Untimely meditations

One man's thoughts, observations and rants

Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.

Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.

Latest posts

  • “New Atheism” bashing

    “New Atheism” bashing

    Recently, there have been a number of publications that criticise “New Atheism”. Take for instance the article by dr. Patrick O’Connor who complains that atheism isn’t about more than just not believing in god. A silly position, as I have explained here. Or the book “The Leprechaun Delusion“, equating “New Atheism” with a dangerous cult,…

  • Why is atheism so unbelievable?

    Why is atheism so unbelievable?

    Why is atheism so unbelievable? It’s something that I can’t for the life of me understand. Personally, I think it should be the default position of anyone who purports to be sane. Even in the Netherlands, which is now largely a secular country, I’m still told: “Well, you have to believe in something?” The last…

  • Creation

    Creation

    We all know the image of Charles Darwin above, an elderly man with a long beard and a pensive, somewhat haunted look. You can see that this is a man who has seen things, a man who has been places and a man who has known struggle. “Creation” tells this story but also tells the…

  • Over a dozen skeletons of an unknown, early Homo species found

    Over a dozen skeletons of an unknown, early Homo species found

    Earlier this week, I Pressed this article. And now: an entire new Homo species. Just goes to show that there’s still a lot we don’t know about how our species came to be, exactly. What is evident though is that our evolution has been going on longer and more diverse than was previously thought. Homo…

  • Questions for atheists

    Questions for atheists

    I was browsing some atheism related blogs and found a link to a lengthy list of questions for atheists at the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry and I figured I’d have a go at answering them. You’re actually supposed to send them in via email but what good is having a blog if you’re not…

  • Humans aren’t so special after all: The fuzzy evolutionary boundaries of Homo sapiens

    Humans aren’t so special after all: The fuzzy evolutionary boundaries of Homo sapiens

    It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that humans aren’t so different from our closest relatives. After all, evolution doesn’t create sharply defined edges between species. Over time, populations diverge slowly until they differ enough that we label them as a different species. Exciting new evidence of Neanderthals and Homo Erectus creating abstract patterns reveals…

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“There are two different kinds of people in the world: those who want to know, and those who want to believe.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher