50 Renowned Academics on God

The title kind of says it all. The following video shows excerpts from presentations, lectures, interviews and debates in which world-leading intellectuals (scientists and philosophers mainly, including various Nobel Laureates) speak on their thoughts concerning the existence of God or the supernatural.

And as you might be able to predict, intellectual sophistication and education is normally inversely proportional to religious belief :)

The speakers, in order of appearance:

1. Lawrence Krauss, World-Renowned Physicist
2. Robert Coleman Richardson, Nobel Laureate in Physics
3. Richard Feynman, World-Renowned Physicist, Nobel Laureate in Physics
4. Simon Blackburn, Cambridge Professor of Philosophy
5. Colin Blakemore, World-Renowned Oxford Professor of Neuroscience
6. Steven Pinker, World-Renowned Harvard Professor of Psychology
7. Alan Guth, World-Renowned MIT Professor of Physics
8. Noam Chomsky, World-Renowned MIT Professor of Linguistics
9. Nicolaas Bloembergen, Nobel Laureate in Physics
10. Peter Atkins, World-Renowned Oxford Professor of Chemistry
11. Oliver Sacks, World-Renowned Neurologist, Columbia University
12. Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal
13. Sir John Gurdon, Pioneering Developmental Biologist, Cambridge
14. Sir Bertrand Russell, World-Renowned Philosopher, Nobel Laureate
15. Stephen Hawking, World-Renowned Cambridge Theoretical Physicist
16. Riccardo Giacconi, Nobel Laureate in Physics
17. Ned Block, NYU Professor of Philosophy
18. Gerard ‘t Hooft, Nobel Laureate in Physics
19. Marcus du Sautoy, Oxford Professor of Mathematics
20. James Watson, Co-discoverer of DNA, Nobel Laureate
21. Colin McGinn, Professor of Philosophy, Miami University
22. Sir Patrick Bateson, Cambridge Professor of Ethology
23. Sir David Attenborough, World-Renowned Broadcaster and Naturalist
24. Martinus Veltman, Nobel Laureate in Physics
25. Pascal Boyer, Professor of Anthropology
26. Partha Dasgupta, Cambridge Professor of Economics
27. AC Grayling, Birkbeck Professor of Philosophy
28. Ivar Giaever, Nobel Laureate in Physics
29. John Searle, Berkeley Professor of Philosophy
30. Brian Cox, Particle Physicist (Large Hadron Collider, CERN)
31. Herbert Kroemer, Nobel Laureate in Physics
32. Rebecca Goldstein, Professor of Philosophy
33. Michael Tooley, Professor of Philosophy, Colorado
34. Sir Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
35. Leonard Susskind, Stanford Professor of Theoretical Physics
36. Quentin Skinner, Professor of History (Cambridge)
37. Theodor W. Hänsch, Nobel Laureate in Physics
38. Mark Balaguer, CSU Professor of Philosophy
39. Richard Ernst, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
40. Alan Macfarlane, Cambridge Professor of Anthropology
41. Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson, Princeton Research Scientist
42. Douglas Osheroff, Nobel Laureate in Physics
43. Hubert Dreyfus, Berkeley Professor of Philosophy
44. Lord Colin Renfrew, World-Renowned Archaeologist, Cambridge
45. Carl Sagan, World-Renowned Astronomer
46. Peter Singer, World-Renowned Bioethicist, Princeton
47. Rudolph Marcus, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
48. Robert Foley, Cambridge Professor of Human Evolution
49. Daniel Dennett, Tufts Professor of Philosophy
50. Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics

Bet you were expecting Dawkins and Hitchens in there, weren't you? :)

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Lecture 5 - Knowledge (Epistemology)

Ever since Wittgenstein and his theory of family resemblance, philosophers have mainly abandoned the attempt to define concepts in terms of their "necessary and sufficient conditions" originally made famous by none other than Socrates. Still, the attempt is great practice in critical and creative thinking, and it can be incredibly helpful in illustrating what it is precisely that we mean when we deploy certain words in our discourse.

Now, one of the concepts that has been central to most philosophical discussions for the past few thousand years has been the concept of knowledge. What exactly does it mean to 'know' something? I hope you can immediately see why this is a theoretically and practically important question, but believe it or not, it turns out to be an exceedingly difficult concept, especially if we think of it in terms of wanting to defeat a global skeptic.

In the following fascinating lecture, Professor Millican demonstrates philosophy at work as he shows how philosophers wrestle with these conceptual issues. As you'll notice, each attempt at a definition will seem to encapsulate an intuitive conception of knowledge that captures most of what we might ordinarily mean by it, but its implications might produce new problems, which are usually shown with the deployment of thought experiments and counterexamples (like Gettier's). A new definition will be proposed to solve the previous problems, but new ones will arise. Lather, rinse, repeat, and you might think that this is going nowhere. I disagree. At the very least, we continue to learn the mistakes we are no longer entitled to make, and although slow, I think it does constitute a progress of sorts.

