Who Was the First Human?

Richard Dawkins, talking about his new book, The Magic of Reality, explains an important fact about evolution. Namely that a chimpanzee didn't one day give birth to a human, nor a dinosaur give birth to a bird. At any point along the ancestral trail, there was never a point where the parent of one species gave birth to a different species. The creature born is always the same species as the parent. I previously wrote about this concept here. Watch the video for a great explanation.

New Symphony of Science: Dinosaurs!

John over at Symphony of Science has released another remix-ucation video. If you love dinosaurs (who doesn't?) head over there and watch it!

Happy Darwin Day!

Today is Charles Darwin's 203rd birthday. I am grateful for his contributions to science, though I was once very much against them. Now I accept the fact of evolution and see how interesting and elegant this theory is.

Sam Harris: The Fireplace Delusion

Sam Harris has written a wonderfully enlightening and remarkably relatable piece on how the mind reacts when cherished beliefs are challenged by outside sources. He likens the love of a burning wood fire to the love of whatever religious beliefs one may have, and notes that we often react similarly if either idea is attacked. He asks his readers to be honest with themselves and pay attention to how their own mind behaves while they read his summation of wood fires. Then they can more accurately understand how the religious mind works when challenged.

Read it for yourself here.

How Open-Minded Are You?

Nearly all of us think that we are open-minded, rational, unbiased, thoughtful people. We follow the evidence wherever it leads, and we listen to reason. When new evidence comes to light about something that we already hold an opinion on, we believe that we will process it in an unbiased way. This is hardly the case.

Review: A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss

I just finished “A Universe From Nothing,” by Lawrence Krauss. I found it intensely interesting and enlightening. From a purely scientific perspective, I found it engrossing and understandable, even for a lay-person like myself. There were definitely some points that I did not completely understand, but it helped me to also watch his lecture about this topic online for clarification.

Christopher Hitchens' Last Interview

In the Christmas issue of the New Statesman, guest editor Richard Dawkins interviews Christopher Hitchens for what turned out to be the last time. It is a fascinating, edifying read, and Christopher still manages to surprise me even when I feel like I know what he thinks about most things. What a mind.