Sunday School SEPT 18, 2011
Hi guys! Another Sunday! Of course, 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! Last week's edition was viewed just shy of 800 times thanks to all your help. Let's see if we can reach a thousand! Spread the word. The information is out there. Let's get it into people's hands, and into their minds.
First, last week I mentioned that we were in the process of setting up an Amazon store front just for the Think Atheist Radio Show. I'm happy to say that the store is now up and running! You can find it at any time in the sidebar on the right but here's the link for you. Check back often as new titles will continue to be added. As I said last week, the store will feature the books by our guests plus recommendations from myself and Greg, the host of the Radio Show. As such, it should function as a resource for any requests for reading suggestions you may have for myself and/or Greg.
I want to urge you guys to update yourselves on some of our upcoming guests: former preacher, now FFRF co-president Dan Barker, author of Losing Faith in Faith and Godless; 2008's Canadian Humanist of the Year, philosopher and author of How To Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass, Dr. Christopher DiCarlo; arch skeptic and professional pseudoscience debunker/huckster buster, James Randi, author of Flim-Flam!; and many more! Check out our list of past and future guests now!
Do make sure you catch our interview tonight with Ms. Janet Heimlich, investigative journalist and author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. She joined us to talk about a heart-breaking infuriating subject: the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse- plus the withholding of medical care- of children, all with religion as justification. This is important stuff for people to be aware of. Tune in so you can help get the information out there.
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, remember, if you enjoy the show and you can spare a few bucks, you can really helps us out by donating to 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.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.
Alright, business done. LINKS!
Dr. Alex Rosenberg, philosopher at Duke University and author of the forthcoming The Atheist's Guide to Reality, offers some insights into why he's a naturalist.
The special trick that helps identify dodgy statistics.
70 million year old amber (fossilized tree sap) preserves the evolution of dinosaur and early bird feathers. This is a must see. Unbelievable pictures of 70 million year old feathers that belonged to freaking dinosaurs. (Unfortunately one of the study's authors says the feathers are unlikely to preserve any DNA). Click on each of these following posts because they either have more information or more and different pictures to see. Trust me. Scientific American, Ed Yong, and the BBC.
John Danaher is blogging his way through Wes Morriston's paper on the phenomena of theists who attempt to defend divinely mandated genocide. Do check out the posts in the series so far. There's three so far. Here's the first, the second, and the third.
Neuroscience vs Philosophy: Taking Aim at Free Will. Jerry Coyne comments.
Near-death experiences now found to have scientific explanations. Pay special attention to the one study that says that 30 people out of a 58 person study had these experiences when they weren't even at any risk of death but only thought they were. Fascinating.
Recently the closest supernova to us in 25 years went off. There's been lots of talk about it. But what is it that makes a supernova more nova than a nova? Where's the "super" come in?
US families pay an extra $1,000 per year to support religion.
Why believers think prayer works.
Acupuncture. Not mysterious.
James Randi names his top 5 books on skepticism.
A new poll has it that more Americans believe the world is warming.
Scientists have engineered yeast that thrive with a partially synthetic genome.
Is it close to game over for the Higgs? Seems so...
Snails cross continents by hitching a ride inside the stomach of birds.
Political Christianity has no where to hide
What happens when a planet gets blasted by X-rays a hundred thousand times stronger than what Earth receives from the Sun? There's no need to guess anymore...
10 myths many religious people hold about atheists-- debunked.
John Danaher began another series this week, this one examining the ethics of the death penalty. Great stuff. It's good to have John blogging again after his recent move.
Victims of sex-abuse have accused the pope of crimes against humanity.
How do we know what the speed of light is? (Hint: Thanks Jupiter!)
50 new exoplanets have been discovered, including 16 "super-Earths", one of those orbiting inside the habitable zone.
A new study (pdf) is providing insight into the relationship between intelligence and religiosity. One of the study's authors posted a summary of the research and its implications at his blog.
The discoverer of the fossil human ancestor "Lucy" on why he studies human evolution.
When it comes to god, disbelief is not a choice.
Why the anti-science Creationist movement is so dangerous.
Scientists take first steps toward creating inorganic-life.
The cognitive science of rationality. In order to learn to think better we have to know what obstacles stand in our way.
