An excellent essay on how an atheist has dealt with the tragedy of the Virginia Tech shooting in his community.

Quoted: We atheists do not believe in gods, or angels, or demons, or souls that endure, or a meeting place after all is said and done ...

Looks like a great book (excerpted in Slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/entry/2165035/)

Quoted: Amazon.com: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything: Books: Christopher Hitchens by Christopher Hitchens

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Richard Dawkins interviewed by Paula Zahn on CNN.

The controversial Templeton Prize. I am praying for Richard Dawkins to be a recipient (it would be a miracle).

Quoted: new concepts of divinity, new organizations, new and effective ways of communicating God's wisdom and infinite love, creation of new schools of thought, creation of new structures of understanding the relationship of the Creator to his ongoing creation of the universe, to the physical sciences, and the life sciences, and the human sciences, the releasing of new and vital impulses into old religious structures and forms.

I was surprised at how upset Dyson is at what Richard Dawkins is doing in his attack on religion in "The God Delusion" (I asked him specificially about this at his talk in Seattle last night).

During the talk he said he was "all for it" when asked about harmonizing religion and science. And he was upset at Dawkins.

I asked him why, and he said that he felt that Dawkins is discouraging young people from entering a career in science by his confrontational stance toward their (previously held) religious beliefs.

I think that's a pretty weak reason. I found Dyson's acceptance speech for the Templeton prize in 2000 (worth about $1M) - I'd like to read what he ways here.

Quoted: Religion will always remain a powerful force in the history of our species.
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Sharing the food is to me more important than arguing about beliefs. Jesus, according to the gospels, thought so too.
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I am content to be one of the multitude of Christians who do not care much about the doctrine of the Trinity or the historical truth of the gospels.
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I am thinking that atoms and humans and God may have minds that differ in degree but not in kind.
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I don't say that this personal theology is supported or proved by scientific evidence. I only say that it is consistent with scientific evidence.
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Bacon saw clearly what science could do and what science could not do. He is saying to the philosophers and theologians of his time: look for God in the facts of nature, not in the theories of Plato and Aristotle.
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Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.
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the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions.

Quoted: Freeman Dyson, by accepting the Templeton Prize, sent a powerful signal to the world which, whether he likes it or not, will be taken as an endorsement of religion by one of the world's most distinguished physicists. The great Freeman Dyson is a Christian!

Excellent essay by a journalist who has accepted some money from the Templeton Foundation, whose mission is to reconcile science and religion.

Quoted: One Templeton official made what I felt were inappropriate remarks about the foundation's expectations of us fellows. She told us that the meeting cost more than $1-million, and in return the foundation wanted us to publish articles touching on science and religion. But when I told her one evening at dinner that — given all the problems caused by religion throughout human history — I didn't want science and religion to be reconciled, and that I hoped humanity would eventually outgrow religion, she replied that she didn't think someone with those opinions should have accepted a fellowship. So much for an open exchange of views.

List of atheist organizations from Richard Dawkins.

Richard Dawkins' Foundation promotes scientific thinking over mysticism and religion.