Newsletter #12: Living Freedom, New Atheism Lives, Hoel on Popular Science, the Second Coming, and More
danieljamessharp.substack.com
Apologies for missing my Sunday deadline. It’s been quite hectic for me lately, but I thought I should at least get a newsletter out. So, here are some updates and reflections on an eclectic array of things. Living Freedom. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I was recently down in London again. This time it was for the Battle of Ideas’ ‘Living Freedom’ summer school/conference. I was invited along as one of the Free Speech Champions and it was great fun. Essentially, it was a long weekend of talks and debates from people as varied as Frank Furedi and Ella Whelan, by way of Toby Young and JJ Charlesworth. It was a fairly informal weekend; the best part was going to the pubs and curry houses afterwards and speaking to my fellow attendees, the organisers, and the speakers. Late nights were had, conversations were enjoyed, memories were made (and forgotten by the next morning), and bonds were forged. It’s not often that, over a few days, one can smoke with Baroness Claire Fox and neck some wine with Toby Young in the space of an hour, have a long discussion with an avowed Marxist-Leninist on what Utopia will look like (he wasn’t quite sure whether or not free speech will be allowed during the revolution), be psychoanalysed by a random middle-aged northern woman outside a cheap hostel, and end up agreeing with Osama bin Laden on live TV…
Newsletter #12: Living Freedom, New Atheism Lives, Hoel on Popular Science, the Second Coming, and More
Newsletter #12: Living Freedom, New Atheism…
Newsletter #12: Living Freedom, New Atheism Lives, Hoel on Popular Science, the Second Coming, and More
Apologies for missing my Sunday deadline. It’s been quite hectic for me lately, but I thought I should at least get a newsletter out. So, here are some updates and reflections on an eclectic array of things. Living Freedom. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I was recently down in London again. This time it was for the Battle of Ideas’ ‘Living Freedom’ summer school/conference. I was invited along as one of the Free Speech Champions and it was great fun. Essentially, it was a long weekend of talks and debates from people as varied as Frank Furedi and Ella Whelan, by way of Toby Young and JJ Charlesworth. It was a fairly informal weekend; the best part was going to the pubs and curry houses afterwards and speaking to my fellow attendees, the organisers, and the speakers. Late nights were had, conversations were enjoyed, memories were made (and forgotten by the next morning), and bonds were forged. It’s not often that, over a few days, one can smoke with Baroness Claire Fox and neck some wine with Toby Young in the space of an hour, have a long discussion with an avowed Marxist-Leninist on what Utopia will look like (he wasn’t quite sure whether or not free speech will be allowed during the revolution), be psychoanalysed by a random middle-aged northern woman outside a cheap hostel, and end up agreeing with Osama bin Laden on live TV…