Click here to see the course slides
.

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Journey Through Canyons Time Lapse

About a year ago I went on a trip through various canyons in the Utah/Arizona area, and while my own feelings about that trip have gotten murky and confused over the past year (due to personal reasons), one thing that can't be denied is the sublime experience of the beautiful and the awesome (in the classical sense) when you get to see some of these incredible places.

So, when I came across the time lapse photography in the following video, I couldn't help but reminisce and be overcome by nostalgia...

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Michael Sandel on The Colbert Report

Questions of right and wrong confront us all the time and from all directions. Unfortunately, most of us are not equipped with the necessary philosophical background to think about them consistently, systematically and with a view to their logical implications.

Luckily, Professor Michael Sandel from Harvard University has an entire course (which we have already featured in its entirety) devoted to thinking philosophically about everyday moral issues.

But as if that weren't awesome enough already, Professor Sandel recently paid a visit to Stephen Colbert to talk about how to think philosophically about questions of justice ranging from whether it is fair for ARod to make so much money while teachers barely manage to scrape by to whether it's fair for Harvard students to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a course that you can watch freely on youtube :)

The Colbert Report
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And if you want to watch the Justice course, here are all the episodes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

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God: Wrong for America, Wrong for Your Penis

I recently reported on the absolutely bananas congregation sponsored by Texas governor Rick Perry. Very quickly, the idea is that a bunch of Christians "leaders" intent on running the country are basically aware that they have no idea how to do it, so their plan is just to ask God to help out. That's what I call leadership: give me the money, pray for someone else to magically fix the problems.

But as Stephen Colbert makes clear, having Yahweh as your vice-president ticket is not that different than having Joe Biden as your vice-president ticket...

The Colbert Report
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Since God is wrong for America, should you vote for Jesus, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, or Frankenstein?

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Belief in Evolution versus National Wealth

I have no idea how many of you follow items I share but don't actually post as entries on this blog, so it just occurred to me that you may not have seen the following picture (from Calamities of Nature), which represents a disturbing picture concerning our place in the intersection between financial wealth and sophistication in biological science :(



And if you do want to keep up with interesting and funny articles and other bits I share, you can follow me on twitter, or my google shared items page (to which you can also subscribe through its rss feed), or add me to your google+ circles (which also links to my google buzz). Is your head is spinning yet? :)

Oh, and don't forget to like our Facebook page!

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Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan

Political philosophy is tough business. One of its aims, for instance, is to understand how to balance the interests and rights of individual citizens with those of the state of which they are a part. Another has to do with figuring out the basis for the legitimacy of the state, as well as its limits. Even if we just stopped there, I'm sure you can see how difficult such endeavors must be.

Interestingly, much of our modern way of looking at questions of rights, obligations, authority and the legitimacy of the state can be traced back to Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, undoubtedly one of the greatest works on political philosophy ever written.

Part of the reason this is interesting is that Hobbes starts from a basic set of facts about human equality and competition for limited resources with which almost no one would disagree, and then draws inferences that inform a political system that, however totalitarian and outrageous you might find it to be, somehow manages to solve a great number of conceptual problems that have eluded most other ethical and political theories. And even when you think something is wrong with his point of view, it's almost impossible not to find it interesting anyway :)

Here's a quick introduction to Hobbes' Leviathan from Nigel Warburton's book Philosophy: The Classics:

And here's a Philosophy Bites episode in which Nigel Warburton discusses the importance and influence of Hobbes' philosophy with Quentin Skinner:

For a deeper analysis of Hobbes' Social Contract theory, listen to this fascinating discussion (iTunes only, sorry) with Quentin Skinner.

And this is the original cover of the Leviathan, representing "that mortal God, to which we owe... our peace and defence":



There is a youtube video of an introduction to Hobbes, from Yale University, which I have not had a chance to check out yet. If it's worth its salt, I'll be posting it soon.

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Final Countdown

With the final launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle two weeks ago and its (hopefully) safe return this Tuesday, we witnessed the end of an important era for NASA. Unfortunately, given the economic crisis and budgetary cuts, things aren't looking too hot for the near future, and that ought to worry us.

There is no denying that the scientific advances made by the space program have been invaluable simply in terms of what we've managed to learn about our immediate surroundings and even the far reaches of the universe. Still, I would argue that its largest contribution has been with that of inspiring generations of people with a vision of what we can accomplish when we roll up our sleeves, learn science and engineering, and are given the opportunity to make our dreams come true.

John Oliver, from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, meditates on the significance of the shuttle program, and discusses the issue with some important and inspiring figures.

