After a segment of The Lotzi Tapes, Adam welcomes comedian Tim Minchin to the show. The guys talk about Tim’s career as a musical comedian, and how much fun it is to use his musical skills for stupidity. Adam hears about his journey, and asks him if he has any desires to eventually go on Broadway. The guys then discuss their favorite musicals, and talk about how Tim grew his American audience thanks to YouTube.
Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation
, and The Moral Landscape
, answers questions submitted by users on Reddit.com.
Hear Sam talk about everything from meditation to religion, and see if one of your questions got answered!(Thanks Stephen)
Biôrn, an old Viking, is determined to reach Valhalla, the warrior's afterlife full of excessive drinking and debauchery. To gain entry he has to die honorably in battle, but he discovers that the right death isn't so easy.(Thanks Laura)
A group of faith healers who claim they have miracle cures for cancer and HIV have been condemned as "irresponsible, even criminal" by a professor of complementary medicine, following a BBC Newsnight investigation.
The group of healers, collectively known as ThetaHealing, claim that their technique - which focuses on thought and prayer - can teach people to use their natural intuition and "brain wave cycle" to "create instantaneous physical and emotional healing.
Read more"
Belief Blog's guest post yesterday arguing that gay marriage foes are imposing their own values on the Bible, rather than drawing on genuine biblical truth, fetched over 2,000 comments.
A number of commenters suggested that the writer, a recent Yale Divinity School grad, is an elitist who's out of touch with common interpretations of the Bible.
Richard Dawkins speaks on Communicating Atheism at the World Atheist Convention on the 4th of June in the Alexander Hotel, Dublin.
The World Atheist Convention was hosted by Atheist Ireland, an atheist advocacy group for an ethical and secular Ireland, and Atheist Alliance International, an umbrella group for atheist advocacy groups world-wide.
Responding to the question of whether evolution should be taught in schools, Campanella affirmed her position on evolution and its rightful place in the classroom. She and Miss Massachusetts, Alida D’Angona, were the only two of the 51 contestants to back Darwin.
Meanwhile, the other contestants revealed a sad misunderstanding of the basics of evolutionary science--and of science in general.(via Scientific American and Think Progress)
On June 9, 2011, the Center for Inquiry-New York City and NYC Skeptics hosted noted skeptic and bestselling author Michael Shermer for a talk about his new book, "The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths." The event was held at the Auditorium on Broadway. This is the full video, including both the talk and question-and-answer session.(Thanks Dalia)
Correction: Michael Shermer is not executive director of NYC Skeptics, but of the Skeptics Society.
Thousands of women activists in Saudi Arabia planned to start driving on Friday in defiance of a longstanding ban that prohibits women from even getting a drivers license.
The protest action comes after a campaign launched on social media began calling for women's right to drive in the Kingdom.
Derek Ogilvie says he can read the minds of infants who are too young to communicate verbally. Now he agrees to undergo a series of controlled experiments to test the limits of his alleged abilities. He even faces the ultimate sceptic in the form of James Randi, an investigator of the paranormal who has offered $1million to anyone who can provide evidence of the supernatural.(Thanks to TreVelocita)
iERA engages with Prof. PZ Myers, AronRa, Maryam Namazie and Richard Dawkins at the World Atheist Convention in Dublin, Ireland, June 2011(via RDnet)
Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing?
In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.
The first part, Everything, sees Professor Al-Khalili set out to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe. Along the way he charts the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos and investigates how our understanding of space has been shaped by both mathematics and astronomy.
Celebrating decades of groundbreaking exploration in East Africa, renowned paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey shared the stage at the American Museum of Natural History on May 5 to discuss the overwhelming evidence for evolution in the hominid fossil record and why understanding our evolutionary history is so important. The discussion, before a sold-out crowd in the Museum's LeFrak Theater, was moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN. The event was also live-streamed on amnh.org to a digital audience of several hundred viewers around the country.(via RDnet)
Known for such landmark discoveries as "Lucy" (Johanson) and "Turkana Boy" (Leakey), the work of these two scientists has produced much of the fossil evidence that forms our understanding of human evolution.
Looking back over careers spanning 40-plus years, Dr. Johanson and Dr. Leakey shared the stories behind their monumental finds and offered a look at what's ahead in human evolutionary research.
