ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 807
November 4, 2014
Atheist Experience #560: The Amaz!ng Meeting
The Atheist Experience #560 for July 6, 2008, with Matt Dillahunty and Martin Wagner. The Amaz!ng Meeting. Martin talks about his TAM experience.
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.
October 27, 2014
Freedom to Ahmed Harqan, Saly Harqan, and Karim Jimy
Image from YouTube
Please note that this story is coming from a citizen journalist and has not been independently confirmed.
On the 25th of October 2014, in a nice street in Alexandria Egypt, a young man and his pregnant wife “Ahmad Husain Al-Harkan & sally” encountered a grim attempt of assassination.
Al-Harkan is an Egyptian activist and atheist, who has spent a generous portion of his life as a Salafi “Muslim fundamentalist”, but his journey through Islam led him to renounce his religion. Mr. Al-Harkan was a devout Muslim and well versed in Islam. He was educated by Ahmed Al-Burhami a very celebrated Islamic scholar in Egypt.
The transformation took its toll on Ahmad Al-Harkan and led him to burn all of his religious certificates and start his education from scratch.
Since then Al-Harkan made several guest appearances in various talk shows aimed at the uprising of atheists in the Arab world and Egypt, it’s fair to say that his background in Islamic studies made him a serious adversary in debates.
In evening of the 25th of October he was attacked by a group of people trying to kill him and his wife. He managed to flee the scene with his wife after having some injuries and went to the “Alhanafie–Alajlany” police station to report the incident.
Much to his and our surprise, he and his wife were fruther assaulted by police “officers” at the station his friend Kareem who escorted them suffered the same abuse. They are now all in jail charged with heresy “Insulting religion” even the lawyer was humiliated and kicked out if the police station.
Al-Harkan, his Pregnant wife Sally and their friend Kareem are still in the “Al_Dakhela” police station waiting to be transferred to public Prosecutor’s office to be charged with the crime of free thought and expression under the pretension of “disrespecting religion”.
Let the world know about Ahmad Husain Al-Harkan, his pregnant wife and his friend Kareem.
Update: Ahmad and Sally Harqan, and their friend Karim Jimy have been released few hours ago, all charges were dropped, they still have to file a complaint of an assassination attempt.
An Appetite for Wonder Australian Tour
The Atheist Foundation of Australia proudly presents An Appetite for Wonder with Professor Richard Dawkins.
Richard Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, Vice President of the British Humanist Association, and is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design.
Held over three cities, An Appetite for Wonder will feature a discussion with Leslie Cannold (the Australian author, ethicist and public intellectual), and book signing featuring Professor Dawkin’s first in his autobiographical series An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist.
From 1995 to 2008 Professor Richard Dawkins was the the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is an internationally recognised best-selling author; among his books are The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Greatest Show on Earth, and The Magic of Reality.
His 2006 book The God Delusion has sold more than two million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages. Dawkins lectures across the world and last presented in Australia at the 2010 and 2012 AFA Global Atheist Conventions in Melbourne. His most recent book, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, is an autobiography of his early years.
While often controversial, his talks are always thought provoking, and his body of work has inspired countless atheists, secularists, and humanists around the globe.
Dr. Leslie Cannold consults, commentates, and educations on gender, leadership, ethics, corporate social responsibility and social media. She is a regular on ABC TV’s Moral Compass and does the ethics round as a member of ABC Radio’s Central West Mornings team. Leslie sits on a variety of boards and advisory committees and is the recipient of numerous awards and notices for her contributions to public life.
In 2013, Leslie was listed alongside Prime Minister Julia Gillard as one of Melbourne’s most influential women. She was a finalist in the best science tweet contest for Science Week 2010 and in 2011 was honoured as the Australian Humanist of the Year.
8pm Saturday 29 November | Melbourne | MCEC
8pm Monday 1 December | Brisbane | BCEC
8pm Thursday 4 December | Sydney | Seymour Centre
For more information and tickets, visit http://atheistfoundation.org.au/richarddawkins/
Education Funding: Where Two Fundamental American Ideals Completely Conflict.
