Happiness in this World » The Big Questions

The True Meaning Of Freedom

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:51:43 +0000

Photo: mrsdkrebs

America is a symbol of freedom all over the world, enjoying as it does freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press. Our ancestors prized these political freedoms so much that many of them were willing to die defending them. And though many of us are often accused [...]

What If Our Brains Aren’t Good Enough?

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:00:45 +0000

Photo: MikeBlogs

I’ve always wanted to know the answers: What creates consciousness? How did the cosmos come to be? What happens when we die? Why are we here? From a certain perspective, my life has consisted of a series of investigations into ways of discovering the answers to these kinds of questions. In [...]

Influence vs. Control

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:00:08 +0000

Photo: oskay

I often wish I could snap my fingers and make people do what I want. I wish I could speed up the pace at which I achieve my goals and slow down the pace at which pleasant things fade. I wish I could write blog posts and books that everyone loves, [...]

Belief Contamination

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:00:15 +0000

Photo: DVIDSHUB

The abhorrence we feel when encountering beliefs that contradict our own is so universal and so powerful that it’s hard to imagine it’s the result of anything other than natural selection, programmed into us by evolution because it gives us some kind of survival advantage. Even if we’re able to tolerate [...]

The Creativity Of Scientists

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:00:05 +0000

Photo: mclephan

People sometimes argue about which scientific discovery or advance ranks as the greatest, as the most significant in the history of humankind. Popular answers include electricity, computers, immunizations, and antibiotics. Yet I would argue it’s none of these, but rather the scientific method of inquiry itself.

The scientific method only came [...]