“According to Harris, Dawkins and other prominent neoatheists (Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett round out the self-styled “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”), science education is a natural antidote to sacred terror. But independent studies by Oxford sociologist Diego Gambetta, forensic psychiatrist Marc Sageman, and journalist and political scientist Peter Bergen indicate that a majority of al-Qaeda members and associates went to college, that the college education was mostly science oriented, and that engineer and medical doctor are the professions most represented in al-Qaeda. Much the same has been true for Hamas.”
― The National Interest
― The National Interest
“Whatever has been found—the Higgs boson, the particular implementation of the Higgs mechanism that seems simplest or something more elaborate—it is almost certainly something very new. The interest from the public and press has been very gratifying, indicating a thirst for knowledge and scientific advances that humanity to a large extent shares. After all, this discovery is part of the story of the universe’s evolution as its initial symmetry was broken, particles acquired masses, atoms were formed, structure, and then us.”
― Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space
― Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space
“A woman was standing at a bus stop, wildly flailing her umbrella. A curious onlooker approached and asked, “Why do you keep waving your umbrella about?” The woman replied with some annoyance that such an idiotic question should be asked of her: “Why, to keep the pink elephants away, of course.” “But, my dear lady,” the onlooker protested, “there are no pink elephants around.” The woman, exasperated, retorted, “Precisely, because I keep them away.” The Pink Elephant Fallacy is an example of the simplest of all failures of critical thought, circular reasoning.”
― Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists
― Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists
“Nadie sabe si uno lleva o no un escritor dentro hasta que encuentra algo que contar.”
― Premio Planeta 2017: ganador y finalista (pack) (Autores Españoles e Iberoamericanos)
― Premio Planeta 2017: ganador y finalista (pack) (Autores Españoles e Iberoamericanos)
“I dedicate this work to Vasily Arkhipov, the deputy commander of a Soviet nuclear submarine off the Cuban shore who said no to his comrades and may have saved the world. That was on October 27, 1962, around the time my father came home from his defense job and told me at the doorstep to our house that there was “only a twenty-percent chance, son” the next day would never come. No terrorist action today remotely poses that kind of existential threat for our world, and I hope you’ll keep that in mind in reading on.”
― Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists
― Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists
Juan’s 2024 Year in Books
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