Clipmarks | Antara's 'richard dawkins' clips

Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:54:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Opinion
Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be 'raptured' up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds. More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the 'Armageddon' that is to presage the Second Coming. Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull's-eye as usual:

placed by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ . . .Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and ¬intellectual emergency. Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don't know, but would anyone be surprised?

Tags: science, religion, dogma, god

25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:26:37 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

The Origin of Species (1859)

Darwin's masterwork is, undeniably, The Origin of Species, in which he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection. Prior to its publication, the prevailing view was that each species had existed in its current form since the moment of divine creation and that humans were a privileged form of life, above and apart from nature. Darwin's theory knocked us from that pedestal. Wary of a religious backlash, he kept his ideas secret for almost two decades while bolstering them with additional observations and experiments. The result is an avalanche of detail—there seems to be no species he did not contemplate—thankfully delivered in accessible, conversational prose. A century and a half later, Darwin's paean to evolution still begs to be heard: "There is grandeur in this view of life," he wrote, that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
Clip Source: discover.com

1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie]

3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687)

4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)

5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)

6. Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.)

7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)

8. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (1916)

Clip Source: discover.com
9. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
10. One Two Three . . . Infinity by George Gamow (1947)

11. The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)
12. What Is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger (1944)
13. The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan (1973)

14. The Insect Societies by Edward O. Wilson (1971)
15. The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
16. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
17. The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981)

18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985)
Clip Source: discover.com
19. The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1814)
20. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by* Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands (1963)

21. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey et al. (1948)
22. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (1983)

23. Under a Lucky Star by Roy Chapman Andrews (1943)
24. Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1665)

25. Gaia by James Lovelock (1979)
Honorable Mentions

Tags: science, book, books, reading, best of, list, history, literature, discover, darwin, newton, galileo

100 things we didn't know last year

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:28:11 GMT

clipped by: Bluephoenix4

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Brazil nuts are seeds encased in an outer shell that weighs more than 1kg.

Antony and Cleopatra were ugly.

Chimpanzees make their own spears for hunting.

Only about half of China's population can speak the national language, Mandarin.

There is mobile phone reception from the summit of Mount Everest.

Anti-Americanism began in Paris in the 18th Century.

Denmark is the happiest country in Europe; Italy the unhappiest

The secret to happiness is accepting misery

Peanuts can be made into diamonds

Renowned atheist Professor Richard Dawkins likes singing Christmas carols

The Australian town of Eucla has its own time zone

Gun ownership per person in Finland is the third highest in the world

IP addresses will run out in 2010

CO2 emissions from shipping are twice the level of aviation

Kryptonite exists

Dumbledore is gay

Woodwork lessons are known as "resistant materials" in schools

Zsa Zsa Gabor is related to Paris Hilton

In Iceland, 96% of women go to university

Newcastle is the noisiest place in England

Tags: trivia, facts, bbc, 2007

We Are Not Really Here: it is all an illusion

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 09:04:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: wittingshire.blogspot.com

"Scientific reductionists reduce everything to parts," he said. "They say that everything that exists is nothing but atoms--so life is a collection of atoms we happen to find interesting, but it has no ontological status. Life is nothing but a phenomenological category."

"So we aren't really alive, we just look like we are?"

"More or less--according to the reductionists. That's what Richard Dawkins thinks, for instance."

So you're saying Dawkins thinks the same thing about life itself? That it isn't real? That it's just bits and parts bumping around?"

"Right. And the linguistic turn in philosophy says that the categories we perceive as real are more or less just linguistic categories--that we differentiate between things for convenience's sake, but that really everything bleeds together."

"Life and death?"

"Yeah. And even tangible things like sheep and cows--ultimately they're just aggregates of atoms and energy. You remember the sheep, don't you?"

Tags: linguistic predicament

Atheism - BBC Reference Site

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:24:22 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Atheists are people who do not believe in a god or gods (or other immaterial beings), or who believe that these concepts are not meaningful.

Some atheists put it more firmly and believe that god or gods do not exist.

Features

Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is one of the most famous scientists in Britain, has authored many popular books, and is a vocal pro-humanist.
Reasons
This article is an indepth look at some of the reasons why people choose atheism, and some of the most influential atheist thinkers and their arguments.

