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"Manufacturing Consent" by Herman and Chomsky

Rating: 2/5

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York:...

"The Words We Live By" by Linda Monk

Rating: 4/5

Linda R. Monk, The Words We Live By (New York: Hyperion, 2003).

This book is the entire text of the US Con...

"The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith

Rating: 5/5

Lierre Keith, The Vegetarian Myth: Food Justice, and Sustainability, 4th ed. (Crescent City, CA: Flashpoint P...

"A View From the Eye of the Storm" by Haim Harari

Rating: 5/5

Haim Harari, A View From the Eye of the Storm: Terror and Reason in the Middle East (New York: Regan Books, 2...

"The Untied States of America" by Juan Enriquez

Rating: 3/5

Juan Enriquez, The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future (New York: Random House...

Fortune Cookie

The point at which we fully acquire our humanity, and our capacity to suffer, remains an open question, but anyone who would dogmatically insist that these traits must arise coincident with the moment of conception has nothing to contribute, apart from his ignorance, to this debate.
-- Sam Harris
Water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. This seems as value-free an utterance as human beings ever make. But what do we do when someone doubts the truth of this proposition? Ok, all we can do is appeal to scientific values. The value of understanding the world. The value of evidence. The value of logical consistency. What if someone says, "Well, that’s not how I choose to think about water." Ok, what can we say to such a person? Ok, all we can do is appeal to scientific values. And if he doesn’t share those values, the conversation is over. Ok, if someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?
-- Sam Harris, during a Notre Dame debate with William Lane Craig