-
Comment by Brian Stewart on September 18, 2011 at 3:18am -
Nelson, thanks again....but when I clicked on the 10 atheist myths...it was bugged by alternate net and the Teaparty...how can we block that?
-
Comment by Nelson on September 18, 2011 at 3:24am -
@Brian: Thank you for stopping in! Not sure what you mean by "bugged". When I clicked the page there was a white box that loaded and obscured the page initially but when I reloaded the page it was gone and I had no problem after that. If this is what you're referring to maybe doing the same thing will work for you. Hope that solves the issue!
-
Comment by T A A on September 18, 2011 at 3:29am -
We really need to forget about IQ values on that grandiose scale. Their only usefulness is to compare a given group of people, who've taken a given particular test, at a given moment in time. All other IQ considerations are so loaded with bias that they are useless.
Edit: The main error with those IQ tests ideas is that IQ assesses intelligence, they do not, they assess IQ, which is a culturally specific, and in the end provides nothing more than self-fulfilling circular evidence.
-
Comment by Nelson on September 18, 2011 at 3:40am
-
From Ritchie's post about the intelligence vs. religiosity research:
Now, I know some people, like [PZ] Myers, just hate IQ tests, possibly because they’ve read The Mismeasure of Man (which, as an aside, is looking less and less credible as time goes on), but IQ really is a part of mainstream psychological science, and I can assure you you’d find it very difficult to make an evidence-based argument against it having validity (I always like to point IQ-skeptics – and the far more irritating IQ-deniers – towards this Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper, which I think makes a pretty convincing case that IQ is both real and useful).
Anyone interested in discussing the value of IQ tests to research in this area (or whatever value they have generally) is urged to start a post in the forum.
-
Comment by Albert Bakker on September 18, 2011 at 4:23am -
The link "Political Christianity has nowhere to hide" leads you to a planet blasted by X-rays on Physorg (which is the next link.) I don't suppose Political Christianity is hiding on CoRoT-2b or would they?
-
Comment by Jason on September 18, 2011 at 6:37am -
I’ve always wonder this:
Regarding the exoplanets - for argument purposes let’s just assume we could quickly travel to these plants. -
If a planet is much larger then earth – then would the surface gravity be much more then earth’s surface gravity? That is to say – let’s just say another planet was conducive for human life – but it was much larger then earth – would it have a stronger gravity that would prevent us from visiting it because our fragile human bodies would be crushed by its gravity?
-
Comment by Arcus on September 18, 2011 at 7:15am -
"If a planet is much larger then earth – then would the surface gravity be much more then earth’s surface gravity?"
It would depend on the density of the planet more than the size alone. Of course, Earth like planets will have a density similar to that of Earth, which would mean higher gravitational pull. To be conducive to human life I believe atmospheric pressure would be more determinant to possibility of human settlement than mass. (Don't quote me on this.. long time since I had a science class.)
-
Comment by Rob Lippmann on September 18, 2011 at 8:04am -
Arcus, you are quote approved. If a planet has more mass but less density than Earth, the surface gravity is lower than it would be if it had the same density. Knowing mass and diameter (thanks, Kepler mission), can tell us what the surface gravity is. You're absolutely right about atmospheric pressure, that's the real potential deal breaker--look at Venus (same mass and density).
Nelson, thanks again--Sunday School and football rock!
-
Comment by Ronald Pyatt on September 18, 2011 at 9:58am -
Maybe the Political Christianity link was to be this http://www.politicususa.com/en/political-christianity-has-nowhere-t...
Nelson, thanks for the links.
-
Comment by Nelson on September 18, 2011 at 10:06am
-
@Ronald: Thanks! You beat me to it. I just woke up. :)
Indeed that is the correct link!
What's new today
Forum
Friend doesn't believe in dinosaurs.
Started by Redlilly Pond in Welcome to Think Atheist. Last reply by Tom Sarbeck 7 minutes ago. 26 Replies 0 Likes
Blog Posts
Salty Water = Proof for Creationism?
Posted by Teri G on May 24, 2013 at 2:29am 1 Comment 0 Likes
Events
Services we love
Check out our new mobile/tablet version of Think Atheist! www.ThinkAtheist.com/m
© 2013 Created by Morgan Matthew.
You need to be a member of Think Atheist to add comments!
Join Think Atheist