Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
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| Founded | 2006 |
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| Founder | Richard Dawkins |
| Type | Scientific education, advocacy, and secularism organization |
| 1119952 (UK) 98-0499347 (US EIN) |
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Region
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United Kingdom United States |
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Key people
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Board of Directors Richard Dawkins (Founder and Chair) J. Anderson Thomson (Treasurer and Secretary) David Cowan (Trustee) Robyn Blumner (President and CEO) Advisory Board Bill Nye (Advisor) Julia Sweeney (Advisor) Woody Kaplan (Advisor) Baris Karadogan (Advisor) Norman Lear (Advisor) Carolyn Porco (Advisor) Andrés Roemer (Advisor) Todd Stiefel (Advisor) Greg Stikeleather (Advisor) |
| Mission | "To support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering." |
| Website | richarddawkins |
The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS or RDF) is a division of Center for Inquiry (CFI) founded by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 2006 to promote scientific literacy and secularism.
Originally a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., the organization merged with CFI in 2016.
After Richard Dawkins’ success with the book The God Delusion, he created the foundation with its headquarters in the United States to work toward a world in which religion no longer interferes with the advance of science and in which people use their critical thinking skills to evaluate theist claims about the nature of reality.
Dawkins complained of the difficulty he faced in gaining tax-free status, which he attributes to the secular nature of the organization. In contrast to the presumption by officials that religious organizations benefit humanity without evidence (for instance Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption), he points to a letter he received from the British Charity Commission requesting evidence for the claim that the advancement of science is connected to the public good.
Theist author Marion Ledwig suggests that the foundation may have been set up as an atheist counterpart to the John Templeton Foundation, an organization which Dawkins has publicly criticized, especially in The God Delusion, for corrupting science. In a TED talk prior to writing The God Delusion, Dawkins had called for the need for an "anti-Templeton" to step up, saying that if his books sold better, he would take the initiative himself.
Dawkins describes his foundation’s purpose this way:
“Critical thinking is the real saviour of humankind. My foundation promotes respect for people who hold critical thinking as a cherished personal value and use it in day-to-day life. The logical counter to religious extremism is people who rely on evidence to make decisions. Yet the voice of secular people is maligned in this country. Forty-five percent of Americans think you have to believe in God to be moral. Secular voices are considered immoral. They are not listened to on that basis. We must counter this baseless hostility to allow the contributions of secular people in vital national debates to count. Making secular views and people welcome in politics and policy-making will advance human safety, security, health, achievement, prosperity and most of all, science."
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