I’m confused. What the bleep is going on at Amazon? I was just browsing through their history section and was shocked at some of the dreck that showed up in the first couple of pages. By way of example –
Forbidden History: Extraterrestrial Intervention, Prehistoric Technologies, and the Suppressed Origins of Civilization by J. Douglas Kenyon
The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles) by Zecharia Sitchin
The Element Encyclopaedia of 5000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts by Judika Illes
All complete pseudo-science and nonsense and they aren’t the only examples. I realise that Amazon is a business and will sell whatever people want to buy but this is just beyond a joke. Have we really reached the point where this bunkum passes for history?
In today’s Comment is Free AC Grayling makes the point I was trying to make in this post. As you might expect he does a much better job than I did.
Let us look at some comparisons. In Afghanistan the Taliban stop girls going to school, beat up women who show a millimeter of skin, ban music, kill gays, and in general force their choice of life and belief on everyone, thus illustrating the less charming aspects of enforced observance of religious orthodoxy under which most of humanity has suffered for most of history. By comparison, secular liberals of Europe and North America say that they think religion is a load of nonsense and that religious folk should keep their fantasies to themselves. Some comparison, eh? Some jihad! Its effectiveness, though, is a sign of insecurity among the faithful. Mark Twain defined faith as “believing what you know ain’t so”, and the level of insecurity among the faithful when criticised suggests that almost all of them really agree.
Here are a few ideas for things we might talk about at the next meeting. These are just my thoughts so please add suggestions and generally share your thoughts.
Atheist Ireland – Those who attended the first meeting can talk about what took place, followed by a general discussion on how this effects the Mid-West Humanists. Do we want to affiliate?
Structure of the MWH – At the moment Larry acts as a convener/chairman and has also sponsored the cost of meeting rooms. Do we want a more formal committee to run the group? How do we plan to pay for meeting rooms etc. going forward?
Darwin Day – Do we want to organise an event on February 12th? If so what kind of event do we have the resources to plan and who is willing to be involved.
Podcast – Are people interested in producing a podcast? Are we ready to produce a regular show?
Speakers for next year – Are there any speakers we’d like for next year? What are the costs likely to be?
This is a fairly ambitious agenda and the Chair will need to keep people on topic but I think we can get through it.
As some of you know I’m something of a fan of the ACA‘s ‘The Atheist Experience‘ (as are some of the other posters here). The show is now available live via Ustream, the show airs on Sunday’s at 22.30 Irish time.
I’ve embedded the stream below but if you go to the Ustream page you can participate in the text chat during the show.
This week I was trying to decide between something from JonathanCoulton or something from They Might Be Giants. You can imagine my glee when I found this
Now if I can just find the Decemberists covering a Smiths song…
Apparently the use of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall to boost academic and work performance is on the rise with up to 7% of University students in the USA using these drugs. A recent paper in Nature suggests that rather than trying to stop this rise we should legalise the use of performance enhancing drugs, or as they put it “Mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs.”. While Ritalin and Adderall are the most common drugs now newer drugs like modafinil (brand name Provigil) also offer new benefits like reducing the need for sleep.
My own initial reaction is to agree. If there are no major side effects, or if those side effects are known and someone chooses to accept them, then people should have the right to use anything means to improve themselves. One day soon this may apply not just to drugs but to cybernetic enhancements.
In general I’m in favour of the maximum amount of freedom people can take and this seems a clear case to me but as always I’m open to being corrected. What do you think?
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