Dawkins at Kepler's Bookstore

(Updated below)

For some time now, I have been trying to articulate a response to the teeming masses who say that Richard Dawkins "goes too far." It comes as no surprise that he doesn't need my help, as a new video that I just watched makes clear.

The video is about a half hour long. There's a somewhat funny intro by someone else that lasts about eight minutes. When Dawkins takes the mic, he spends most of his time reading from a new preface that he composed for the paperback version of The God Delusion (currently only available in the UK).

Dawkins's preface, or at least the part that he read, is a response to the professional critics of his book. It's what you'd expect from Dawkins: simultaneously witty and devastating. In short, a real treat.

Go watch it.

In case you don't notice the link on the video page, you can also watch the Q&A that followed Dawkins's reading. (I just noticed it myself.)

Thanks to the phabulous Pharyngula for noting the link.

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Update

2007-07-22 17:56 EDT

BTW, during the Q&A, Dawkins refers several times to Julia Sweeney's one woman play, "Letting Go of God." You can see a video excert that she performed at the TED conference, listen to a different audio excerpt on This American Life, and check out more audio excerpts, some of which overlap the ones just mentioned, right on her site.

Dawkins also reads a note passed to him, reporting that Sweeney would be appearing that evening on CSPAN. It turns out that this latter video aired 14 July 2007; a link on this page points to the video. (This link may break as time goes by, at which point you'll have to invoke your search skills.) Sweeney's talk, "Why I Am An Atheist," starts at about 56:30 in. It's new material, and hilarious.