The Daily Show - Final Countdown
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The God of the Gaps

There are many reasons why lots of otherwise reasonable people don't 'believe' in the theory of evolution. Yes, some of it has to do with their religious background and with a lack of basic education concerning science generally and evolution specifically, but that can't be the whole story.

Part of it also has to do with the way our minds work. For instance, we have a natural tendency to think teleologically (in terms of goals, purposes and design) and in terms of agency (there must be some intentional mind or subject behind any given phenomenon), and so we commit a basic category mistake when we apply these modes of thinking (the manufacture of industrial and commercial goods) to non-teleological phenomena (like biological complexity and organic processes).

But it doesn't stop there. The problem is that as evolved creatures, we have inherited a set of cognitive quirks and biases that conferred our ancestors with practical benefits that are not always conducive to the attainment of truth. To add insult to injury, our cognitive biases often lead us to commit logical fallacies, like the God of the Gaps argument.

In the following fascinating and amusing presentation, Neil deGrasse Tyson explains how even some of the greatest scientific minds of all time, people whose education and intelligence are unimpeachable, when confronted with the limits of their own knowledge and understanding, quickly retreat to this pernicious mode of poor thinking. In the process, he draws some deliciously thought-provoking lessons.

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Right-Wing Fundamentalists Go Bat Shit Insane!

This is the kind of thing you have to see and hear to believe because otherwise it just sounds like someone got high on some powerful drugs and tried to make up a crazy story: the religious 'leaders' summoned to Rick Perry's prayer rally are a series of Hitler-loving homophobic racists, a series of walking contradictions trapped in cognitive biases, poured over pain-inducing logical fallacies, hidden inside paranoid conspiracy theories, stuffed with incredulity, peppered with absolute conviction, and served on a platter of nuts... Oh yeah, and they want to take over the country.

And remember, if someone is being genuinely nice, they are most likely the harlot of Babylon :)

Via Pharyngula

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Immigrants for Sale

One of the problems with a free market is that when the market is the ultimate decider of values (and doesn't have to answer to anyone), it always decides on the side of profits, regardless of the ethical impact such choices might entail. And when profit is the ultimate goal, even human beings become a mere commodity to be exploited...

Of course, most of us are protected by the Bill of Rights, but undocumented immigrants usually have no knowledge of such rights, are too afraid to demand the respect they deserve as human beings (for fear of being deported, for instance), or have no voice or organization because they are automatically silenced by racist remarks shrouded in the mantra of 'stealing' American jobs (as if any of us would be willing to work that hard for so little pay).

The result, as the following animation shows, is that many immigrants are being recycled through a multi-billion self-perpetuating system of corruption that exploits them, and for which you and I are paying so that a bunch of greedy (and sometimes racists) jerks can profit...

Visit Immigrants for Sale to lend a hand to end this corruption.

And apropos of this entry, today's Calamities of Nature cartoon makes the same point:



Do you know where we really lose American jobs? Outsourcing... but since that's how corporations get to make shitloads of money, it makes sense that they'd want to distract the rest of us with the red herring of illegal immigration... and we are just too eager to take the bait :(

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Peter Singer vs. Don Marquis - Abortion Debate

Outside of philosophical circles, I'm sorry to say, arguments concerning the issue of abortion, for and against it, usually take place within the context of strong emotional prejudices rather than with the aim to develop a deeper understanding of the issue (not to say anything about the constant conflation of the moral with the legal question). Both sides frame the issue in convenient sound-bites: the sanctity of human life on the one side, and women's right to autonomy over their own bodies on the other. Both approaches are, in my view, rather narrow and one-sided: one side focuses only on the fetuses, while the other focuses only on the mothers. Good luck getting the other side to agree with you...

Interestingly, some of the most thought-provoking and promising arguments actually agree that the question of whether a fetus is a person is actually somewhat irrelevant, and in the following fascinating debate, you'll get to hear two professional philosophers, Peter Singer and Don Marquis, present well thought-out theories concerning the moral status of abortion. Agree or disagree with their views, they present a beautiful model of how issues as emotionally laden as abortion can be argued for in a cool and amiably rational fashion, developing in the process a better understanding and appreciation of the complexity behind this issue.

If you can't get the video to work, you can at least listen to it:

Hope your mind has been challenged and stimulated.

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I can haz shufistac8ed theolujee?

Look out Pastafarians! LOLCats can haz cheezburger, and Ceiling Cat 2?


