Is there anything more hateful than religion? If there is, I can’t think of it.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis

Is there anything more hateful than religion? If there is, I can’t think of it.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
Shame it’s for the Sun, and also that it’s supporting the wrong side in a losing battle (see buzzmachine.com for why), but I like this advert.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
It seems that the videos I included in an earlier post on this subject were an edited version of the debate, not the whole thing. Here's an unedited (or at least, less-edited) version.
It seems that the videos of this debate that I included in an earlier post had been cut quite a bit. Here’s the thing in full, or at least with less missing.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
I’ve just finished this book, and on the whole enjoyed it. It does seem slightly lacking in structure, with a rather unfocussed stream parts of the overwhelming evidence in favour of the ‘theory’ of evolution. Those pieces of evidence are fascinating though.
One important point Dawkins makes at the start of the book is about the confusion over what the word ‘theory’ means, quoting from the Oxford English Dictionary:
Theory, Sense 1: A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.
Theory, Sense 2: A hypothesis proposed as an explanation; hence, a mere hypothesis, speculation, conjecture; an idea or set of ideas about something; an individual view or notion.
Those who reject evolution often do so in the belief that evolution is a theory in the second sense, when it is in fact a theory in the first sense, just like the ‘theory of electromagnetism’ or the ‘theory of relativity.’
If you want to read the book, you can buy it here.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
Killing Babies, Saving the World
By Radiolab
November 17, 2009
To get this podcast started, Robert ambushes Jad with a question … a question we’ve all been dying to ask him since June 10th, 2009, when Amil Abumrad came into the world. But fear not, we didn’t do a whole podcast just to give the new dad a hard time. Robert talks to Josh Greene, the Harvard professor we had on our Morality show. They revisit some ideas from that show in the context of the big, complicated problems of today (think global warming and nuclear war). Josh argues that to deal with those problems, we’re going to have to learn how to make better use of that tiny part of our brain that handles abstract thinking. Not a simple proposition, but, despite the odds, Josh has hope.
Photo by: Flickr/ connieth
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
2012’s going to be an interesting year.
Posted via web from Sam Lewis
I strongly recommend you listen to the latest three episodes of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme, on the subject of white collar crime.
While you might be worried about being stabbed or robbed in the street, the crimes you should really care about are the ones committed by people wearing suits, not hoodies. These criminals affect the lives of everyone and yet they are rarely punished, let alone censured. If you're not angry, you're not thinking hard enough. Programme 1 | Programme 2 | Programme 3Read a book you liked and want to read other things like it? Want lots of recommendations but refuse to visit more than one site to get them? A fan of Victorian-style facial hair?
The Book Seer might be for you.