Carpe Diem Society of BC

EXTERNAL LINKS

Organizations:

>> The Freethought Association of Canada: A coalition of freethough, skeptic and humanist associations across Canada of which Carpe Diem is allied. They have an excellent web forum!

>> The Edge Foundation: "The Third Culture". Edge is all about bridging the gap between what C.P. Snow called "The Two Cultures" of science and the humanities. It is one of the best website I have ever found! Check it out!!

>> The Centre for Inquiry: a leading think tank for secular humanist philosophy and an affiliated organization to Carpe Diem. They publish 'Free Inquiry' & 'Skeptical Inquirer' magazines and the 'Point of Inquiry' podcast.

Video Links:

>> TED.com: "ideas worth spreading". Quite possibly the best website anywhere... TED is an annual conference that brings the brightest and most creative people from all over the world together to hear their ideas in short 18-20 minute talks, then puts videos of those talks on their website. These are some of the best talks you will ever see anywhere. Here is my 'short list' of the best of TED:

Ray Kurzweil: How technology's accelerating power will transform us
Dan Dennett: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes
Aubrey de Grey: Why we age and how we can avoid it
Nick Bostrom: Humanity's biggest problems aren't what you think they are
Thomas Barnett: The Pentagon's new map for war and peace
Alan Russell: Why can't we grow new body parts?
Richard Dawkins: An atheist's call to arms
Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things
Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
Burt Rutan: Entrepreneurs are the future of space flight

>> Cosmos by Carl Sagan: the best science documentary EVER produced and a must see for every thinking person.

>> The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene: 3 part Nova/PBS documentary about string theory! Awesome video!!

>> UNREPENTANT: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide: Here is a very important award winning independent film that documents the hidden story of genocide against first nations in Canada, and one man's quest to break the shameful silence and reveal the hidden horror of mass murder, torture, brutality and abuse within the religious run residential schools.

WINNER: BEST INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY - 2006 LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL.
WINNER: BEST DIRECTOR for an INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY - 2006 NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

>> Two awesome Sam Harris lectures, one at Idea City (25 minutes) where he hits on some of the main points from his books, and a second more recent one at the Aspen Ideas Festival where he discusses many of the arguments and criticisms that have brought against his books, including an excellent Q&A period at the end.

>> A Richard Dawkins lecture and the following Q&A on his book tour for "The God Delusion".

>> Christopher Hitchens hits on the major points from his book tour for 'god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" in this very excellent and articulate lecture (1h:15m) with an equally excellent Q&A period at the end of it.

>> Christopher Hitchens on the death of Jerry Falwell....here. I love Hitchens, never has there been such a poetically derisive straight shooter about the ridiculous absurdity of religion - even Sam Harris can't match his condescending wit! :)

>> Ayaan Hirsi Ali videos:

An excellent interview from Norway (but with some A/V problems) that is very good. Two parts: Part I & Part 2.
A very good Swedish interview.
Here is a blog with some good videos.
Here is a hilarious video with Bill Maher that is actually very intelligent, and where Ayaan does a sweet face-to-face smackdown of a US Republican Congressman who is sitting right beside her! So sweeeeeeettt!! :)

>> Julia Sweeney: "Letting Go of God" excerpts

first 15 minutes from TED
YouTube excerpt about Bible studies

>> An excellent indy film called 'Heart of the Beholder'

>> The Science Network: some incredible videos including interviews with famous (Canadian!) philosophers of mind Paul & Patricia Churchland, V.S. Ramachandran, the famous Indian/British neuro scientist, and the full downloadable videos of the Beyond Belief conference, among other things.

>> ABC's The Science Show podcast.

>> The Astronomy Cast podcast on... Astronomy.

>> The BrainScience podcast and blog by Dr. Ginger Campbell.

>> ABC's All In The Mind podcast on issues in Psychology.

>> ABC's The Philosopher's Zone podcast.

>> Scientific American podcast.

>> Nature podcast.

>> Science podcast.

>> The Naked Scientists podcast.

Articles/Text:

>> Here is an article in the Globe & Mail with an interview of Richard Dawkins.

>> Here's an article about Canadian Humanism from The Tyee that talks about Carpe Diem... the journalist got some stuff wrong as usual, but it's not too bad.

>> Here's a link to the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website, which has the texts of the Bible, Koran, and Book of Mormon, with highlights for different categories such as "absurdity", "cruelty and violence", "intolerance", etc., and finally "good stuff". There's a search tool as well so that you can easily find out, for instance what the story is about the bears and the 42 children.

>> On a similar note, here is a hilarious website that lays plain the evilness of the bible in oh-so stark terms! TrueChristian.com is the perfect website to send your Christian friends who think the bible is anything but a pack of vile hatred and evil non-sense! Complete with graphic and pornographic stick-figure cartoon renditions of many of our favorite bible passages, including biblical citations and quotes!! Hours of fun....

>> Here is an equally amusing website, but this time it is directed at Islam, complete with a full printable comic book satirizing the ridiculous nonsense of fundamental Islamic belief in the Koran and the Hadith, the holy scripture of Islam. Complete with a kick ass swingin' tune! "Islam's not for me"... http://www.islamcomicbook.com/ You can also find images of the comic book "Muhammed's Believe It Or Else" in our Carpe Diem treasure trove to download, print and give to any muslims you may meet.

>> And finally no website would be complete without the Lego Bible, otherwise known as "The Brick Testament"!