Awgooments For Ceiling Cat

Thees awgooments ar in ur computer, teechin ur mind bout teh Ceiling Cat. They ar gud. i iz kwl!!!!!!!!!1


Felinopik Prinsipul
Teh howse is jus riet for us kittehs. Is not too cowd or too hot. Is jus niec an warm an cuddlee. Teh hoomins gif us fud wen we ask an scrach us wen we mew qyoot. We gets to slepe anywhar an teh hoomins even gif us warm piels of cleen close to lay on. How awesoem! If Ceiling Cat dint ecksist how cud all of dis happun? If teh howse wus too cowd we wud be ded kittehs wif ice! If teh howse wus too hot we wud be ded kittehs wif crispees! If hoomins not der to feed us we wud be reely skinneh and ded kittehs. If Ceiling Cat dint maek hoomins for us sleepin anywhar wud not be fun! An no cleen close to slepe on! Evewythin in howse is riet for kitteh and dat is how we kno Ceiling Cat is reel, srsly.

Aistetic Prinsipul
We aes lolcats cann appweshiate teh fien tings in leif. We luvs teh cheesburgerz an we luv it wen we haev a neic waerm bed to slepe in. Ceiling Cat maed evewyting so pwetty an tuld us tat it wer pwetty. Dat is wai Ceiling Cat is so orsum an wae luv teh Ceiling Cat.srsly

Fiwst Cawse (Cawsmolawgicle Awgooment)
Evewythin need a cawse, cuz, um, dat is how it is. We mew an hoomins gif us fud. Hoomins go in noysy box an go awayz an dey com bak wif fud. Dis is cawse an effekt. Who gifs teh hoomins fud? Oder hoomins cant gif hoomins fud so Ceiling Cat mus be givin dem fud for us and dem. See, Ceiling Cat bless teh hoomins wif fud for feedin us, how niec of Ceiling Cat! Hoomins must be pettin him awl teh tiem! Ceiling Cat maed teh fiwst mew, an he maed fud for awl hoomins and kittehs. Der be no utta way to maek fud, srsly. So Ceiling Cat stawteded it awl!

Ontologikewl
Saentcat Anselm was liek Iz gotsa ideah of dis graetest catbeing. Mai ideah of Ceiling Cat tis in mai miend. Ceiling Cat can bea realz. Srsly. Buttz ifs Ceiling Catz oenly plaeyin in mah hed and maibemietof existead den Ceiling Cat miet has bean moar pwnzor den he rlly is!! Oh noes!!1 Cuz den Ceiling Catz bigger in mah head den Ceiling Cat is fer realz! Airgoe, dis Ceiling Cat is moar grater den dat Ceiling Cat. Butz den, Saentcat Anselm was liek: "haha, I pwnzor uz catz wifout daeiteyz wif mah reduktshio add ubserdom!" Ceiling Cat can noe be bigger den anything else! Therefoars Ceiling Cat is in mah head ans in teh reelallities! Srsly!

Teh hiskool dropout
Iz findin cheezburger on ground and I noz sum dropoutz has been workin in MacD's. There cantz be a cheezburger withouts a hiskool dropout been makin it. So I sees Urfs and iz be thinking "Dang that bees wun fine Urfs" sumone must av maed it. dis fine urths cudnt av com form nothin. must b ceiling cat. kthxbai

Telljunt Dezynr
Can says "Oh Hai"? Liek who maik teh littrboxz? Liek who putin niec smelly new littr? Sum catz, riet? Nawt jus anny catz, riet? Reeeeeel smarty catz, meeee-oooowww! Can has rubs bellie? Nawt jus anny catz, riet? Niec rubs can has Ceiling Cat. Ceiling Cat has niec littrboxz first anna clumpy littr. Tehn youse catz can has one. Youse skratch, youse sqwat, den youse pee, den youse cover. Niec skratch. Oh Hai, lookey here! Nawt jus anny littr clump. Who can has maded this niec clumpy pee? Nawt jus anny catz, riet? Must be reeeeel smarty catz, riet? See? Lookey? Sniffz. Clumpz. Taht splanes it. Ceiling Cat teh Telljunt Dezynr uv reel niec clumpy pee. Ceiling Cat sez so. Srsly. K'Thnxbai.

Paffshcal's Wayjjur
Paffshcal wus clever kitteh hu wus laik: "I am not knoin if teh Ceiling Cat is reel." Oh noes! But Paffshcal was thinkin an thinkin, an he wus laik "If I is beleefin in teh Ceiling Cat, and he is reel, I will be gettin cheezburger. But if I has no beleefin in teh Ceiling Cat, and he is reel, I will be getting pwned. If there no Ceiling Cat, no matter anywai. I think I is beleefin in teh Ceiling Cat."

Moarlz
All teh kittehs are knowing wut is gud and wut is no gud. Cheezburgers be good, and pwnin ur eminies is no gud (fur dem lol). How ar we knowing these tings if Ceiling Cat has not tuwd us?! Ceiling Cat tells all teh kittehs wut is gud and wut is no good, so we knows wut to do. In a pewfec wold doowin gud wud be ruwaded bai hapines butt dis aint alwaiys rite cos dis wun tiem ia wus leik "hai hows yu" an he wus leik "GTFO". Dis means dat der mus be moar leif to reewad us wit teh cheezburgerz we deeservs, an dat mus be Ceiling Cat. kthnxbai.

