dawkins at Brave New Films

Gods Plan - with Sarah Palin

2008-11-01T09:30:39Z

We've all seen the interviews, but when you have someone recutting the video along with an interesting narrative you have a new outlook on Sarah Palin.

Take it away CHARLIE

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Riz Khan - Darwin's legacy - 21 July 08 Part 2

2008-10-28T03:30:57Z

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first announcement of Darwin's theory of natural selection, the main driving force behind evolution. More than a century and half later his theories continue to be hotly debated, raising issues of Creationism and Intelligent Design, as well as what we should be teaching our children in schools about the creation of man.

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Riz Khan - Darwin's legacy - 21 July 08 Part 1

2008-10-28T03:30:56Z

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Atheists and the Stock Market

2008-10-16T21:31:06Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Bestselling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb gives his take on beliefs, religion, and stock market analysts.

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The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought with Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses his book, The Black Swan in relation to predicting the future, learning from the consequences of the unknown, and the power of randomness.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an essayist, belletrist, and researcher only interested in one single topic, chance (particularly extreme and rare events, the "Black Swans" i.e. outliers); but it falls at the intersection of philosophy/epistemology (skepticism; knowledge about the dynamics of history; inferential claims), philosophy/ethics (stoicism facing random events; theories of nonhedonic happiness), mathematical sciences (probability theory, statistical physics), social science/finance (opacity & incomplete information in economics), and cognitive science (the mental biases making us "fooled" by randomness). He mainly derives his intuitions from a 2-decade long and intense practice of derivatives trading ("nondull" activities with plenty of randomness).

Taleb is currently a researcher at London Business School. He the Dean’s Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Fellow in Mathematics in Finance, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University (since 1999), and research fellow, Wharton School Financial Institutions Center, and Chairman, Empirica LLC.

Taleb held senior trading positions with trading houses in New York and London and operated as a floor trader before founding Empirica LLC. His degrees include an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. from the University of Paris. He is the author of Dynamic Hedging, Fooled by Randomness, and The Black Swan.

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Hitchens VS Religion No Music (1/5)

2008-10-17T15:31:56Z

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Sam Harris - Misconceptions About Atheism

2008-10-24T09:29:47Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author Sam Harris addresses what he feels are several commonly-held misconceptions about atheism.

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"Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World" with Sam Harris speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.

Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction.

Mr. Harris' writing has been published in over ten languages. He and his work have been discussed in Newsweek, TIME, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, Der Spiegel, The Globe and Mail, New Scientist, Wired, SEED Magazine, and many other journals.

Mr. Harris makes regular appearances on television and radio to talk about the danger that religion now poses to modern societies. His essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He blogs for the Washington Post / Newsweek website: On Faith, the Huffington Post, TruthDig, and Edge.org. Mr. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. He is completing a doctorate in neuroscience.

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Religion Panel - Do Athiests Lack "Spiritual Values?"

2008-10-26T03:30:17Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

A panel of religious experts debates the question of whether or not "spiritual values" can be said to be held by individuals who to not profess a belief in God.

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Many studies show that Americans are more religious than people in other Western countries, but battles still rage in the United States over the role of religion in everyday public life.

This panel of religious thinkers comment on the role of faith in transcending individualism and selfishness in a commercial society, on addressing the variety of faiths in our spiritually diverse society, and on religion's role in education. -- The Commonwealth Club

Michael Maudlin is Editorial Director at Harper One San Francisco.

Stephen Prothero is the Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University and the author of numerous books, most recently Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007) and American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003).

Rabbi Michael Lerner is a political activist and the editor of Tikkun, a prominent progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine based in Berkeley, California.

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