Author: Joop Beris
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Christopher Hitchens
I have mentioned Christopher Hitchens here before. By the time I had heard about him, checked out Youtube videos showing him debating theists and others, he had sadly already passed away some months before. I say sadly because when I listened to him debating people with his style, his eloquence and his unrelenting exposure of…
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Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn’t add up.
As the linked article from the Washington Post illustrates, there are good reasons to doubt that there was ever a historical Jesus. And yet, when I go through the gospels I can’t shake the feeling that there must be something more to it then a simple story. There’s just too much justification going on, too…
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Atheism must be about more than just not believing in god – really?
Today in my Twitter feed, there appeared an article from Dr. Patrick O’Connor, entitled “Atheism must be about more than just not believing in god“. In the article, Dr. O’Connor argues that atheism should turn away from humanistic values and look instead to non-humanistic philosophy like that of Sartre or Nietzsche or risk losing its…
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One gene may drive leap from single cell to multicellular life – life – 22 June 2015 – New Scientist
The question “why and how did life ever go from single cell lifeforms to multicellular life” has been a challenge to answer for biologists. It was thought that this was a giant evolutionary hurdle. New research suggests that this may actually be quite easy. If these findings hold up, we’ve taken an important step in…
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Why vocal anti-theism matters
People in the Netherlands or in many other places in Europe aren’t very much taken aback when you tell them you don’t believe in God or that you don’t have faith. It’s not all that uncommon here, fortunately. There are some that raise an eyebrow when you announce that you are an atheist. Somehow using…
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Cradle of creation: Evolution shapes up new ecosystem in the lab – life – 19 June 2015 – New Scientist
There are still opponents to evolution, most often found in religious circles. They are fond of claiming that evolution has never been observed by science. Well, here is a long running science experiment that has taken a strain of E. Coli bacteria through 60.000 generations. Monitoring the genetic changes in the organisms, the team running…