Eeridoosibul Complexitee
Der iz sum fings dat iz so complicatd dat dey had tu be creeatd, cuz if yu taeks wun pees off, dey not wurks anymoar. Liek, der iz teh sofa, an it iz gud fr sleeping. But if yu taeks teh pillow off, it not gud anymoar! Cleerly, teh sofa cood not evolv. LOLZ. If yu finks teh sofa evolvd, yu iz stoopid. we wearz nawchoes kaythnxbai

Mai very speshul miricle!
I wuz in mai chair and i wuz feelin reely reely icky bicky. I hadz a diseez: Oh noes! But i asked teh Ceiling Cat to save me reely nicely. I was laik "pleez" and "kthx" and everythings! Then i looked outs of teh windows and i saw teh sun shining on me. I wuz feeling Ceiling Cat lickin me clean. At the end I wuz all betta! Ceiling Cat maded my diseez goes away! Hu else could be invisible doctor?!?!?! Sow Ceiling Cat is reel, kthnxbai.

Rellijus Xpiryunce
Sum luckeh kittehs iz visted by teh Ceiling Cat an tehn tehy do weeurd stuff liek wot they hadnt befour. Liek tehr wus a kitteh once tha wuz killin all teh niec kittehs tha wuz lieking the Ceiling Cat. Booooo!!! But tehn he wuz on teh way to kill sum more kittehs wen teh Ceiling Cat cum down an tek awey teh kittehs eyez. He wuz liek WTF!?!? An teh Ceiling Cat wuz liek “wy yu be killin mai kittehs? Iz gonna pwn yu” but thn he didnt pwn him an gev him his eyez bak an teh kitteh wuz so graytful an he lieked the Ceiling Cat to jus liek the kittehs hed bin killin!

Awgooment frum Happies
Wif beleefs in Ceiling Cat I can has a happie. Wif no Ceiling Cat I wud be sad liek teh LOLrus wif no bukkit. I do wants can has a happie so I beleefs in Ceiling Cat kthxbai. Srsly

Teh Kittehless Ceiling Nietmaer
Srsly, hav yu haz teh kittehnip??/????/? It fitz in kittehs pawz. It iz ez to et. It maekz kittehz teh happiez. It not maekz kittehz teh sik. It dekompoez gud. Old kittehz can haz kittehnip an babiez can haz kittehnip. Srsly. D00dz dat no liek Ceiling Cat can haz pruf cuz kittehnip wuz maed for teh kittehs. Srsly. Dat d00d from Groing Paynz sez itz treu an him iz smart.

Wai R We Rguin Aneway?
Srsly, taht jus goin back to Ceiling Cat. All teh rguing bout' Ceiling Cat not bein reel r just peepel bein jellis an stuff. Srsly.

Ceiling Cat PWNS
Him no can has kittehs bleev n Hm if he no PWNS the ceiling an da flor. Iz just one kitteh but i bleevs bcuz if no PWNS wy falow, srsly? why n00bkitteh thinkin can maek Ceiling Cat kitteh us can PWNS? no maek sens. Ceiling Cat maek kitteh on flor laek Him, but NO CAN BEES Ceiling Cat. Srsly. U want to pwn all n00bs but do rite thing bah all kitteh? nao. din thunkso. Ceiling Cat PWNS bcuz him knao all bout kitteh laek me and likes me whollotz anyways n give JebusCat so ai no dai no moar.i been bad kitteh and do all notty things but Ceiling Cat luvz me and gis me cheezburger an cookie and invizbl bikes cuz he waents me be hapi, but i only happi cuz ceiling cat luvz me n would be happy wifout cheezburger if i can has ceiling cat pwns me 4ever. Srsly.


Awgooments not for Ceiling Cat

Note dat moest agooments bulloh fawlo dis logik: "Ceiling Cat is liek dis" (evin tho no b bileevin in Ceiling Cat) n their4 shud do dis. But iz bad logik. Ceiling Cat haz wants we kittehs not see. Uf coars he wantz us have cheezburgr, but also he wantz us choos bitween gud n bad. Ceiling Cat wantz us 2 not skraetch cowch cuz we want gud, not cuz we scared uf basement. He awso want free will so he caent pruve he der. If he pruve it, den choice iz ceiling or basement n not gud or bad. No kitteh want basement, but meny kitteh want bad. To chuse bad, kitteh must not bileev in basement. Utherwies kitteh chuse gud 2 avoyd basement, not cuz kitteh want 2B gud. That y Ceiling Cat sneeky, that y Ceiling Cat not rain cheezburger, that y Ceiling Cat not gifts miricals 2 all kittehs. Sum kittehs warn udder kittehs be gud or get pwned in da basement, but dat iz bad theiolgy. Ceiling Cat not want 2 pwn and not thret to pwn. Ceiling Cat want all kittehs chuse gud, b gud, luv him, and luv uther kittehs. If kitteh no want 2b gud and just pwn udder kittehs and cowchez, den kitteh diserv da basement. So iz not thret to be gud, iz inviet to life, srsly. kthxbai. ~Ceiling Pawfit