Full list of articles in Atheism

Tags: atheism, reference, bbc

What's wrong with science as religion

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:44:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Piercing a Communion wafer with a nail and throwing it in the garbage, as one crusading biologist recently did, does science no favors"

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Jul. 31, 2008 | PZ Myers is a true believer, a science crusader with the singled-minded enthusiasm of a televangelist. A biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris and a columnist for Seed magazine, Myers has earned notoriety with his blog, Pharyngula, in which he reports on new developments in biology and indiscriminately excoriates those he views as hostile to science, a pantheon of straw men and women that includes theologians, journalists and churchgoers. He is Richard Dawkins without the fame or felicitous prose style.

Religion is dangerous, he wrote; it breeds hatred and idiocy. It is our job to advance humanity's knowledge "by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality." There is no wisdom in our dogmas, Myers warned, just "self-satisfied ignorance." We find truth only in science, looking at the world "with fresh eyes and a questioning mind."

Tags: science, vs, religion

A Google Treasure Trove

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:00:09 GMT

clipped by: jeremy0213

Clip Source: alflamont.blogspot.com

I have recently discovered a treasure trove of Documentaries on Google. No, not Documentary clips, but full length quality Docus. If I may bring your attention to two of my absolute favorites.

The first is The Elegant Universe,

A book i loved that makes astonishingly enough, an even better pair of documentaries, narrated by Brian Greene Himself.

Part 1. Einstein's Universe

Part 2. String's The Thing

Now, for the more intense of the two.

The shocking title does no justice to the incredible arguments that Richard Dawkins makes against religion and its assault on reason and science. Whether or not you agree with the content, this documentary must give you pause. Narrated by Dawkins, who is an incredible thinker and is very passionate about his arguments. The gem of these documentaries is an interview with Ted Haggard, who gets all uppity when he is challenged by Dawkins as someone who is "telling people what to think". Not to be missed.

Part 1. The God Delusion

Part2. The Virus of Faith

Labels: Boing Boing, Colorado Springs, Documentaries, Google, Religion, Richard Dawkins

Tags: the elegant universe, part 2. string's the thing, part 1. the god delusion, part2. the virus of faith

New discovery proves 'selfish gene' exists

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:45:47 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

A new discovery by a scientist from The University of Western Ontario provides conclusive evidence which supports decades-old evolutionary doctrines long accepted as fact.

Since renowned British biologist Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion") introduced the concept of the 'selfish gene' in 1976, scientists the world over have hailed the theory as a natural extension to the work of Charles Darwin.

In studying genomes, the word 'selfish' does not refer to the human-describing adjective of self-centered behavior but rather to the blind tendency of genes wanting to continue their existence into the next generation. Ironically, this 'selfish' tendency can appear anything but selfish when the gene does move ahead for selfless and even self-sacrificing reasons.

"This basically provides a validation for a huge body of socio-biology," says Thompson, who adds the completion of Honey Bee Genome Project in 2006 was crucial to this discovery.

Tags: selfish gene, genetics, bees, genomes

Online Papers in Philosophy

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:48:02 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: This is fantastic.

What is the point of this site?
Many philosophers provide drafts of new papers on their websites; Online Papers in Philosophy keeps track of all the sites I’m aware of, and alerts readers to newly posted papers. Here are the sites I am currently tracking. (Actually, that list might not be completely up-to-date; as new pages are submitted, I add them to the list that my software uses; I periodically update the online list to match.) Checking in regularly with OPP will keep you aware of at least most of the new papers being posted on the web.

Check out which sites are being tracked here: http://philosophy.jollyutter.net/opp/?page_id=6

I just clipped a few papers, click source ... really ...

Clip Source: philosophy.jollyutter.net

Online Papers in Philosophy

You think, we link!

Clip Source: philosophy.jollyutter.net

Daniel Dennett, The Evolution of ‘Why?’ - essay on Robert Brandom, Making it Explicit

Joachim Schummer, Identifying Ethical Issues of Nanotechnologies

in: Henk ten Have (ed.), Nanotechnology: Science, Ethics and Policy Issues, Paris (UNESCO Series in Ethics of Science and Technology), 2006 (forthcoming).

