Welcome, welcome yet again! I want to say thanks to everyone for your FB LIKE's, your +1's on Google+, your thumbs up on StumbleUpon, and your tweets on Twitter. That you would find Sunday School so valuable that you would want to share it with others makes the time spent on putting each edition together absolutely worth it! Thank you!

 

First, I want to make some announcements:

Tonight we're featuring our interview with Professor of Archaeology and Human Evolution, author of The Fact of Evolution, Dr. Cameron M. Smith. Dr. Smith joined us to talk about evolution and the effective communication of evolutionary concepts. It's a great interview and I think you'll come away with some handy rhetorical tools to use when engaging anti-evolutionists!

 

We're in the process of setting up an Amazon.com store front specifically for the Think Atheist Radio Show. The store will feature books written by our guests as well as recommendations from (the show's host) Greg and myself (the show's producer) on subjects of interest to freethinkers. We'll have more information and a link to the store soon but for now I wanted to say that when the store goes live the titles there won't cost any more than if you were to purchase them directly through Amazon but in purchasing them through the Think Atheist Radio Show store you're able to contribute a fraction from each purchase to support the show! Stay tuned...

 

We recorded two interviews for the show this week. The first was with Philosopher of Science and Ethics, 2008's Canadian Humanist of the year, and guest on the most recent episode of Mr. Deity, Dr. Christopher DiCarlo. Dr. DiCarlo joined us to talk about his new book How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass. The book is a fantastic handbook on critical thinking, offering the tools to enable anyone to keep themselves and others honest about how they think and behave. We're so impressed with the book, in fact, that we pressed Prometheus Books, the book's publisher, to let us do a contest to accompany the airing of the interview! So look for that coming up soon!

 

Now, I've been waiting since we recorded the second interview to be able to tell you all about it today. We're so incredibly excited because this man doesn't do very many interviews and he's an absolute treasure and a giant in the skeptical movement. We're simply thrilled to be able to tell you that we're soon going to bringing you our interview with none other than James Randi! I haven't locked down the schedule for October yet but I can tell you it will be sometime during that month. As soon as I lock it all down I'll be sure to let you guys know. Hopefully you're all excited as we are! In the meantime, do check out our past and future guests.

 

Always remember that you can listen to any of our previously aired shows from the archive. Do follow the show on the main page or on iTunes. follow me on Twitter (especially if you've entered a contest or are interested in future contests) or G+ for the latest updates on contests, scheduling, and guests! (if you enjoy the show please consider leaving a review on iTunes and telling others about the show! 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 should be listening to us too!) And, hey, if you enjoy the show and you can spare a few bucks, help us make sure we stay on the air! The host site for the show isn't cheap! Thank you so much for the support of those that donate each week.That you would give your hard earned money to support our project means more to us than we'll ever be able to properly tell you.

 

Okay, thanks for reading! Your reward is....................... LINKS! :)

 

Dolphins "talk" like humans.

 

Babies develop an ability to distinguish pain from normal touch in the last two weeks of gestation.

 

Half of all neuroscience papers commit a single statistical error.

 

Here's your primer on the evolution of vertebrate life. (Read this. Do it. Trust me.)

 

This image is fantastic. Right on the money. Couldn't agree more. (Alert guest Andrew in the comments below has pointed out that there may be some technical problems at the site featuring the image. Here's a second link to the same image if you have problems with the first.)

 

Missipppians vote on whether a collection of 100 cells is a "person"

 

The American Cancer Society is happy to take a half a million dollars from atheists, just so long as it can do it quietly. They responded to the outcry but it's nonsense.

 

Intellectual recklessness on Climate Change.

 

Please welcome our new (old!) ancestor into the family! Australopithecus sediba. 1.98 million years ago! The Knight Science Tracker has the pick of articles on the find. But do make sure and read Carl Zimmer's piece too.