Awgooment from No Has Cheezburger
If Ceiling Cat wuz reel, He iz gud kitteh nd haz teh powerz to pwn evrywun. But if Ceiling Cat wuz gud kitteh, then He wants all teh kittehs to haz cheezburger. Nd if Ceiling Cat has powerz to pwn evrywun, He haz powerz tu gives all teh kittehs cheezburger. But sum kittehs no has cheezburger. :'( So Ceiling Cat iz not reel.
(Sum n00bs say this iz becoz Ceiling Cat gived us Free Will, and teh reel reason some kittehs no has cheezburger is becoz other kittehs yuze Free Willz tu steel cheezburger and eated it--not Ceiling Cat's fawlt! But this splaination not plausibling: everycat knowz that cheezburger iz better than Free Will. Sum saiz dat Free Will maeks sum kittehs not wantz Ceiling Cat, an dey livz in teh toylut bowl cuz dey refwse beelevin in Ceiling Cat. Not Ceiling Cat's fawlt! kthxbye)

Rddl ov teh Epicuriuz kitteh
If cellin cat can haz willz maek u not do sumfing eefil den he dontz... den he no can b omnizpten. If he wanZ but no can has?!!1!? Srsly? den he suckZ azz. no can haz cheezbuger. cantz cellin cat do both? werez b basement cat frum den? If cellin cat no canz haz do bof den mebbez we aint b callinz him dat no mo. hez can haz no cheezburger srsly. pwnd. gtfo

Awgooments frum Eevul in teh Urfs
He, liek, nevr duz anyfing. An der iz lots ov bad fings in wurldz. Liek, I wuz in teh best warm spot on teh rug, but den it moovd, an Iz cood not be in it anymoar. WAI, CEILING CAT, WAI??? WAI YU SO CROOL??? So, him not exist. An teh Ceiling Cat sed tu kill teh Jews, but wez not ded yet! LOLZ! Yu looz!
Counterargument from Rajah: Ceiling Cat too buzy sleeping and eating cheezburger to du nethink. You has no bad things in Ceiling! If you be bad and not believ in him, he wil maek bad tings happen to you. So therez. Jews git killed in apucolpse. Not yt.

Natrullistick Fallissey
Wen ceiling cat sez that stuf is gud ther is problum cuz yu cant sey yu ort to do sumthing logickly just cuz of wot it iz, srsly. Yu mite wnt to cuz yu mite get cheezburger but thatz not logickl or morul. So ceiling cat iz silly an Iz not lisning. STFU n00b or I will pwn yu cus therz no morulz.

Teh Yewtheefro Dielemmer
How do we kno ceiling cat iz good? He miet be lyin. He sez he iz gud but sum stuf seems harsh. If evrythin he sez iz gud iz gud thn gudnes is arbitrerry. but if hez gud ackordin to a hier ideeul then he iz not tha ultimut, srsly. liek ceiling cat sez taht gays is rong an gurl kittehs shud serv therr boy kittehs, but lots of kittehs tinkin taht is rong. So we iz knowin wot iz riet withowt ceiling cat, so no need for ceiling cat.

Miriclez is Hapnin Sumtimes
If ceiling cat iz doin teh miricles tehn wy is he only doin it sumtimes? liek why is he savin teh Jew kittehs from teh prissy egypt kittehs but not from teh hairy jermun kittehs? ceiling cat be pwnin kittehs can no be gud. he give miriclez to awl teh gud kittehs who eet cheezburgerz awl teh tiem. liek he givd geico for savinz fifteen percentz awn cahr insuranzez an stuf. bad kittehs wif fancee feest no be tastee cheezburgerz kittehs an ceiling cat no liek thows kittehs. CEILING CAT BE PWNIN AWL DE TIEM AN PUTZ COWL IN YOOZ STOCKINZ

Teh Powerz Contradichun
If Ceiling Cat is havvin teh powerz to does anythun and also if Cat can srsly know abouts evrythun that is abouts to happun then leik howz is possupple? If Ceiling is knowun wat Cieling Cat is about to does how can he has powerz to change sumfin he knows gon happen? kthxbai.

