The Atheist's Guide to Reality_ Enjoying Life Without Illusions - Alex Rosenberg [159]
probabilities, 84–85, 91
programming, 187
progress
in history, 243
human, not much, 257–60
local, 257
protein, 118
protolanguage, 201, 272
protons, 21
charge on, 36
Prozac, 19, 282, 315
psychokinesis, 42
psychology, 222, 242
psychopaths, 142
psychotherapy, 284–86, 309
psychotropic drugs, 285
public relations, 99
public toilet, flushing, 128
punishment, 293–94
purdah, 143, 144
purpose, 204, 205, 220
language of, 216
and planning, nonexistence of, 276, 313
purpose and design, banished from physics, 35–43, 239, 275–76, 279
purpose-driven life, farewell to, 194–219, 205
Purpose Driven Life, The (Warren), 7, 278
purposelessness, 244
Purves, Dale, 156, 156, 324
Pylyshyn, Zenon, 325
quantum mechanics (quantum physics), 21, 23, 28, 38–39, 41, 148, 169, 236, 237–38
quantum-loop gravity, 275
quantum singularity, 88, 91
quark, 300
queer theory, 305
quick and dirty solutions, 68, 211
Quine, Willard Van Orman, 326
rabbis, 7
radiation waste, 258
raft in Morris water maze, 182
rain forest, 135, 206
Ramachandran, Vilaynur, 328
random events, 38
random variation, 56
rats, 182
supersmart, 257
rational agents, 124–32, 266, 271
rational calculation, 270–71
laws of, 267, 268
strategy, 128
reaction, chemical, 64
reader-response theory, 305
reality, 2
nature of, 317–18
rearview mirror, 170
eyes fixed on, 155
vision is looking through, 215
red octagons, 175, 175–78, 187
Red Sea, 86
redistributionism, 298–99
reduced birth interval, 117–18
reflectance, 156, 158
rehabilitation, 293
reinforcement, see operant conditioning
relentless questions, see persistent questions
religion, 7, 111, 211, 276, 277, 281, 282, 301, 310
substitute for, 282
replication, 54–55, 62, 64, 65
repression, 303
reproduction, 25, 102, 106
sexual, 75
reprogramming, 285
Republicans, 121, 299
respiration, 25
response patterns, 183
retina, 81
image on, 158
reversible process, 15, 16, 33, 79
see also symmetrical process
rhinoceroses, 251
Richerson, Peter, 329
riding a bicycle, 209
right and wrong, no fact of the matter about, 287
right-making property of moral norms, 100–101, 112
right morality, 109–11
right to what is earned, 295
right-wing governments, 294
RNA, 67
Robin Hood, 299
Rochat, Phillipe, 326
Roman Catholicism, 52, 84, 253
Romanticism, 5
Rube Goldberg, 81
rules of thumb, 270
Rumford, Count, 29
Sagan, Carl, 25
saints, 142
SAM missile, 248
same-sex marriage, 287
Santa Claus, 275
Santayana, George, 246
sapient life in universe, 43
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 281
savanna, African, 116–20, 126, 135, 136, 198, 206, 259
scavenging, 11, 118, 126, 127, 199
Schumpeter, Joseph, 259
science
advantages over religion, 9
fallibility of, 20, 291
history of, 167
makes life worth living?, 278
as self-correcting, 166
as subjective, 305
trumps common sense, why, 166–71
science fiction, 28, 243
sciences of interpretation, 303
science wars, 305
science writers, 8
scientific and technological change, 256, 273, 289
scientific ignorance, 290
scientism
defined, 6
supposedly refuted, 231
why not endorsed by scientists, 240–41
screaming design at us, 93
see also introspection; consciousness
sea slugs, 180–82
Searle, John, 325
second deepest illusion, 240
second law of thermodynamics, 41, 58, 67, 70, 73, 77, 78, 80, 82, 84, 91, 162, 300, 309
asymmetry of, 41–42
drives natural selection, 78–82
explained, 28–32, 35
Secret Agent (Conrad), 96
secular humanism, 277–82
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, 282
self, 163, 195, 220–41
nonexistence of, 223, 224, 315
self-assembly, 61
selfishness, 311
semiotics, 305
sensation, of red, 230
sense of community, 277
sermonizing about morality, 99–101, 109
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), 89
sex, 1, 12, 44,