Clip Source: philosophy.jollyutter.net

Martin Cooke, Infinite Probes: A Problem with Probability

Daniel Dennett, Review of Richard Dawkins , The God Delusion

forthcoming in Free Inquiry

John Broome, Paper on the ethics of climate change

commissioned for the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change.

—-, Technological Revolutions: Ethics and Policy in the Dark

Book chapter

Clip Source: philosophy.jollyutter.net

Pete Mandik, An Epistemological Theory of Consciousness?

In Alessio Plebe, ed. Philosophy in the Neuroscience Era, Special issue of the Journal of the Department of Cognitive Science, Univ. of Messina.

—-, Cognitive Cellular Automata

In Ben Hardy and Pierre Poirier (eds.) Theoria et Historia Scientiarum Special Edition, Life and Alife: Interactions Between Natural and Synthetic Biology

Tags: paper, papers, literature, essays, reviews, philosophy, academics, pdf, links, list, blog, resource, track, news, feed, rss

The Dawkins Delusion and others

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:51:48 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A must read article for those who must (and can) read.

Clip Source: www.opendemocracy.net

The tendency of people to make assumptions about things they know nothing about is fed by arrogance as much as (or even more than) mere ignorance. A good example is the scientist and controversialist Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion, which uses his expertise in evolutionary biology to speculate on the evolutionary value of religion in the past and to attest to its complete lack of value today.

The problem with this approach is that Dawkins is ignorant of bodies of knowledge - such as the sociology of religion and critical theology - that have approached religion in very different ways. This ignorance does not disqualify him from writing a book on religion, but what is inexcusable is his apparent ignorance that these bodies of knowledge even exist. His arrogance leads him into making sweeping statements about religion that are over-reliant on his own narrow field of expertise, bolstered with his own prejudices.

Tags: literacy

Humans are endangered while ignorant of truth and reality.

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:34:04 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: There are a number of links,which are to different fields. Some information be fact, some can be philosophical, or speculative, but it will modify any opinion. Any fact doubted should be verified but these days people are learning to do that as a matter of course. If we're going to get out of this hole, we n eed a bigger ladder.

Clip Source: www.spaceandmotion.com

Metaphysics of Evolution: What is Matter & Life?	Evolutionary Biology: Wave Genetics	Charles Darwin: The Theory of Evolution	Evolution of Culture: Sociobiology & Custom	Richard Dawkins: Famous Evolutionary Biologist	Jared Diamond: Famous Biologist Ecologist
Endangered Animals Extinct Species List	Ecology: Interconnection Life, Matter & Universe	Deep Ecology: Arne Naess: Unity Life Nature	Gaia: Complex Ecology of Nature, Life on Earth	End of Nature: Climate Change Global Warming	Utopia Cultural Evolution Truth Reality & Society

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature
On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. (Aristotle)

Modern man no longer regards Nature as being in any sense divine and feels perfectly free to behave towards her as an overwhelming conqueror and tyrant. (Aldous Huxley)

Tags: humanity, extinction, truth, reality, nature, ecology.

About memes and memetics

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:17:30 GMT

clipped by: deusdiabolus
clipper's remarks: Or, why people are more interested in celebrity scandals and silly video clips than things that actually affect their lives. I highly recommend you continue researching the concept of memetics...and consider also how it can apply to vote-based sites such as this one (and Digg, and Reddit, and...)

Clip Source: www.memecentral.com

How do you pronounce "meme"?

"Meem" (rhymes with "dream")

What is a meme?

Memes are the basic building blocks of our minds and culture, in the same way that genes are the basic building blocks of biological life.

Isn't memetics just a fancy name for _________ (fill in the blank with "cultural evolution", "behavioral psychology", "sociobiology", or anything else)? Why is this anything new?

The breakthrough in memetics is in extending Darwinian evolution to culture. There are several exciting conclusions from doing that, one of which is the ability to predict that ideas will spread not because they are "good ideas", but because they contain "good memes" such as danger, food and sex that push our evolutionary buttons and force us to pay attention to them.

Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins is credited with first publication of the concept of meme in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.

Tags: meme, memes, memetics, psychology, culture, noology

Memes evolve into Bemes

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:28:04 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: tombomb.typepad.com

'Bemes' Are Defining the Life of the Blogosphere

Michael Malone's ABC News column on Thursday mentioning "bemes" has certainly produced a lot of interest. Originally, I coined the word beme to describe a meme propagated by blogs and bloggers. Now I can see that the turn of phrase has a much bigger potential to capture the rapidly-moving cultural touchstones of the Bubble Generation.