Infinit Wegeshun
Look around an see niec stuff liek kitteh an hooman an cheezburger an iz so niec mus be maded by reeeel smarty catz. But hoo can has maded smarty catz? Mus be reeeeel reeeeeel smarty catz. Srsly. But who can has maded reeeeel reeeeeel smarty catz? Dis jus give smarty catz maded smarty catz for eva an iz, liek, stoopid.
Insted, can has evolution. Evolution is, liek, oh hai? u wants cheezburger u wait. Srsly. Iz gotta start simpul an bild an bild an bild til I can has reeel complex stuff. Even cheezburger. Evolution no can has kitteh littrboxz so need moar luck, but anthropic prinshipul say can has stuff even reeel smarty catz not imagin. Srsly. So no need Ceiling Cat. kthxbai

Reely beeg cheezburger
Ceiling Cat cans do anyfink, but cans he make a cheezburger so big that evn He cans not nom eet?!?!?!?! If he cans not maik it, he cans not do evrythink, but if he cans, and then he cans not nom eet, he still cans not do evryfings!?!?!?! Oh noes! So Ceiling Cat cans not be doing everythink, so He iz not bein reel.

Kittehless Ceiling Wedgar
So dis d00d Pascal wuz liek "if i beleevs in Ceiling Cat, i winz neways, evn if Celing Cat reel or not." An den dees kittehs dat no haz beleefs in Ceiling Cat sed "how u noes wich Ceiling Animule to beleev in? Srsly. An if Celing Cat is reel, he gun noes u jus wants free ried to the Ceiling. An den wut bout all the tiems u wastesz goin to church n stuff if Cileng Cat not reel? An wat if u jus preten to beeleef thatz Ceiling Cat is reel cuz den u wil jus be pertend an u wil go to basment Cat newaiz. Fur reelz liek."

Free will paradoks
Ceiling Cat givz free will, but he noes what kittehs r going 2 do cuz Ceiling Cat iz omnishcientz. Dis is paradoks cuz u no can haz free will if Ceiling Cat allreedy noes wut ur going 2 do, srsly. Kthxbai.
Kounterargumentz: We can has Free Will an Ceeling Cat can still haz omni... omnomnom... know evry things. This is 'cause wez no can has know what our choicez will be B4 we makes dem. Liek I can has psychic powah! So I no u is skrach yer head aftar readin' dis, but I no tellz U dat. So, I has knowing, and u does not, so u stil haz Free Will 'bout skrach head, even do I new B4 u did it. Iz like dat wif Ceeling Cat, only al time. kthxbai.

Wuttif Iz is missin a fwend
If Iz are gud but won of mai fwends iz bad den dey is goin 2 teh basemnts, rite? but if dey arented on da Ceiling wif me den wont i be sad cuz Iz cant eated cheezburger wif dem? but pplz sayen dat Ceiling is da ulltimat happy place n u cant be da tainiest bit sad n stuf. but if ur fwend is r n da basemnts u gotz 2 be da sad fur dem amirite? dis makeded no sense. srsly. kittehs r awesume, -frum cheezeburgeryum

No Can Has Basement Cat
Ceiling Cat can do anyfing k? And he want to give kittehs cheezburger k? But dere's Basement cat, who take kitteh's cheezburgers. If Ceiling Cat can doo anyfing and want give kittehs cheezburgers, den y he not dstroy Basement Cat? No make sense!!! awl teh ceiling cat can doo is giv gud kittehz teh cheezburgerz an pwn basement cat sumtiemz. yoo has choiees 2 doo gud kitteh tings. bad kittehs has basement cat. dat is dat. kthanx, srsly. Wherr Basement Cat fit in all diz wiv Ceelin cat

Yarr, iz not a miff - Basement Cat is fo'reel. OK he no mind u tinkin Ceiling Cat iz teh mozt awsesum - but rly widdout Basement Cat der wuld be no balunce and widdout balunce in teh yooniverz it wuld ALL go crazee so Basement Cat's purrpus iz to bring stabeeliteez. OK if u bee wantin u can say he is darrk or evilz or sumting; Basement Cat no reely care. He kno he iz awse. He kno he is needed. He kno wut hiz purrpus iz an so he juz do his job - wich iz simplee tu bee.


Via: LOLCat Bible

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Richard Feynman - Cargo Cult Science

There is no denying that Richard Feynman was an eccentric genius, even by eccentric genius standards. It is just a cold fact of life that most of us will never be quite that creative or productive. Still, that doesn't mean that we couldn't train ourselves to be more like him. To begin with, a substantial percentage of what made him stood out was his refusal to just accept any proposition given to him as obviously true. It doesn't matter if we're talking science, philosophy, art, social mores, etiquette, etc. You don't have to be doing quantum electrodynamics to be like him. If you think anything is obvious in any of the familiar realms above, you're already failing to question and become inquisitive, to ask yourself why such propositions are accepted as true.

And when you combine that curious nature with his scientific integrity: his wholehearted commitment to honesty and the discovery of truth, you end up with a fascinating and thought-provoking little lecture like this:

Check out Feynman speak about his love of the pleasures of discovery.

