According to The Independent, Oxford biology professor Richard Dawkins will be touring the Bible Belt next year to promote his book The God Delusion:
Richard Dawkins, the scourge of pseudo-science, Christianity and homeopathy, is to step up his campaign for rational thinking with a series of high-profile lectures deep in the heart of the American Bible Belt.
The Oxford University professor travels to the US next year as part of his battle to promote evolutionary theory in the face of a backlash against the concept in the world's most-advanced industrial nation.
Dawkins to lecture in US Bible Belt
By my count, that's at least two religions he's up against, and maybe three. It mostly depends whether you consider pseudo-science a religion or just a sign that someone's taken religion too far.
He has said that it is in the US, where 50 per cent of the population believes the universe is less than 10,000 years old, that the Enlightenment is most threatened.
Dawkins to lecture in US Bible Belt
I guess the spectacle of two Presidential candidates debating whether Christ and Satan are brothers on national TV might have clued him into that, if he wasn't aware already. I've mentioned before how scary Republican debates have been for rationalists lately. Dawkins isn't getting here a moment too soon.
However, he said he did not expect audiences to be too tough on his atheist beliefs and that many thanked him for speaking out. "The Bible Belt is a lot less monolithic than it portrays itself. I have a feeling that there is rather a large groundswell of people who agree with me," he said.
Dawkins to lecture in US Bible Belt
There is, although I think that just makes the bigots all the more vocal. This isn't Dawkins' first tour of the Bible Belt. He toured the U.S. in 2006 and 2007 to promote the book, as well. The image above is from a lecture at the University of Kansas.
I wish him luck. I'd hate to think the Enlightenment was coming to an end so soon.
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