ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 794

December 17, 2014

7 Things Not to Say to the Atheist in Your Family

By Herb Silverman


I recently gave tips on how atheists can peaceably interact with religious family members at Thanksgiving. Now, here are tips for religious family members on what not to say to an atheist during holidays or any other family gathering. Next week, I’ll suggest what they should say.


I hope these tips help make family visits more pleasant for everyone. I also hope they won’t deter theists from talking about religion with atheists. Nothing here precludes having a respectful and friendly conversation with your family atheist, but more about that next time.


Here are seven things you shouldn’t say to the atheist in your family:


1. “Why are you angry with God?”

Atheists are no angrier with God than with the Tooth Fairy. Only God-believers can be angry with God. Some people might have become atheists because they are not satisfied with theodicyexplanations about why a good and powerful god would allow so much evil in the world, but most have become atheists primarily because they find no evidence for the existence of any gods.


2. “You’ll be a believer when you have a big problem.”

This is an offshoot of the “no atheists in foxholes” cliché. (See, for instance, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.) Atheists tend to address problems by looking for practical solutions to resolve them, and through supportive friends, family, and medical doctors. Many believers “talk” to God only when they have a problem, so such a comment is more applicable to theists than to atheists.



 


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Published on December 17, 2014 10:15

Atheist Experience #386: Christian Paraphernalia

The Atheist Experience #386 for March 6, 2005, with Ashley Perrien and Arlo Pignotti. Christian Paraphernalia.


We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.


We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.


——-


The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/


You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?


The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.


The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.


We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.


VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES


http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)


More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive


DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

http://www.atheist-community.org/products


MUSIC CREDITS


Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma


NOTES


TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.


Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

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Published on December 17, 2014 09:22

Atheist Experience #387: Ten Commandments

The Atheist Experience #387 for March 13, 2005, with Ashley Perrien and Matt Dillahunty. Ten Commandments. Matt talks about the Ten Commandments Supreme Court ruling.


We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.


We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.


——-


The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/


You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?


The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.


The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.


We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.


VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES


http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)


More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive


DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

http://www.atheist-community.org/products


MUSIC CREDITS


Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma


NOTES


TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.


Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

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Published on December 17, 2014 09:10

Aargh AGU!



OMG! Is that Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) at the American Geophysical Union (#AGU2014) Fall Meeting?  What is she doing with the 23,000 scientists, educators, and press at this extravaganza—think of a rave for geo-science geeks—at the Moscone Center in San Francisco?



Turns out it wasn’t Taylor but a young German plasma physicist named Aljona Bloecker who was attending AGU for the first time. She may have been overwhelmed but didn’t seem fazed in the least, looking as if she could grab a mike and rock the crowd if need be. 



This is my fourteenth AGU. My colleague Tamara Ledley, who has been organizing Climate Literacy sessions here, has been coming since 1983 when she was a graduate student at MIT.  



The first year I attended, a few months after 9/11, there were only a handful of education sessions and only a few that focused on climate change. This year there are several days of Climate Literacy sessions, with multiple talks and poster sessions, and a full day of workshops on Thursday. That’s a welcome change!



I’ve been spending time at our booth—#2515 if you happen to be in the neighborhood of the Moscone Center—but I did manage, before my talk on Monday about the Learning Pathways we developed for the National Climate Assessment, to hear Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs’s keynote talk that overviewed the causes, effects, and risks of, and possible responses to, global change caused by human activities. Unfortunately I missed Jim White’s talk on Abrupt Climate Change, Part, Present, and Future, but I’ve learned the hard way to pick my battles and pace myself to avoid meltdown. 



Another talk on Countering Climate Confusion tomorrow, the workshop Thursday, and a panel discussion on science denial on Friday: a full plate and then some. And then the weekend and upcoming holidays to catch our breath!

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Published on December 17, 2014 09:00

Welcome New York Times Opinionator Readers!

I am quoted in an excellent new post at The New York Times philosophy blog “The Stone”, which is part of its “Opinionator” section. The piece is by Steve Neumann and it’s called “The Philosophical Beast”. The article is about the need for philosophers to engage beyond the walls of academia. So I thought I [Read More...]
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Published on December 17, 2014 08:06

Scientists Unravel Mechanism Behind Firefly Flashing

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Giorgio Margaritondo/EPFL. Image shows larger channels of the firefly tracheal system branching into smaller ones, supplying oxygen for the firefly's light emission.



Fireflies are truly dazzling to watch; the way that they dance across a dark backdrop, twinkling like stars. But how do they put on this hypnotizing light show? While scientists have understood the chemistry behind their bioluminescence for some time, the physics side of this beautiful phenomenon has been somewhat of a mystery. Now, thanks to a combination of sophisticated imaging techniques, researchers have managed to reveal the fine details behind firefly light flashing for the first time.

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Published on December 17, 2014 06:51

Impacts, Extinctions And Climate In The Search For Life Elsewhere

Space





Photo credit:

A reconstruction of the path and damage caused by the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 15, 2013. Flickr/Sandia Labs, CC BY-NC-ND



Every so often our Earth encounters a large chunk of space debris which reminds us that our solar system still contains plenty of debris that could potentially have an impact on life on Earth.



While the great bulk of planetary accretion occurs in the first few hundred million years after the birth of a given system, the process never really comes to an end.

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Published on December 17, 2014 06:22

December 14, 2014

Atheist Experience #895: Secular Christmas

The Atheist Experience #895 for December 7, 2014, with Matt Dillahunty and John Iacoletti. Secular Christmas. Matt and John talk informally about the evolution of Christmas into a secular holiday.

We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.


We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.


——-


The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/


You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?


The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.


The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.


We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.


VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES


http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)


More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive


DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

http://www.atheist-community.org/products


MUSIC CREDITS


Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma


NOTES


TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.


Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

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Published on December 14, 2014 17:37

Atheist Experience #895: Secular Christmas

The Atheist Experience #895 for December 7, 2014, with Matt Dillahunty and John Iacoletti. Secular Christmas. Matt and John talk informally about the evolution of Christmas into a secular holiday.


We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.


We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.


——-


The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/


You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/


WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?


The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.


The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.


We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.


VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES


http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)


More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive


DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

http://www.atheist-community.org/products


MUSIC CREDITS


Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma


NOTES


TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.


Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

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Published on December 14, 2014 15:07

Praying for Atheists!

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Published on December 14, 2014 13:55

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