As you may know, "meme" was first defined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as "a unit of cultural information" spread from one mind to another. In other words, a viral idea that eventually becomes common knowledge.

A meme is old media, a beme is new media.

A meme takes off by accident, a beme by design.

A meme can take years to surface, a beme hours.

Consider yourself a part of this grand experiment. Just how fast can this beme circle the globe, enter Wikipedia as a new term and leap off out of the blogosphere and into the mainstream? How fast can you type?

Tags: memetics, evolution, technology, media, blogosphere, bemes

The Blasphemy challenge

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 16:01:08 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.10zenmonkeys.com

Atheist Filmmaker Issues ‘Blasphemy Challenge’

“The War on Christmas” is an absurd fantasy concocted by the Religious Right. But it doesn’t have to be. If Brian Flemming has his way, we’ll get a real War on Christmas, complete with atheistic shock troops (called “Rational Responders”) confronting believers with the non-logic of their dearest religious beliefs. His “Rational Response Squad” is encouraging young people to take The Blasphemy Challenge — to commit blasphemy and post the results on YouTube.

It’s all part of the continuing promotion for Flemming’s worthy documentary film, The God Who Wasn’t There. The film, in the words of Newsweek, “irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed.” Uber-athiests Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins appear, helping Flemming make his sacreligious point.

Besides interviewing Flemming on this year’s RU Sirius Show Christmas Special, we had him on in April of this year, when he was gunning for Easter. We’ve combined the two conversations to create this interview. Flemming fielded questions from an extended RU Sirius Show family that included Blag Dhalia from The Dwarves, Steve Robles, Jeff Diehl and Diana Brown.

RU SIRIUS: Tell us what the Blasphemy Challenge is and how we might participate.

BRIAN FLEMMING: It’s a challenge to you to commit the Christian unforgivable sin, on video, and upload it to YouTube for all the world to see. And if you do that, you can get a free DVD of The God Who Wasn’t There.

STEVE ROBLES: Did you just say the sin? Are you speaking of a particular sin?

BRIAN: Yeah, there’s one unforgivable sin. Mark 3:29 says, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.” So that is the one sin that, if you commit it, you can never ever be saved. So one benefit of taking the Blasphemy Challenge is that if any Christians come up to you and try to convert you in the future, you can just say, “Oh, no, I’m done. You can’t help me any more.”

Tags: atheism, religion, blasphemy, philosophy, christmas

Uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:43:10 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Great stuff from Dawkins

Clip Source: richarddawkins.net

Science can be uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing. Originally broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in 1996, Break the Science Barrier follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand. We meet the astronomer who first discovered pulsars, the geneticist who invented DNA fingerprinting, a scientist who discovered a protein that causes cancer, and others. Dawkins interviews famous admirers of science such as Douglas Adams and David Attenborough, and asks them why science means so much to them. We also see how dangerous ignorance of science can be in classrooms, courts, and beyond

Watch it free online!
Part 1: YouTube (Pt 1, Pt 2) | Quicktime | Google Video
Part 2: YouTube (Pt 1, Pt 2) | Quicktime | Google Video

Part 3: YouTube (Pt 1, Pt 2) | Quicktime | Google Video

Dawkins encourages viewers to contrast

ancient superstitions with the power and beauty of our scientific achievements and understanding

Clipmarks | Antara's 'richard dawkins' clips

Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Opinion Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

100 things we didn't know last year

We Are Not Really Here: it is all an illusion

Atheism - BBC Reference Site

Features

Full list of articles in Atheism

What's wrong with science as religion

A Google Treasure Trove

New discovery proves 'selfish gene' exists

Online Papers in Philosophy

Online Papers in Philosophy

The Dawkins Delusion and others

Humans are endangered while ignorant of truth and reality.

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos

About memes and memetics

Memes evolve into Bemes

'Bemes' Are Defining the Life of the Blogosphere

The Blasphemy challenge

Atheist Filmmaker Issues ‘Blasphemy Challenge’

Uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing

Opinion
Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature
On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos