13 More Things That Don't Make Sense
Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us.
Michael Brooks presents thirteen of the most perplexing. Cracking any one of them could yield profound truths.
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Michael Brooks presents thirteen of the most perplexing. Cracking any one of them could yield profound truths.
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African Origin Of Anthropoid Primates Called Into Question With New Fossil Discovery
Well-preserved craniodental fossil remains from two primate species have been discovered during excavations at an Algerian site. They reveal that the small primate Algeripithecus, which is 50 million years old and until now was considered as the most ancient African anthropoid, in fact belonged to another group, that of the crown strepsirhines.
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Tiny "T. Rex" Found
Raptorex kriegsteini, described this week in the journal Science, likely lived about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period.
That's almost twice as far back as the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, which first arose about 85 million years ago, according to study leader Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago.
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That's almost twice as far back as the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, which first arose about 85 million years ago, according to study leader Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago.
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Researchers Probe Does Prosperity Entail the End of God?
Is religiosity beneficial in affluent first world nations? That is the question addressed by independent researcher Gregory Paul in the current issue of the journal Evolutionary Psychology. In his article, "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions," Paul argues that evidence strongly shows that as socioeconomic conditions improve secularism/atheism increases. Paul is a thorough-going progressive who fully endorses the economic security policies found in most western European countries.
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Why People Believe What They Do
University of California, Berkeley, psychologist Tania Lombrozo talks about why people believe what they do, especially regarding evolution or creationism. Author Steve Miller discusses his new book The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Science of Everything. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include psychology.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/tlombrozo.html
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Richard Dawkins & Carl Sagan: “Will the Universe Be the New Religion?”
In his classic on the place of planet earth in the universe, Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan asked how is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and said “This is better than we thought. The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. Instead they say, ‘No. no. no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.”
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Dung Beetle Named After Charles Darwin
A tiny dung beetle discovered in a remote mountain rain forest has become the latest part of the 150-year legacy of Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species - by being named after the eminent biologist.
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Dawkins: Faith Schools Are Child Abuse
Some faith schools constitute an act of child abuse because of the way they rid children of freedom, Professor Richard Dawkins has said.
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Losing Their Religion: Atheists Deal With Isolation
After graduating from high school, Nan Owens attended a Bible institute with hopes of becoming a missionary. But before she finished seminary, her opinion on religion had changed.
So Owens did what more people find themselves doing - she left the religion of her childhood to join the ranks of the unaffiliated.
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So Owens did what more people find themselves doing - she left the religion of her childhood to join the ranks of the unaffiliated.
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Giant Rats, Tiny Parrots Found in 'Lost World'
An expedition to what's being called a lost world inside an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea has discovered more than 40 new species, including giant rats, frogs with fangs and a new species of bat.
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Religious Skeptics Believe Their Voices Will Be Heard
City buses in Bloomington and South Bend carry ads telling passengers "You can be good without God."
A billboard going up on Indianapolis' Northside will ask commuters to "Imagine No Religion."
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A billboard going up on Indianapolis' Northside will ask commuters to "Imagine No Religion."
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Swine Flu Insights
Some of the brightest luminaries of our time give in-depth expositions of pandemic swine flu. With the help of Big Think’s pandemics experts, we’ve sorted through the chaos and put together a list of little-known facts about H1N1.
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Man vs. God
We commissioned Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins to respond independently to the question "Where does evolution leave God?" Neither knew what the other would say. Here are the results.
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Dawkins Forceful Over Monkey Business
PROFESSOR Richard Dawkins gets a lot of stick. The British evolutionary biologist has been criticised for being "Darwin's Rottweiler", that is, for being hectoring, joyless and "fundamentalist" in the service of the evolutionary cause.
But after reading his latest, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence For Evolution, I have to admit to some sympathy with his frustration with what he calls "history-deniers", though not always for his tone and style.
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But after reading his latest, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence For Evolution, I have to admit to some sympathy with his frustration with what he calls "history-deniers", though not always for his tone and style.
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In a Shark’s Tooth, a New Family Tree
“Like a locomotive with a mouth full of butcher knives.”
That is how a shark expert, Matt Hooper, described Carcharodon megalodon to the police chief in Peter Benchley’s novel “Jaws.” He was referring to the 50-foot-long, 50-ton body and enormous six- to seven-inch-long teeth that made the extinct megalodon shark perhaps the most awesome predator that has ever roamed the seas.
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That is how a shark expert, Matt Hooper, described Carcharodon megalodon to the police chief in Peter Benchley’s novel “Jaws.” He was referring to the 50-foot-long, 50-ton body and enormous six- to seven-inch-long teeth that made the extinct megalodon shark perhaps the most awesome predator that has ever roamed the seas.
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Where Did All the Flowers Come From?
Throughout his life, Charles Darwin surrounded himself with flowers. When he was 10, he wrote down each time a peony bloomed in his father’s garden. When he bought a house to raise his own family, he turned the grounds into a botanical field station where he experimented on flowers until his death. But despite his intimate familiarity with flowers, Darwin once wrote that their evolution was “an abominable mystery.”
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Holy Text Quote of the Day #19
"Think not that I[Jesus] am come to send peace on earth: I[Jesus] came not to send peace, but a sword." -Matthew 10:34 KJV
Which Genes Make Us Human?
Researchers have identified three genes that appear to have been activated in humans alone, adapted from DNA that serves no function in other species.
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Wolves Beat Dogs on Logic Test
Wolves do better on some tests of logic than dogs, a new study found, revealing differences between the animals that scientists suspect result from dogs' domestication.
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Greatest Show on Earth
Richard Dawkins, Darwin's latter-day pit-bull, has a missing link. Or, rather, had. With the publication of his tenth book, The Greatest Show on Earth, Dawkins finally gets around to filling a conspicuous void in an evolutionary oeuvre that spans nearly forty years. As Dawkins himself explains, all his previous books primarily deal with the power of natural selection and simply assume that evolution has happened. Dawkins outlines the goal for his latest tome in the introduction: "Evolution is a fact, and this book will demonstrate it. No reputable scientist disputes it, and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it." That ostentatious declaration sets the bar high, but by the final flowery chapter, after over 400 pages of dramatic evidence, it is apparent that the author has successfully cleared the hurdle.
Review
Review
Ancient 'Smell of Death' Revealed
When animals die, their corpses exude a particular "stench of death" which repels their living relatives, scientists have discovered.
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Friendly Viruses Aided Human Evolution
Humans and viruses enjoy a symbiotic relationship, one that has had a crucial effect on our evolution and may hold the key to future medical advances, writer Frank Ryan tells JOHN HOLDEN.
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A Boy For Every Girl?
In a perfect world, for every boy there would of course be a girl, but a new study shows that actual sex ratios can sometimes sway very far from that ideal. In fact, the male-to-female ratio of one tropical butterfly has shifted rapidly over time and space, driven by a parasite that specifically kills males of the species, reveals a report published online on September 10th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
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High Rates of Human Infertility May Have Evolutionary Cause
About 10 percent of couples hoping for a baby have fertility problems.
Is pollution to blame? Stress? Eating habits?
Biologist Oren Hasson of Tel Aviv University thinks it’s evolution, baby.
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Is pollution to blame? Stress? Eating habits?
Biologist Oren Hasson of Tel Aviv University thinks it’s evolution, baby.
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The Real Cause of Obesity
As nutrition has improved over the past 200 years, Americans have gotten much taller on average, but it is still the genes that determine who is tall or short today. The same is true for weight. Although our high-calorie, sedentary lifestyle contributes to the approximately 10-pound average weight gain of Americans compared to the recent past, some people are more severely affected by this lifestyle than others. That's because they have inherited genes that increase their predisposition for accumulating body fat.
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Monkey-Friendly Tunes Shed New Light On Evolutionary Role Of Music
Simian songs specifically designed to appeal to monkeys have been composed by scientists, in an experiment that sheds new light on the evolutionary origins of Man’s taste for music.
Cotton-top Tamarin monkeys, who normally turn a deaf ear to music, show marked changes in mood when they are played tunes composed with their voices and hearing in mind, research has shown.
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Cotton-top Tamarin monkeys, who normally turn a deaf ear to music, show marked changes in mood when they are played tunes composed with their voices and hearing in mind, research has shown.
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Canadian Scientist Aims To Turn Chickens Into Dinosaurs
After years spent hunting for the buried remains of prehistoric animals, a Canadian paleontologist now plans to manipulate chicken embryos to show he can create a dinosaur.
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Gorilla Sexual Intrigue Could Explain Human Monogamy
Female gorillas use sex as a tactic to thwart their rivals, new research suggests. Pregnant apes court their silverback male to stop other females conceiving.
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Secrets of the Four Chambers Revealed by Reptile Hearts
The first genetic link in the evolution of the heart from three-chambered to four-chambered has been found, illuminating part of the puzzle of how birds and mammals became warm-blooded.
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How To Teach Of The Facts Of Life And Its Origins
The neckwear is nothing if not arresting. Off-white silk with a repeating pattern of a creature not immediately recognisable. On closer examination it is, of course, a crocoduck; a foreshortened scaly green reptile standing upright on a pair of bright red webbed feet. The tie, explains Richard Dawkins, was a gift from a friend who shared his view that, following the "logic" of creationist thinking, our ancestors might feature all manner of such mutations. Hippophants anyone?
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Losing Teeth, But Keeping Genes
Charles Darwin was interested not just in how new things evolve, but also in how old things disappear. Often, they don’t disappear completely without a trace. We don’t have a visible tail like our primate ancestors did, but we still have a series of little bones tucked away at the bottom of the spine. While it may not function like a full-blown tail, it still anchors muscles around the pelvis. Blind cavefish may not have eyes of the sort found on their cousins in the outside world, but they still start to develop eyes as larva, before the cells start to die away.
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Evolution: Has Human Culture Replaced Biology?
It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology.
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God vs. The Bible
Summary: The Bible has many harsh critics. The most notable among them is God.
Read The Entire Book Here
Read The Entire Book Here
MAAF & SSA Leadership Grant
MAAF is partnering with the Secular Student Alliance to find up-and-coming leaders. MAAF will award $500 to a student leader who has demonstrated excellence in both military and nontheist activities.
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After The Rapture Let An Atheist Care For Your Pets
You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.
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Monkeys Born Of Three Parents Usher In The Age Of The Super-Baby
Four baby monkeys each have three parents — proving that you could have more than two, but also that that mitochondrial swapping can breed out genetic diseases once and for all. But why stop at three parents?
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Girls Have Head Start On Snake and Spider Fears
Gut-wrenching fears of snakes and spiders may start early for many women. Before their first birthdays, girls but not boys adeptly learn to link the sight of these creatures to the frightened reactions of others, a new study suggests.
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Depression's Evolutionary Roots
Two scientists suggest that depression is not a malfunction, but a mental adaptation that brings certain cognitive advantages.
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Human Mutation Rate Revealed
Every time human DNA is passed from one generation to the next it accumulates 100–200 new mutations, according to a DNA-sequencing analysis of the Y chromosome.
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Fly Eyes Help Researchers 'See' New Proteins Involved In Memory
With more than 1,500 eyes, not much escapes the fruit fly's sight. Now, a new research report in the journal Genetics describes how researchers from the United States and Ireland used those eyes to "see" new proteins necessary for memory.
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Parallel Evolution
Travelers to the neotropics—the tropical lands of the Americas—might be forgiven for thinking that all of the colorful insects flittering over sunny puddles or among dense forest understory are butterflies. In fact, many are not.
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Pope Says Atheists Are Responsible For Global Warming
The Pope has claimed that atheism is responsible for the destruction of the environment. In a speech at the Vatican on Wednesday, Ratzinger said: “Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the ‘final authority,’ and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.”
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, commented: “This is rich coming from the leader of an organisation that has plundered the world to enrich itself. As he sits in his golden palaces, surrounded by unimaginable luxury and material wealth, he lectures the rest of us about restraint and greed. We have nothing to learn about environmentalism from this hypocrite.”
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Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, commented: “This is rich coming from the leader of an organisation that has plundered the world to enrich itself. As he sits in his golden palaces, surrounded by unimaginable luxury and material wealth, he lectures the rest of us about restraint and greed. We have nothing to learn about environmentalism from this hypocrite.”
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60% of Adults Can't Digest Milk
Being able to digest milk is so strange that scientists say we shouldn't really call lactose intolerance a disease, because that presumes it's abnormal. Instead, they call it lactase persistence, indicating what's really weird is the ability to continue to drink milk.
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Atheists on the March in America
Polls show non-believers are on the rise in the United States, even in places like Florida, where, as Senatore sees it, "There's a church on every corner and a fish on every car."
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Why Did People Become White?
Humans come in a rainbow of hues, from dark chocolate browns to nearly translucent whites.
This full kaleidoscope of skin colors was a relatively recent evolutionary development, according to biologists, occuring alongside the migration of modern humans out of Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.
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This full kaleidoscope of skin colors was a relatively recent evolutionary development, according to biologists, occuring alongside the migration of modern humans out of Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.
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