Denys Turner Denys Alan Turner (born 5 August 1942) is a British academic in the fields of philosophy and theology. He is currently Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale University having been appointed in 2005, previously having been Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. He earned his PhD in Philosophy from Oxford University. He has written widely on political theory and social theory in relation to Christian theology, as well as on Medieval thought, in particular, mystical theology. Prior to his position at Cambridge, he was Professor of Theology and Head of Department at Birmingham and has also held Head of Department at the University of Bristol. Works cited[edit] Turner has written a number of books on philosophy and theology, has contributed to dozens of others and has written a large number of articles in the course of his academic career. External links[edit] Denys Turner C.V. - Yale Univ. website
Taslima Nasrin Taslima Nasrin (Bengali: তসলিমা নাসরিন; also Taslima Nasreen, born 25 August 1962) is a Bengali author and former physician who has lived in exile since 1994. From a literary profile as a poet in the late 1980s, she rose to global fame by the end of the 20th century owing to her essays and novels with feminist views and criticism of Islam in particular and of religion in general. Since leaving Bangladesh in 1994 on account of threat calls, she has lived in many countries;[1] as of June 2011 she lives in New Delhi.[2] She works to build support for secular humanism, freedom of thought, equality for women, and human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning.[citation needed] Personal life[edit] Nasrin was born to Rajab Ali and Edul Ara in the town of Mymensingh in 1962. Nasrin has been married three times: first to Bengali poet Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah,[4] then to Bangladeshi journalist Nayeemul Islam Khan[5] and finally to editor Minar Mahmood.[6] Early career[edit] in her early 30s
Steve Jones (biologist) John Stephen Jones FRS [ 2 ] (born 24 March 1944) is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory . He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology , especially evolution . He is one of the contemporary popular writers on evolution. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media". Early life [ edit ] Jones' paternal grandfather and great grandfather were both sea captains.
Sam Harris (author) Samuel B. "Sam" Harris (born April 9, 1967)[2] is an American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist. He is the co-founder and CEO of Project Reason.[3] He is the author of The End of Faith, which was published in 2004 and appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks. The book also won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction in 2005.[4] In 2006, Harris published the book Letter to a Christian Nation as a response to criticism of The End of Faith. Harris grew up in a secular home in Los Angeles, and is the son of the TV producer Susan Harris,[9] and actor Berkeley Harris. In 2009, Harris earned a Ph.D. degree in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles,[11][20][21] using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.[11][21] He also rejects the claim that the Bible was inspired by an omniscient god. Harris says the idea of free will is incoherent.
Sam Harris (author) American neuroscientist, author, and podcaster Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Early life and education[edit] In 1997, after eleven years overseas, Harris returned to Stanford, completing a B.A. degree in philosophy in 2000.[26][27][28] Harris began writing his first book, The End of Faith, immediately after the September 11 attacks.[26] He received a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience in 2009 from the University of California, Los Angeles,[26][29][30] using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.[26][30] His thesis was titled The Moral Landscape: How Science Could Determine Human Values. Career[edit] Writing[edit] Podcast[edit] Nathan J.
Richard Dawkins English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL (born Clinton Richard Dawkins; 26 March 1941)[24] is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. Dawkins is known as an outspoken atheist. Dawkins has been awarded academic and writing awards, and he makes television, radio, and Internet appearances, predominantly discussing his books, atheism, and his ideas and opinions as a public intellectual.[26] Background[edit] Early life[edit] Education[edit] Teaching[edit] In 2011, Dawkins joined the professoriate of the New College of the Humanities, a private university in London established by A. Work[edit] Evolutionary biology[edit] Fathering the meme[edit]
Michael Shermer Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2001, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. He is also a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).[3] Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but ceased to believe in the existence of God during his graduate studies. He accepts the labels agnostic,[4] nontheist,[5][6] atheist and others.[7][8] He also describes himself as an advocate for humanist philosophy[9] as well as the science of morality.[10] He has expressed reservations about such labels for his lack of belief in a God, however, as he sees them being used in the service of "pigeonholing", and prefers to simply be called a skeptic.[7] Early life and career[edit] Shermer was raised with guns. Shermer graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1972. Competitive bicycling[edit] Graduate studies and teaching[edit]
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Dutch: [ɑˈjaːn ˈɦirsi ˈaːli] ( When she was eight, Hirsi Ali's family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Kenya. She sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, under circumstances that later became the centre of a political controversy. Life and work[edit] Youth[edit] Hirsi Ali's father had studied abroad and was opposed to female genital mutilation, but while he was imprisoned, Hirsi Ali's grandmother had the traditional procedure performed on five-year-old Hirsi Ali.[13] They settled in Nairobi, where Hirsi Ali attended the English-language Muslim Girls' Secondary School. She sympathised with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and wore a hijab together with her school uniform, which was unusual at the time but gradually became more common. Early life in the Netherlands[edit] Hirsi Ali arrived in the Netherlands in 1992. Once in the Netherlands she requested political asylum, and obtained a residence permit.
John Carey (critic) John Carey (born 5 April 1934) is a British literary critic, and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford . He was born in Barnes , London , and educated at Richmond and East Sheen Boys’ Grammar School, winning an Open Scholarship to St John's College , Oxford . He served in the East Surrey Regiment , 1952-4, and was commissioned. After posts in a number of Oxford colleges, he became Merton Professor in 1975, retiring in 2001. He is known, amongst other things, for his anti-elitist tone and iconoclastic views on high culture , as expressed for example in his book What Good Are the Arts? He has twice chaired the Booker Prize committee, in 1982 and 2004, and chaired the judging panel for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. Works [ edit ] External links [ edit ]