Philosophy

The third of our stories since the new year to end with a question mark - over at Edge, some of our leading thinkers and scientists were asked the question what will change everything?. Answers range from the discovery of intelligent life from somewhere else through our ability to conquer death to superintelligence, universal translation, climate change and human-chimpanzee hybrids.

Pity the poor faith schools. According to a pamphlet published today by the Centre for Policy Studies, penned by Cristina Odone, they are under threat as never before from "a government … aligning itself with a stridently secularist lobby". Few apart from than Odone can have noticed this dangerous development.

The recent debate in the UK about organ donation was surprisingly heated. People complained about a “nanny state” infringing on their post-mortem rights; some threatened to tear up their donor cards if the proposed change to an “opt-out” system went ahead.

This is just from the ‘A’ section – go to the Butterflies and Wheels website for more.

Acceptance
Nice, warm, cooperative way of evaluating ideas, much better than argument.

Accuracy
Exploded concept. Foolish, Platonic notion that we can get our facts straight.

Alphabet
The opposite of the Goddess. "But one pernicious effect of literacy has gone largely unnoticed: writing subliminally fosters a patriarchal outlook. Writing of any kind, but especially its alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women's power in the culture." [Leonard Shlain, The Goddess and the Alphabet]

Alternative
A wonderful thing. Because it's the opposite of everything. You have the regular, normal, boring thing, like medicine, or scholarship, or education, and then you have the alternative kind, which does whatever the opposite is. Normal medicine relies on testing, so dear alternative medicine relies on guesswork and hunches and an inner voice. So much more spiritual.

"There's a vaguely new-age feeling going around that any form of inner agitation is bad and that we should all be heading for inner peace. I think that's morally outrageous. There's something deeply self-centred about aspiring to be the kind of person who's not perturbed by anything."

A talk by Raymond Tallis, 10th April 2008, 6pm - 8pm

J Z Young Lecture Theatre, The Anatomy Building, University College London, Gower Street, London.

Admission is free but tickets must be booked in advance.
Call 020 7079 3580 or email info@humanism.org.uk.

On the 30th of September 2007, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens sat down for a first-of-its-kind, unmoderated 2-hour discussion, convened by RDFRS and filmed by Josh Timonen.