welcome back everyone! thanks as always for stopping in to see what i've gathered together for your Sunday (and into the new week) reading pleasure.

first of all, if you haven't already, you simply must get entered into the contest we're currently running to win one of 3 signed copies of Michael Shermer's new book, The Believing Brain. contest rules- including, of course, how to enter, are right here. it's simply unfathomable to me why you wouldn't enter the contest for a shot at winning a copy of this sure-to-be-talked-about-for-some-time book! you only have a few hours to enter. the contest ends at 12PM Eastern US time.

also, the contest is the lead in to Dr. Shermer joining us on the Think Atheist Radio Show tonight!

remember, if you've already enter the contest you'll want to join us for the show to find out if you've won!

finally, always remember that you can listen to any of our previously aired shows from the archive. do follow the show on the main page, on iTunes, or by following me on Twitter for the latest updates on contests, scheduling, and guests! (and, hey, if you enjoy the show please consider leaving a review on iTunes and telling others about the show on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, or where ever else you may hang out on the internet! take a look at the list of guests we've had join us. listen to the show. tell me that you don't think that others shouldn't be listening to us too!)

the British government's equality watchdog says Christians are more militant than Muslims generally.

with solar activity slowing down, are we headed for a new ice age? um. no.

now that we can see it up close, Mercury is looking a lot less boring than scientists thought.

on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle... or why we can't "know" anything exactly.

advances in brain science are calling into question the volition behind many criminal acts. a leading neuroscientist describes how the foundations of our criminal justice system are beginning to crumble...

Stephen Jay Gould is being accused of having fudged some numbers in the context of accusing someone else of having themselves fudged some numbers.

but did he really?

a new artificial heart has no heartbeat and produces no pulse but will save lives.

milestones for the Tevatron and the LHC.

this video (don't worry; there's a transcript if that's your thing) is a fantastic exposition of Hume's argument against miracles from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

vandals spray painted Flying Spaghetti Monster slogans on a church. if you value free expression you stand against this. even raise money to help the churches fix the damage.

Ben Goldacre admits that a criticism that he gets of his writing is that he often focuses on the problems in science reporting to the public in the media, prompting the question, is the problem widespread (and therefore really a problem) or is it just a selection effect? a new study looked at health claims made in UK newspapers over the course of a week to find out how accurate the the claims being made really were.

(PZ Myers made a good point about the journal the study was published in!)

image processing in the cephalopod retina- they don't have a blind spot like we do. as Adam Lee of Daylight Atheism asked, does that mean that the Intelligent Designer likes them more than us??

on the difference between using versus mentioning arguments.

Ophelia Benson wrote a bit about Stephen Law's new book Believing Bullshit, a great addition to any serious skeptic's bookshelf. both Benson and Law are soon to join us on the podcast!

the 10 scariest places to be an atheist.

"spirituality" is a word we don't need.

how do we know things? the Camping followers that believed the rapture nonsense have as little justification for their belief as do the Christians that insisted that Camping and his followers were wrong to offer a definitive date.

Ex-apologist points to a new John Rist paper on morality and religion. great stuff.

new research provides still more reason to do what you can to stand up for yourself as an atheist.

if you keep going around the universe will you end up where you started?

Yukon fossils represent a pivotal moment in evolution.

what happens when our brain loses consciousness? video shows the brain checking out.