Has Your Smartphone Made Your Other Gadgets Obsolete? [Survey]
Smartphones have become the Swiss Army knives of the digital age. No need to fill your pockets and handbags with cameras, maps and music players—just grab your all-in-one iPhone or Android device on your way out the door.
The new Apple Pay feature in iOS 8 promises to help the newest iPhones and iPads replace yet another staple of modern life: the credit card. Apple launched its latest attack on the status quo on October 20, with dozens of major retailers—Macy’s, McDonald’s and Whole Foods Market among them—ready to accept payment. Several banks, payment providers and app makers are likewise onboard. Google has offered a mobile wallet on its Android devices for a few years, but the company has built little fanfare to usher its technology into the mainstream. The Apple effect could change that.
Scientific American wants to know more about your smartphone use, the technology it has replaced and what capabilities you would like to see the gadgets offer in the future. How much has your smartphone changed your life?
Please fill out our survey below, choosing one answer for each question, before November 15. We will post the results on our Web site by early December.
October 26, 2014
New Microscope Collects Dynamic Images of the Molecules that Animate Life
Credit: Betzig Lab, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus, Mimori-Kiyosue Lab, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology
By Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Over the last decade, powerful new microscopes have dramatically sharpened biologists’ focus on the molecules that animate and propel life. Now, a new imaging platform developed by Eric Betzig and colleagues at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus offers another leap forward for light microscopy. The new technology collects high-resolution images rapidly and minimizes damage to cells, meaning it can image the three-dimensional activity of molecules, cells, and embryos in fine detail over longer periods than was previously possible.
The developers of the new lattice light sheet microscope have teamed with cell and molecular biologists to produce stunning videos of biological processes across a range of sizes and time scales, from the movements of individual proteins to the development of entire animal embryos. The scientists, including postdoctoral researchers Bi-Chang Chen (now at the Research Center for Applied Sciences in Taiwan),Wesley Legant, and Kai Wang, described their new technology and its applications in the October 24, 2014, issue of the journal Science. Scientists who wish to use the lattice light sheet microscope for their own research can submit a proposal to Janelia’s Advanced Imaging Center athttp://www.janelia.org/aic.
Betzig, one of three scientists sharing the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has developed a suite of new imaging technologies over the last 10 years. The techniques have improved biologists’ ability to visually track the movements of cells’ tiniest structures – but there were always trade-offs. Imaging cells at high resolution in three dimensions usually meant sacrificing imaging speed, as well as subjecting cells to significant light-induced toxicity.
“What happens is you end up designing the questions you ask around the tools that are available,” Legant says. With the lattice light sheet, the Betzig team can now optimize their imaging technology for the questions that biologists want to answer.
Read the full article by clicking the name of the source located below.
Secularism grows as more U.S. Christians turn ‘churchless’
Graphic courtesy of Barna Group
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
If you’re dismayed that one in five Americans (20 percent) are “nones” — people who claim no particular religious identity — brace yourself.
How does 38 percent sound?
That’s what religion researcher David Kinnaman calculates when he adds “the unchurched, the never-churched and the skeptics” to the nones.
He calls his new category “churchless,” the same title Kinnaman has given his new book. By his count, roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually “post-Christian” and “essentially secular in belief and practice.”
If asked, the “churchless” would likely check the “Christian” box on a survey, even though they may not have darkened the door of a church in years.
Kinnaman, president of the California-based Barna Group, slides them into this new category based on 15 measures of identity, belief and practice in more than 23,000 interviews in 20 surveys.
Read the full article by clicking the name of the source located below.
Atheist Experience #628: Salvation
The Atheist Experience #628 for October 25, 2009, with Matt Dillahunty and Tracie Harris. Salvation. Tracie explains where the notion of salvation comes from.
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.
Atheist Experience #627: The Bible vs. Pro Life
The Atheist Experience #627 for October 18, 2009, with Matt Dillahunty and Don Baker. The Bible vs. Pro Life. Don explores how the pro life movement goes against many aspects of the Bible. Audio gap 7:29-20:08.
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.
Atheist Experience #626: Callers
The Atheist Experience #626 for October 11, 2009, with Matt Dillahunty and Jeff Dee. Callers. Jeff and Matt take callers.
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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