 

Jason Rosenhouse wrote on some of the theological moves made in order to square Christian doctrine with the scientific fact that there was no Adam and Eve. Jerry Coyne comments on those attempts and Rosenhouse's piece. Rosenhouse responds. An interesting exchange on an interesting subject, but not a positive one for theists...

 

Meteorites delivered gold to Earth during the formation of the planet.

 

Young Americans have a more favorable view of atheists than senior citizens do.

 

So there's this virus that liquefies caterpillars after making them crawl high up in the tree to their destruction. And all with a single gene!

 

It's usually the Sun (and/or the Moon) that animals use to keep a circadian rhythm. But what do you do when you're a cave fish in the Somalian dessert? Adapt. (And tell us something about animal's cycles generally)

 

How old is the Earth? Who knows? We do!

 

I insist you read Gregory Paul's excellent two-part op-ed asking the question "Can we please stop pretending that Christianity is anti-socialism?" Part 1 is here, part 2 here.

 

Bird fossils and clueless Creationists. Recently a new fossil discovery has us rethinking the precise relationship between some of our bird>dinosaur transitional fossils. Creationists have seized on this to... well, be Creationists.

 

17 misconceptions of evolution and the responses. A great resource.

 

This study is absolutely fascinating. See how our preconceptions effect our perceptions. (And get an insight into how the evolution of physical and moral disgust are related.)

 

Exposing radical Christian extremists in the US

 

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently took some incredible shots of a few of the Apollo landing sites with equipment and footprints clearly visible. Amazing.

 

Scientists rely on faith when it comes to the origin of life? Yeah, no.

 

Elaine Ecklund has continued to battle her own data that says that scientists are just as frequently atheists as we think because she doesn't like that conclusion apparently. This time she's trying to label atheists as "spiritual". Doesn't really hold up though when you take a closer look.

 

Is the Vatican cooperating "fully" with the Irish government?

Views: 840

Tags: Apollo, Christian, Moon, Randi, evolution, neuroscience, radio, recap, religion, school, More…science, show, skepticism, sunday, sunday-school, theology, weekly-recap

Comment by Nelson on September 12, 2011 at 12:13am

@Kasu: Thanks for stopping by! Appreciate your thoughts on those links.

Comment by Nelson on September 12, 2011 at 12:21am

@Chris G: I appreciate the kind words! Thanks! :)

Comment by Kendall on September 12, 2011 at 12:28am

The 17 Misconceptions article was a good read.  As a new member, this is the first time I've gotten to enjoy Sunday School!  Great job.  Keep it up!

Comment by Becca on September 12, 2011 at 1:06am

The 17 Misconceptions article was so goo that it is now bookmarked and saved for future use.

 

The article on babies and pain vs. normal touch distinction was fascinating. I've always thought that it was unlikely that fetuses feel pain until later in gestation and I'm glad that it's being researched. I mean, what would be that advantage to feeling pain in an environment (the uterus) in which you could not actually move away from pain?

Comment by Nelson on September 12, 2011 at 1:09am

@Becca: Thanks for the comment! I'm glad so many have enjoyed the 17 Misconceptions article.

Comment by Nelson on September 12, 2011 at 1:15am

@Kendall: Welcome to the community! Thanks for commenting. And thanks for the kind words!

Comment by Chris G on September 12, 2011 at 2:14am

Dolphins 'Talk' to each other with tail slaps.

They observed them using body "language" that also included diving and flopping sideways on the surface, in behaviour they believe to be a form of linguistics.

Just like human words, the shorter signals are the ones that they use most frequently, which is known as the "law of brevity".

Dr Ramon Ferrer i Cancho, from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Spain, said: "Patterns of dolphin behaviour at the surface obey the same law of brevity as human language, with both seeking out the simplest and most efficient codes."

He was working with a British colleague on the project, Dr David Lusseau, a lecturer in marine populations from the University of Aberdeen.

The pair examined the behaviour of bottlenose dolphins in their natural environment off the coast of New Zealand.

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