For you science-minded atheists... (and everyone else)

[AlbertCat]

As most people paying attention know, science has been eating away at god's powers for centuries now. God used to open every individual flower, but now we know about plant hormones.... and so on. About the only things left for god to do was create the amazing intricate designs of living things and create everything, something from nothing. Well, Darwin and Natural Selection relinquished god of the "living things" power...

and the new merger of particle physics (the study of the very very small) with cosmology (the study of the very very big) is pulling the rug out from under the creating something from nothing god.

Here's a video of a lecture from the 2009 AAI (Atheist Alliance International) Conference given by Lawrence Krauss on the latest consensus among physicists on what's going on in the empty space between quarks.... and elsewhere. Totally amazing and mind blowing science. It's about 50 minutes. Enjoy!

Be sure to post on YouTube! There are a lot of religious posters poo-pooing the lecture (though many of them haven't even watched it)

[MarkCharles]

1. Wonderful concept, to discuss bonds between science and atheism and offer video and

other links.

I would have some others to offer here, particularly upon the history and philosophy of science and history of scientific discovery, most of it related to evolution and also the physical earth and planetary sciences.

I'll take a longer look at this video before commenting, but maybe that's something we can do more freely here in our new forum: feature video threads. I never quite got the hang of how to do that in the old forum.


My favorite quote so far: "Forget Jesus, the stars died so that you could have life!"

[Fumesucker]

2. Ever read Clarke's "The Star"?

http://www.byui.edu/onlinelearning/courses/hum/202/TheStar.htm

It's the first thing I thought of when I read that quote..

Edited for speling.

[sarge43]

9. "We are made of star stuff." Carl Sagan. n/t

[MarkCharles]

3. I had seen this once before, but seeing it again, Thank you!

Very worthwhile hour or so spent watching it again.

More astrophysics than I ever got in college or anywhere else.

Well done.

Some people might like this book for Christmas... or any time...written by this speaker.

"Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (Great Discoveries)"

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Man-Richard-Feynmans-Discoveries/dp/0393064719

[AlbertCat]

6. I read several of his books after I saw this lecture.

All are great. Some are easy reads....

"The Physics of Star Trek"
"Beyond Star Trek"

And others a little more difficult... but well worth it.

"Atom"
"Hiding in the Mirror"
"Quintessence" (the hardest...but sooooo good!)

I've got the Feynman bio but haven't read it yet. (I'm trying to get thru Steven Pinker's "How the Mind Works" right now.)

But I read like a 5th grader! I actually hear each word in my mind. It takes me forever to read a book. But this also means, if I can read them, so can you!

[laconicsax]

4. The book's coming out next month.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145162445X

[sarge43]

10. Thanks. I put it in the queue. n/t

[warrior1]

5. awesome

thanks for posting this.

[Warpy]

7. This is wonderful, well worth the hour it took to watch it

I haven't bothered posting over at You Tube, the religious idiots can't be educated, they're idiots. The reachable and teachable religious people are capable of judging this on its own merits, which are many.

[R0ckyRac00n]

8. Thank you for the post

I greatly enjoyed watching.

[emsimon33]

11. Thank you for posting this.

Very interesting.

[deacon_sephiroth]

12. Loved this video for a while now

I went and found this immediately after Hitchens recommended it in an interview, he also said Krauss is one of the greatest living physicists. The Hitch doesn't offer compliments very often, so I had to go see... awesome.

[thereismore]

13. I actually took General Relativity in graduate school back in the 90's.

Understanding this talk gave me a damn-near "religious" experience! We, and all the matter in the Universe, are a consequence of quantum fluctuations out of nothingness. The Universe has zero energy throughout, and yet it is real. Something out of nothing, in a very real way, and inevitably so!

[Odin2005]

14. too cool!