I am informed that WEIT has won the Council for Secular Humanism’s Morris D. Forkosch Award for the best book of 2009. What a nice treat—beats cheeseburgers any day! And not a spot of atheism in the book.
Anyway, it will be awarded at the anniversary meeting in L.A. in October. Unfortunately, I can’t make it due to a prior commitment, but the meeting looks swell, with lots of Humanaries and a certain face-off that I’d dearly love to see.
I was not surprised: when the followers of teh Ceiling Cat and teh Basement Cat are not around and only teh secular kittens vote, that is what one expects…Congrats!…:)
Ah-HAH. We’ve always known that teaching evolution is all about promoting the radical secular humanist agenda, and here we see acknowledgment.
It’s mere coincidence that they’ve also chosen to honor a brilliant scientist and writer.
Congratulations, Jerry! Take pride in this one. Your book is a fine and obvious choice.
Not a Templeton prize? Oh, well…congratulations anyway! I had a sample on my ipad, and I just went ahead and purchased it. Now I can take it to class with me.
Congratulations Jerry! It is well-deserved. It’s a shame you can’t be there to accept.
…. A very juicy book, cover to cover. Cheers!
Congratulations on the award. Too bad that you won’t be there to see the panels of the titans. Oh yeah, Mooney and Wright will be there too
This calls for a stogie! And let’s hope the http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/weit-makes-longlist-for-royal-society-prize-for-science-books/ takes note, too!
(this is my first attempt to embed a link, in case it’s a disaster)
#$%$!! The link was supposed to say Royal Society, in orange. Blame PZ’s instructions.
In case you have trouble to view the source code of a link (and FSM knows they are often elaborated), the standard HTML “a” code works here:
[a href=”link adress”]link alias[/a]
Replace [ ] with .
Good luck, and now you can blame me! … (\_/) [/ducks]
_Of course_ the HTML parser would eat my signs!
_Of course_ the HTML parser would eat my < and > signs!
Sam Harris and Robert Wright? Please post the link for the pay per view.
Congratulations!
But I have a feeling you are going to wish you were a fly on the wall at that conference. Woooow! Its like geek MMA!!
MMA?
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Indeed, many felicitations on your well deserved good fortune!
Zowie– Congratz!
(I’m wondering if I can make it to the showdown… ?)
Slightly off topic but something Jerry might want to take a look at:
http://www.virologyj.com/content/7/1/169
This is what you get when you mix science and religion.
Congratulations! This is well deserved.
Yarly gz! Bukritig skillz, u haz em.
On a serious note, congratulations, well deserved. I enjoyed WEIT very much. Any further books in the pipeline ?
omedeto gozaimasu!
Prize kitteh, we growl at you and garland you with sardines!
[Myers vs Scott and Mooney – who put that cat among the pigeons? But I’m curious about Stenger, because I have no idea how he reasons outside physics (vs superstition). … um, maybe I do: latest book The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason.
And an impressive line up of speakers to boot. Let’s hope they make youtubes.]
Stenger’s previous book, God: A Failed Hypothesis is even better, IMO. Its premise is that not only does science address the “god” question — it examined it and found no evidence of god in the very places that theism posits there should be evidence.
Yes, that is about my extent of knowledge of his interests.
I can heartily endorse it. Especially as he has new answers to the old strawman “why something from nothing” and the actual questions “why systems and laws (processes)”. Answers which are entirely natural on the observed systems.
There are other possibilities in modern physics, but all of the potential pathways pool. They show how religions have been chased out of the last physics territories it claimed as “theirs”.
I read somewhere the prognosis that the leading edge of the religious communities will/will have to reorient itself on “soul” and “free will”, as long as these lasts as social issues in front neuroscience onslaught. Coyne may be prescient to take the reins on these questions.
Yeah for Jerry!
I picked up WEIT a couple of weeks back. I’m nearly through & very much enjoying the book.
Checking the CSH site for the upcoming meeting, I’m a little saddened to find there isn’t small travel grant awards available for students (or the like) to attend the meeting (such as you would see for research conferences). It would be a great way to get younger people involved.
It’s a great book, and a richly deserved award, Jerry. Congratulations!
Mazel tov–it really is a terrific book!
(I’m among the lucky few to get a ticket for the Harris/Wright and Myers/Mooney intellectual “brawl to end it all”–looking forward to it)
Congratulations, it was well deserved.
Yay! You can haz prize!
I would dearly love to see that face-off too…even though I have heard murmured predictions that one party will simply not be responsive, so it won’t be as fun as one might expect.
congrats. I guess you accepting this title of nobility disqualifies you as a US citizen, under the 13th amendment.
Congratulations Jerry!
I wouldn’t want to see Mooney vs. PZ – PZ will walk over Mooney – on the one hand you’ll have a very reasonable person and on the other you’ll have a fundamentally dishonest person who believes lying (known these days as ‘framing’) is our greatest ally in combating religious nonsense. Bet on hedging, weaseling, and willing pretense of ignorance on Mooney’s part.
Now if it were Vic Stenger vs. Mooney, my money is on Stenger really whipping Mooney about like PZ just can’t do.