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Nov 14, 2023Liked by Lawrence M. Krauss

A very gentle and generous perspective on recent developments in Ayaan's life. Thank you for this calm contribution to the conversation.

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"What is the meaning and purpose of life"? Aligning with Mike Johnson then? You do not have to be christian to believe in some higher unknown power that gives meaning and purpose to life. (I don't, but it is possible). Both Johnson's and Ayan's motivations are political, whether they know/admit or not. I am not condemning, I just do not want to delude myself.

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As a lifelong atheist and very much a part of the "new atheist" thing in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I was quite as bit surprised, a little bit disappointed, but not at all angry at this news about Ayaan. It is actually more important to me these days that people I have admired for a long time are "anti-woke" than an atheist. I remember I was very disappointed when Matt Dillahunty displayed his woke credentials by stating that "trans women" were women, and I even got into an argument with him on Twitter which left me a bit bewildered. A lot of the people I tend to agree with on woke issues are religious, like Jordan Peterson and Dinesh D'Souza (the latter I always respected for his debating abilities in my atheist activist days, even if I disagreed with him).

Actually, on hearing about Ayaan, I wondered to myself what Hitch would make of her conversion. I know he adored Ayaan. I would also love to hear Sam Harris' reaction, as I believe he is pretty close to her. I assume she has read his "Letter To A Christian Nation".

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"Religion is officially a plague,

no one is immune"...from: movie: "The Menu"

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HI Larry, two points:

1. I found some equally astonishing facts about Speaker Johnson while researching my thedailymemes.subtack post on "The Arc That That No One Wants to Noah About." And I admit I had fun lampooning him yesterday in "Why America Is So OK with AK-47s."

2. I've read "White Holes" twice and still can't grok how they preserve info., much less cross Einstein-Rosen bridges. Loved your talk with Rovelli but remain unsure how open-minded you are compared to David Gross, who seemed to scowl when you Zoomed with him and sweet Carlo.

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There seems to be a tactical coherence in the behavior of modern Christians, I find this strange because the beliefs they promulgate seem incoherent, so to me this implies a type of abbreviated rationality. I'm referring to The Ark concept, both Jordan P. and Mike J. are pushing this symbol to the front of the discourse, Mike is building a museum and Jordan held a conference and both made a reference to Noah, I would try to get to bottom of it, but I'm sure it's based upon reasoning I would find painfully flawed.

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