5 Questions For a Skeptical Libertarian: Drugs, Climate, and Utopia

I recently got an email from a student from Norway with five questions about libertarianism that I thought were worth a response. They cover a broad range of subjects, so I’ll try to be brief. My answers are not intended be definitive of “the” libertarian position, but they represent my current thinking on a number … Continued

A ‘Monstrous Absurdity’: Ayn Rand On Original Sin

This is an excerpt from John Galt’s lengthy speech at the end of Atlas Shrugged, and it deals with the notions of inherited guilt and ancestral sin, commonly known as “original sin”. Damnation is the start of your morality, destruction is its purpose, means and end. Your code begins by damning man as evil, then … Continued

Jonah Lehrer’s Teller Deception

Tuesday night, I showed a printed excerpt from Jonah Lehrer’s bestselling book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, to Teller, the quieter half of the magic duo Penn and Teller. Teller read what was allegedly a statement he made about a previous point in his career: “I was definitely on the verge of giving up the dream … Continued

Michael Shermer’s Full Speech at the Reason Rally – 3/24

Full text and audio below: Three centuries ago, in a land 3,000 miles away, a revolution in reason began known as The Age of Enlightenment. Apropos our gathering here today, it is also called the Age of Reason, or in the descriptor of great German philosopher Immanuel Kant—Sapere Aude!—dare to know! “Have the courage to … Continued

Adam Savage’s Full Speech at the 2012 Reason Rally

We attended the 2012 Reason Rally last Saturday on the mall in Washington, DC, where 20,000 skeptics, atheists, and free thinkers braved the rain to listen to a great lineup of speakers, including the Mythbusters’ Adam Savage. This is the full transcript of his speech, which you can also watch in the video below. I have been … Continued