ThinkBIG: BIG Questions

Essay:
Is transhumanism the great promise of technoscience or "the world's most dangerous idea"? The debate is an extremely fruitful field for philosophical and theological inquiry.
Book Review:
A review of "Mimesis and Science: Empirical Research on Imitation and the Mimetic Theory of Culture and Religion," edited by psychologist Scott Garrels.
Essay:

Humans now consume some 18 trillion watts of energy in a variety of forms. Every aspect of our contemporary lives depends on this tremendous flow of energy.

Essay:

Is it possible that there are many other humanlike or “humanoid” species? If so, is it possible that they, too, have histories—histories that might be similar in some ways to our own, histories from which we might even have something useful to learn?

Video:
A Dharma talk by Ajahn Brahm, abbot of the Bodhinyane Monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia.
Video:

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson relates his personal story of how he became a scientist and his peak spiritual experiences in doing science—including his comprehension that "we are made of stardust!"

Video:

Six world-renowned scientists explain the history of the universe and reflect on how this knowledge affects their perspective of the universe and our place in it.

Video:

Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists"—call it Atheism 2.0—that incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual, and transcendence.

Essay:
Examining four animal groups with high relative brain size, and finding that they have a variety of qualities in common even though they have very different evolutionary histories and live in different environments.
Blog:

It may be that those cultures that do not have a formal adolescent initiation ceremony do so at great risk to their wellbeing and survival. What we don’t invest in initiation, we later pay for in incarceration.

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