EPIC! Rebecca Watson openly reveals all the behind-the-scenes scandals behind Epstein, Krauss, Shermer, Dawkins, Brockman, and the whole of the skeptic-atheist sphere, and she posts all the documentation. It’s good to see all the sexism and abuse that was going on since 2011 laid bare.
I was aware of most of this stuff at the time, and it was what led to me staggering, shell-shocked and disillusioned, from the whole atheist movement, and leaves me feeling still scarred now in 2026. I was there when it was quietly revealed that Dawkins had a string of mistresses that he then set up in leadership positions at various atheist and skeptic organizations, tainting the entire community. And now, reputations are torched, the whole damn thing has been set on fire.
Lawrence Krauss was an amazingly stupid, bumbling idiot who was the center of the exposure, but Jesus, Richard Dawkins wrecked the entirety of the New Atheism that he initially inspired. Christ, what a shitshow.
I am grateful to Dawkins for his role in getting me over my knee jerk reaction to anything doing with religion and realizing that it’s just another tool that is used by awful people. Give me a progressive believer any day over the likes of him and so many of the people ElevatorGate exposed.
I’m a relative newbie to the atheist scene. I arrived by way of the late Robert Todd Carroll’s Atheist Dictonary and, soon after that, Scienceblogs. This was right around the time of Elevatorgate.
I remember a young woman on Scienceblogs (was it ERV?) who went off the deep end around that time viciously insulting anybody who had even the slightest criticism of Dawkins. Also, her posts became, just, crude. I knew I didn’t want to be associated anybody like that.
Fortunately, Freethoughtblogs came along and I found a home.
I remember a friend asking me why I didn’t put any effort into going to TAM or any of the other skeptic get-togethers, saying, “These are your peeps!”
Any time I’ve gotten together with people because they’ve got similar interests, I find that I don’t like a lot of them very much. And/or vice versa.
She is quite a good communicator.
John Morales #4
Indeed.
“Dawkins had a string of mistresses that he then set up in leadership positions”. I somehow missed knowing this, which explains a lot. Including his divorce.
I visited Dawkins at his house in Oxford, and got to hang out wit Lala for a while. She was very nice. I feel sorry for the pain she has to have gone through.
The memories. Such awful times. I hope we do better.
I did not know that about Richard Dawkins. Having a string of mistresses with leadership positions in your foundation smells of nepotism at best, quid pro quo at worst. There are good reasons to frown on it even assuming his wife was okay with it.
What gets me when I encounter a religious troll is that they’ll inevitably bring up Dawkins like he’s the pope of atheism. My knee jerk response to mentions of Dawkins is “Dawkins does not speak for me.”
I’m currently reading a book that keeps citing “Dawkins, [year]” — Marian Stamp Dawkins (R’s first wife), but it sort of startles me ;-).
For a while there (late 00’s or so) I thought I’d finally found My Crowd. Then it went to shit, and I’m back to feeling alienated from yet another movement, and the social circle that goes with it. Story of my life.
Robin Ince: “a disconcerting time to look back on—hopefully we’ve learned a little more, and things like QEDcon really evolved beautifully into something that was progressive and inclusive.”
Wikipedia – QED: “was an annual skeptical conference held in Manchester, England from 2011 until 2025. […] a collaboration between the Merseyside Skeptics Society and the Greater Manchester Skeptics Society.”
https://qedcon.org/news/2025/tickets-to-final-qed-on-sale-may-6Dang it.
There’s still the YouTube channel of recorded events.
Mike Hall’s The Placebo Myth presentation got an update yesterday.
I visited Dawkins at his house in Oxford, and got to hang out wit Lala for a while. She was very nice.
So is an earlier Dawkins wife, Marian Stamp Dawkins, who I met when she was head of the Animal Behaviour Research Group in the Oxford Uni. Dept of Zoology and I was working there as a postdoc.
Haven’t commented on here for a long time, though I do occasionally lurk. I’m a fan of PZ from way back. Met him on one of his lecture tours to Dublin a good few years ago.
Well, the revelations in that video from Rebecca Watson are astounding. I knew that things had gotten pretty bad with Dawkins, Krauss, Shermer, et. al. But I never realised it was that bad. Now I can see why PZ had to get out. SMH.