Guy P. Harrison
AUTHOR

Guy P. Harrison

Health & Wellness | Politics & Social Sciences
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I’m a molecular pattern in flux. A temporary blob of matter cursed with consciousness. A minority lifeform toiling away somewhere inside a microbial cloud. A human in search of humanity. A free man without freewill. A domesticated primate. A confused hominin in the Holocene, groping about in time and space. An urbanized eukaryote writing books on the road to extinction. We’re all just unintended consequences of the Cambrian, loose atomic patterns with a short shelf life, so let’s get over it and be kind to one another. I think; therefore, I don’t know. Run fast and lift heavy. Joy is riding a heavy set of squats to the edge of hell. Heaven is maintaining sprint speed beyond 300 meters. Breathe trees and feel the ocean. Watch insects and hear the wind. I’m only 98.7 percent Bonobo genes, but I am a full 100 percent ancient atoms. I strive to be a positive, humble, and constructive skeptic. We all believe silly things. What matters is how silly and how many. I’m a human who warns humans about being human. I use my imperfect brain to talk and write about the human brain’s imperfections. I try my best to overcome my irrational beliefs and subconscious derangements so that I can teach others about the challenges of irrational beliefs and subconscious derangements. There are worse ways to squander one’s existence. Think before you believe. History matters. Those who know little or nothing about the past will never understand the present. The road to salvation runs through anthropology because we are unlikely to survive ourselves without understanding ourselves. Anthropology shines the light of scientific thinking on our common origin, true kinships, standard behaviors, dangerous beliefs, and capacity for peace and violence, good and evil. Science is the best-available tool for discovering, learning, and appreciating what the hell is going on around us and inside of us. The more we know, the more we can imagine. The more we can imagine, the more we can do. Science fiction warms my imaginary soul. It is our great gateway to anywhere, sprinkled with just enough possibility to matter. Science fiction is the pulsing heart of humanity. It stretches perceptions, confronts tired traditions, and inspires us to convert wild dreams into mundane realities. So much more than robots and ray guns, science fiction is a ceaseless storm of thoughts that perfectly illuminates the boundless creativity of a three-pound blob of electrochemical magic known as the human brain. I am an award-winning journalist, science writer, and author of nine books. My books have been translated into Japanese, Italian, Korean, Czech, and Belarusian. My work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Big Think, The Institute of Arts and Ideas, Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry, Skeptic, and others. I am a longtime essayist for Psychology Today and recently contributed a chapter about race and racism to The Cognitive Science of Belief (Cambridge University Press), a graduate-level textbook. I have won several awards, including the World Health Organization’s National Award and the Commonwealth Media Award for Excellence in Journalism (first place in 54 countries). Random House selected one of my books as recommended reading for all first-year university students and another was incorporated into an anti-racism program in South Africa. The San Diego Union Tribune named one of my books a “top-five summer read”. Most of my work is an attempt to uplift humanity, make our world saner and safer, or at least a little less disappointing. Yes, I know, Don Quixote had a more sensible mission statement. Mayflies have better life plans. But I have helped some people along the way, and writing serves me well as a nice distraction until entropy shows up to take back the atoms I’ve been borrowing. My books: • Damn You, Entropy! 1,001 of the Greatest Science Fiction Quotes • At Least Know This: Essential Science to Enhance Your Life • Think Before You Like: Social Media's Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed • Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser • 50 Popular Beliefs that People Think are True • Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity • 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian • Think: Why You Should Question Everything • 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God Chapter contributions to books: • The Cognitive Science of Belief (Cambridge University Press) • Christianity in the Light of Science: Critically Examining the World's Largest Religion (2016) This world is both large and small. I got lost in 40 countries on six continents. I’ve been a thousand feet deep in the ocean and stood alone and breathless inside a cool cloud at the roof of the world. A shark and a lion almost ate me, though not at the same time. I touched a sad tree stump in the Amazon, watched a purple bird sleep in Papua New Guinea, and felt the warmth of a thousand Caribbean sunsets. I walked in the footsteps of Australopithecines in Africans and made a friend on a big wall in China. I’ve interviewed a long list of people who shaped history, hung out with beggars in the world’s worst slums, met Queen Elizabeth, and shook hands with Pelé. Humankind disappoints me, but humans can be amazing. The unexamined mind is not worth thinking with... There is a neural garden inside your skull. Tend to it with all the dedication and love you can muster. Plant the right seeds. Work the soil. Weed out mistakes every chance. Enjoy your garden’s beauty and power. Learn as much as you can about this scientific magic within you. Appreciate it every day. The human brain is a tiny and temporary machine capable of glimpsing the universe and eternity. The current best version of reality that we can experience is infinitely beautiful and endlessly fascinating. It’s tragic that so many people—unmotivated or too distracted by desires, deceptions, and delusions—never quite notice the wonder of it all. I love sharing, teaching, and inspiring people to better connect with this wild ride we call existence. Be kind to others as often as you can. Everyone is hurting in some way. Remember this when people are mean to you. It saddens me to know that my feet are stuck forever to the lithosphere of one lonely planet. I feel like a doomed little bug who stepped in glue. But I am grateful to at least live in a time when science has revealed enough to gift me with a slight understanding of how spectacular and exciting my larger home, the cosmos, really is. Never walk up a hill you can run up. Star Trek is hope. The gravity well of my diversions and passions runs wide and deep. Its contents include: Nature, space exploration, science, history, anthropology, microbes, books, running, philosophy, Homo erectus, photography, weight training, Australopithecines, and science fiction. Imagine Question Explore Learn Create Teach Laugh Love, Guy P. Harrison Marooned in the 21st century Earth, Virgo Supercluster
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  • 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True cover art

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  • Think cover art

    • Think

    • Why You Should Question Everything
    • By: Guy P. Harrison
    • Narrated by: George Newbern
    • Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
    • Release date: 23-04-14
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

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    • Good Thinking

    • What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser
    • By: Guy P. Harrison
    • Narrated by: Walter Dixon
    • Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
    • Release date: 18-02-16
    • Language: English
    • 3.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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