Welcome, everyone to the 20 26 Richard Dawkins Award presentation.

My name is Robin Blumner. I'm president and CEO, the Center for Inquiry,

and executive director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science,

which is a subpart of the Center for Inquiry. Both CFI and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, which is a subpart of the Center for Inquiry.

Both CFI and the Richard Dawkins Foundation share a mission to promote reason, science, and secularism.

And to that end, as you will hear from Richard Dawkins himself, the Richard Dawkins Award honors the men and women who have been at the

forefront of promoting critical thinking, rationalism, and scientific truth. Past recipients

include Mealdgrass Tyson, Bill Nye, Andrian, and Ricky Jervais. And I can think of no one more deserving to be part of this illustrious group than today's

awardee, Sam Harris.

So during the last part of this hour-long event, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris will be

answering your questions.

So please use the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen to submit

those questions. And now I give you Richard Dawkins with a previously recorded tribute.

This award was established, not by me, to honor those who have made an outstanding contribution

to the public understanding of science,

reason, and secular values. Science gives us the way to understand reality, reason gives

us the way to argue about it without throwing things, and secularism shows people of very different

beliefs how to live together in relative peace. These are what makes civilization civilized.

They are the antidote to superstition, tribalism, and wishful thinking. Sam Harris has been one of the

clearest, most intelligent and most courageous voices in this endeavor. I first encountered Sam

through his writing. I was halfway through writing

the God Delusion myself when the End of Faith was published. When I read those extraordinary

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