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A strange paradox: the better we manage to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the less we will learn from it

corona

  Every prophet of doom, unless he also happens to be a psychopath, hopes that his predictions will not be borne out. This is also true for the epidemiologists and virologists who have been warning the world since January that the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus poses a severe threat to public health around the world. Since then, these pessimists have been… Lees verder »A strange paradox: the better we manage to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the less we will learn from it

Is extreme wealth a greater evil than extreme poverty?

Imagine you could wave a magic wand to make one thing disappear from the world: extreme poverty or extreme wealth. Which would you choose? Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we won’t be liquidating anyone: we’ll just hand out and take away money, respectively. According to Oxfam’s annual report on inequality released last week, there are currently 2,153 billionaires in the world.… Lees verder »Is extreme wealth a greater evil than extreme poverty?

Why activists have become a bigger obstacle to effective climate policy than denialists

At the root of our climate problem, writes Pope Francis in his ecological encyclical Laudato Si, lies our human pride and arrogance: “The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves.” Coming from a Catholic Pope, such sentiments are hardly surprising. For centuries, Christian thinkers have railed… Lees verder »Why activists have become a bigger obstacle to effective climate policy than denialists

Effective Altruism for the Climate

As an ‘effective altruist’, what should you do about climate change? ‘Let’s Fund’, an organization that abides by the principles of Effective Altruism, figured it out. By far the most promising (but underfunded) climate policy is investment in technological innovation. After “hundreds hours of research”, Let’s Fund calculated that the most effective way to donate to combat climate change is… Lees verder »Effective Altruism for the Climate

Have we reached the limit of human knowledge?

Despite huge advances in science over the past century, our understanding of nature is still far from complete. Not only have scientists failed to find the Holy Grail of physics – unifying the very large (general relativity) with the very small (quantum mechanics) – they still don’t know what the vast majority of the universe is made up of. The sought after Theory of Everything continues to elude… Lees verder »Have we reached the limit of human knowledge?

A giant, cosmic conspiracy

My long-time collaborator, the physicist Taner Edis​, has a cool new paper in which he draws analogies between religions and conspiracy theories. In dealing with challenges from modern science, theologians have often resorted to conspiracies, both involving the “scientific establishment” and God himself (or Satan). In some respects, according to Edis, the responses to evolutionary theory developed by liberal theologians… Lees verder »A giant, cosmic conspiracy

Humor Is a Cover for Racism

The fight against institutional racism recently won a major victory in the Netherlands. The organizers of Zwarte Cross (‘Black Cross’), a major Summer festival combining motorcross and music, finally decided to remove various Islamophobic and racist signs from their premises, following outrage on social media by activists. (Trigger warning: I will be forced to quote some racist statements in this… Lees verder »Humor Is a Cover for Racism

Four Flavors of Doom: A Taxonomy of Contemporary Pessimism

In his short, provocative book Has the West Lost It?, the Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani identifies a curious paradox. In many respects, the world has never been in better shape than today. People live longer, healthier, more peaceful, and safer lives than at any previous time in history. According to Mahbubani, this enormous improvement in the human condition is a result of… Lees verder »Four Flavors of Doom: A Taxonomy of Contemporary Pessimism

Why Tom Holland was not wrong about Christianity (though his new book may prove otherwise)

It’s always instructive to learn why someone changed their mind about something. It takes courage and intellectual honesty to admit having been wrong. After reading the title of this essay, I was all eager to discover why exactly the historian Tom Holland thinks he was wrong about Christianity. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really deliver on that promise. Just when it gets… Lees verder »Why Tom Holland was not wrong about Christianity (though his new book may prove otherwise)

Disbelief About Belief. Why Secular Academics Do Not Understand the Motivations of Religious Fundamentalists

The Dutch newspaper Financieel Dagblad recently published a rather disturbing interview with a former member of the Hofstad Network, a jihadist group that was active in the Netherlands in the first few years of this century. This ex-Islamist, named Jason Walters, threw a hand grenade at police during a raid in The Hague in 2004, and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2006… Lees verder »Disbelief About Belief. Why Secular Academics Do Not Understand the Motivations of Religious Fundamentalists