Seth Andrews took a camera to the 2016 Reason Rally. This short video contains a few moments from the event, and it also features some great photos taken by some of the attendees. Enjoy.
In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the public understanding of science, his career as an educator, political atheism, racism, artificial intelligence, alien life, and other topics.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is the head of Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. His research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. He holds a degree in physics from Harvard and a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia.
Tyson has served on several Presidential commissions and government advisory councils. He has written ten books, including The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist and Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, and Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
Recently, Tyson served as executive editor, host, and narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in Primetime on the FOX network, and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Cosmos won four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Critics Choice awards, as well as a dozen other industry recognitions.
As NASA continues to discover thousands of new exoplanets, humans have increasingly asked: “Are we alone?” If other intelligent species exist in our universe, do they practice religion too? If so, how would human world religions react to the possibility of first contact with extraterrestrial life?
Stephan A. Hoeller, scholar of gnosticism, lectures on Atheism as perceived from a Gnostic point of view.
A Mississippi law that protects individuals, businesses, and even government employees who refuse to provide services for gay weddings will go into effect July 1.
The controversial legislation is one example of a spate of so-called “Religious Freedom” laws that carve out legal protections for people who object to gay marriage on religious grounds. The Mississippi law covers a range of professions who don’t want to provide their services to members of the LGBT community, from therapists, to adoption services, and wedding DJs.
Critics of the law say it discriminates against an LGBT minority in an overwhelmingly Christian state. But supporters argue the law is necessary to protect Christians from a rising tide of anti-Christian discrimination and a growing cultural hostility across the United States to personal religious beliefs.
Full Frontal goes deep inside the weirdest anti-abortion art film you’ve never seen.
Sally Haslanger (M.I.T.) discusses a classic argument that God does not exist, called ‘The Problem of Evil’. Along the way, she distinguishes different ways in which people believe that God exists, and discusses what’s bad about having contradictory beliefs.
Always Question Authority 