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The Unluckiest (and Cutest) Man in the World

Hey dear readers, I won't be around for a couple of days, so there may be no entries until next week. In the meantime, though, you've got to get a load of this:

Imagine that your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi: you live in, let's say Japan around 1945, and then one day in August you go on a little business trip to Hiroshima. Yeah, you can imagine what happens next. Not good.

But here's where the story gets interesting: probably thinking "holy shit, I'd better get the hell out of this apocalyptic nightmare," Mr. Yamaguchi decided to take the first train home, which is in... Nagasaki. And now you can imagine what happened next.

The odd thing is that the man survived, and just passed away last year. Anyway, here's Stephen Fry and friends relating the story and adding a little humor to it

The great thing about him was that he wasn't embittered by the experience, or even against the people who dropped the bombs.

Instead, he spent a considerable part of his later years advocating for international nuclear disarmament "because of what it does to the dignity of human beings."

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Everything and Nothing - Nothing

The idea of a vacuum, nothingness or the void has troubled Western thinkers since at least the time of Parmenides. The problem started as a logical puzzle: how could nothingness, something non-existent by definition, be?

This rejection of the very possibility of nothingness is captured in the famous medieval dictum ex nihilo nihil fit (nothing comes from nothing), used among other things to prove the existence of God, since the universe, it was thought, could not have sprung from nothing all on its own (never mind where God came from). You probably won't find it surprising that it would be David Hume who would first challenge this notion when he declared that, logically speaking at least, anything could come from anything :)

But the problem isn't merely a logical one: it's also empirical. Since at least the time of Aristotle, attempts to create a vacuum consistently failed for almost two thousand years; that is, until Evangelista Torricelli serendipitously managed to create one when he invented the barometer and proved that we live at the bottom of an invisible ocean of air.

With the creation of a vacuum, and as Professor Jim Al-Khalili shows in this fascinating documentary, scientists have slowly come to understand not only the nature of vacuums and nothingness but that the entire universe may owe its existence, literally, to nothingness... There will be some quantum weirdness here, but of the real kind...

Couldn't those fluctuations be due to something as mundane as neutrinos flying through the tanks?

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The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics

So, after watching Brian Cox's documentary Wonders of the Solar System, you now have a basic idea of how the solar system came together. But what about our own planet?

Things may normally look stable and sedentary to our eyes, but there are still great geological forces constantly at work (hot enough to liquify rocks!), reshaping the planet and literally moving the ground beneath us...

And for this next part, I will admit almost complete ignorance: I have no idea how they've managed to reconstruct this much geological history, so for all I know, this could be a combination of evidence-based reconstruction mixed with a bit of theoretical speculation.

Any geologists out there who can help clarify?

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John Adams - Declaration of Independence

As I've argued before, the Founding Fathers were not this monolithic and unified myth of unanimous agreement we often fantasize or 'remember'. A lot of what they managed to accomplish (even the approval of the Declaration of Independence) was not simply the result of high idealism and selfless patriotism but of back-alley deals and political maneuvering (else we would have gotten rid of slavery from the start). Sometimes, as we all do from time to time, they did the right thing for the wrong reasons.

This is to be expected. Admirable as they were in many respects, they were still human, and prone to compartmentalization, opportunism and sheer disagreement... but that's exactly the point of democracy: that we work through our problems, that we enter the marketplace of ideas and choose from among the various proposals those that are best defended. We don't all need to hold the same ideas as 'self-evident truths', but we can discuss them and let the best ideas rise to the top.

Anyway, the following clip shows that the birth of our own nation wasn't immune to the pain and struggle that all births must endure:

And if you want more, check out the Founding Fathers' rap or this ballad of the declaration...

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Wonders of the Solar System - Order Out of Chaos

Taken as a whole, the solar system is a remarkable display of patterns and order: the sun sits at the center, planets rotate around it in regular and predictable orbits, and moons do the same around the planets. The very look of it superficially resembles the workings of a clock. So how did it all come to be arranged so nicely?

In the following breath-taking documentary, Professor Brian Cox explains how three key concepts are all we need to understand how all this order arose out of the chaos of what was once only an amorphous cloud of dust: gravity, the conservation of angular momentum and orbital resonance. In order to illustrate the importance of these concepts, Cox explores a natural small-scale solar system that still reveals these processes: Saturn and its beautiful rings, including a remarkable appearance by Enceladus.

Oh yeah, while trying to explain the conservation of angular momentum, he also goes hunting for tornadoes... and then has to run away because he may have gotten too close :)

Don't forget to watch the first episode of this series, which focuses on the sun.

For more, check out the incredible promise of Saturn's moon Titan.

Or learn more about how truly remarkable complexity (like you and me) can literally arise out of disorder in Jim Al-Khalili's The Secret Life of Chaos.

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