The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual prize awarded by the

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

(CFI). It was established in 2003 and was initially awarded by the Atheist Alliance of America coordinating with

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. In 2019, the award was formally moved to CFI. CFI is a US nonprofit organization that variously claims on its website to promote reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values, or science, reason, and secular values. The award was initially presented by the Atheist Alliance of America to honor an "outstanding

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

", who taught or advocated scientific knowledge and acceptance of nontheism, and raised public awareness. The award is currently presented by the Center for Inquiry to an individual associated with science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, and who "publicly proclaims the values of

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

and

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'' ...

, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead." They state that the recipient must be approved by Dawkins himself. The Richard Dawkins Award is named in honor of the eponymous 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, and has written books including '' The God Delusion'' and '' Outgrowing God: A Beginner's Guide''. The first Richard Dawkins Award was received by James Randi, a magician who investigated and debunked various paranormal claims. In 2005,

Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured i ...

and Teller, jointly as Penn & Teller, received the award. In 2009,

Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...

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". In 2020, Javed Akhtar became the first Indian to receive the award. In 2021, Tim Minchin received the award. In 2022,

Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a ...

received the award saying it was an honor that he would hold above all others.

List of recipients

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Religion Awards for contributions to culture Atheism Richard Dawkins Religion-related awards International awards Science and technology awards Humanities awards Atheism activism Criticism of religion Disengagement from religion Nontheism Secularism Separation of church and state

List of recipients

See also

Notes

References

External links