | Jerry Coyne | Coyne is a professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. He is a supporter of evolution, and asserts that "belief in God is [...] detrimental, even dangerous, and fundamentally incompatible with science."[48][49] | [50] | |
2016 | Lawrence Krauss | Krauss is an American-Canadian physicist. He has been referred by Melissa Pugh, then president of Atheist Alliance of America, as a "passionate advocate of atheism and reason known throughout the world".[51] | [51] | |
2017 | David Silverman | Silverman is an American who has served as the president of the American Atheists organization. The Washington Post referred to him as one of America's "most prominent atheists".[52][53] | [54] | |
2018 | Stephen Fry | Fry is a British comedian, actor, and an activist who received the award because of "his role in the world of skepticism, atheism, rationalism."[55] | [55] | |
2019 | Ricky Gervais | Gervais is a British comedian, screenwriter, and actor, known for his critical thinking, rationalism, and secularism.[56] | [56] | |
2020 | Javed Akhtar | Akhtar is a poet and lyricist, who is the first Indian to receive the award. He received the award for "critical thinking, holding religious dogma up to scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values."[13] | [57] | |
2021 | Tim Minchin | Minchin is a musician and comedian, who received the award for "inspiring a global audience to find joy in reason, science, and skepticism."[58] | [14] | |
2022 | Neil deGrasse Tyson | Tyson is an American Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City.
|
[15] | |
2023 | Bill Nye | Bill Nye is an American mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter. He is best known as the host of the science education television show Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993–1999) and as a science educator in pop culture. | [59] |
See also
Notes
- Atheist Alliance of America or by the Center for Inquiry. This column broadly outlines the work and views of the recipient.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Richard Dawkins Award". 11 June 2020.
- ^ "Richard Dawkins Award Moving to the Center for Inquiry". Center for Inquiry. 16 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ "About | Center for Inquiry". 17 May 2018.
- ^ Atheist Alliance of America. Archivedfrom the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ Moneycontrol.com. Network18 Group. 8 June 2020. Archivedfrom the original on 30 October 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
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- ^ from the original on 7 June 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ a b Fidalgo, Paul (23 May 2022). "Neil deGrasse Tyson to Receive Richard Dawkins Award in Las Vegas, October 21". The Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ "Carl Sagan's Scientific 'Search for God'". NPR. 22 December 2006. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-684-84856-3 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (18 June 2014). "'Why is God telling me to stop asking questions?': Meet the woman behind Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'Cosmos'". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ Jillette, Penn (3 June 2016). "Penn Jillette: Time for atheists to stand up and be counted". CNN. Archived from the original on 6 March 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Teller". Freedom From Religion Foundation. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Saturday Night Live's Julia Sweeney". NPR. Archived from the original on 24 August 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Daniel C. Dennett, Director". Tufts University. Archived from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Good Reasons for 'Believing' in God – Dan Dennett, AAI 2007". Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. 11 November 2009. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Why I am now a Christian". 11 November 2023.
- ^ Douthat, Ross (15 November 2023). "Opinion | Where Does Religion Come From?". The New York Times.
- ^ "The Infidel Turned Christian". 29 November 2023.
- ^ "Muslim-turned-atheist rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali says she is now a Christian". 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Political Satirist Bill Maher's 'New Rules'". NPR. 9 August 2005. Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "A Note About the 'Richard Dawkins Award' Being Presented to Bill Maher This Weekend". Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
- ^ "Susan Jacoby". PBS. 15 February 2008. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "'Strange Gods' Chronicles The History Of Secularism And Conversion". NPR. 16 February 2016. Archived from the original on 13 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 15 May 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- from the original on 16 November 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "2012 Richard Dawkins Award for Eugenie Scott". Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. 2 September 2012. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- Atheist Alliance of America. 6 April 2013. Archived from the originalon 13 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Named 2014 National Humanities Medal Recipient". New York University. 13 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 13 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- ^ "Rebecca Goldstein Receives the Richard Dawkins Award at the Atheist Alliance of America Convention". Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. 11 August 2014. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ "Jerry Coyne". UChicago News. University of Chicago. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- Atheist Alliance of America. Archivedfrom the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ Atheist Alliance of America. Archivedfrom the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ "Update Regarding David Silverman". American Atheists. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "America's Leading Atheist, Accused of Sexual Misconduct, Speaks Out". 6 September 2018. Archived from the original on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- Atheist Alliance of America. 11 June 2017. Archivedfrom the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ "Musician and Comedian Tim Minchin to Receive Richard Dawkins Award in Oxford, Oct. 10". Center for Inquiry. 20 September 2021. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Bill Nye to Receive CFI's Richard Dawkins Award in Las Vegas on Friday, October 27". Center for Inquiry. 28 August 2023.
External links
- Media related to Richard Dawkins Award at Wikimedia Commons