UK biologist & writer. Science, the poetry of reality. Good-humoured ridicule of religions. RTs don't imply endorsement, nor exhaustive research of tweeter's CV
They hijacked not only “Theory” but “Social Justice”. Morphed from something clearly good (justice for underprivileged) to a daft & sinister quasi-religion (science & rationality a white male plot; only whites can be racist & all whites are; “cancel” all dissent as heresy, etc)
Pluckrose & Lindsay bend over backwards to be fair to fashionable metaclaptrap, bend so far that the chapters in which they expound those confused “ideas” are in danger of sounding as boringly obscure as the originals. That all changes in the superb concluding critical chapters
This is wonderful. Hail science. Hail mathematics. Hail human cooperative undertaking, as in CERN, Human Genome Project, discovery of Higgs boson, eradication of smallpox, LIGO, the rapid invention of vaccines against Covid-19. Thank you, science.
A random e-mail today caused me to remember PZ Myers’ splendid 2006 “Courtier’s Reply”. It really is a brilliant piece of satirical writing, well worth looking up if you don’t know it.
"There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god” (JBS Haldane)
Ibn Warraq is a world hero. This superb book lives up to the promise of “Why I am not a Muslim” but it’s too expensive to do the good that it could do and, more specifically, where it could do it. Let’s hope for a paperback and audio book.
The results of the Census affect everyone. So if you don't believe in or practise any religion, and don't want to be counted as if you do, then please #TickNoReligion on the #Census2021 . See @BHAhumanists 's campaign page for more information.
I contributed the Foreword to Jeff Hawkins’ landmark new book A Thousand Brains, A New Theory of Intelligence which goes on sale today. Anyone interested in brains, AI, & humanity’s future should read it. In my Foreword, I said the book is brilliant & exhilarating. I meant it.
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Saw a down-and-out in Seattle last night. His sign said not "I need food" or "I need a job" but "I need a fat bitch". What could this mean?
In 1665 Cambridge University closed because of plague. Isaac Newton retreated to rural Lincolnshire. During his 2 years in lockdown he worked out calculus, the true meaning of colour, gravitation, planetary orbits & the 3 Laws of Motion. Will 2020 be someone’s Annus Mirabilis?
Give this woman a Nobel Prize. UPenn "told me that they’d had a meeting and concluded that I was not of faculty quality,” she said. ”When I told them I was leaving, they laughed at me and said, ‘BioNTech doesn’t even have a website.’”
There there, I do understand, taking away your guns is like taking away your Comfort Blanky. You’ll feel bereaved. Tell you what, though. We know how to deal with bereavement. We’ll send you our thoughts and prayers. Then you’ll feel better.
“Ashamed to be American?” Don’t be. The majority of you voted against this narcissistic, xenophobic, vainglorious, ignorant 2-year-old.
London gay Pride march. Police happy with “Jesus is Gay” banners. But banned @theCEMB ’s “Allah is Gay” banner. @KPFA-grade hypocrisy!
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