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When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that’s faith.
When facts change your mind, that’s science.

The Edge Foundation asked the intellectual elite to comment on the things that made them change their mind. I think that this is a tricky question to ask because if you changed your mind you admit that you were wrong about something. Many people aren’t quite comfortable with that idea. But I guess if those 163 people – all of them top-notch scientists – who submitted their story can do it, everyone should.

My personal favorite is Patrick Bateson. He used to be an agnostic, but “converted” to an atheist after talking to a creationist lady. I also thought that being an agnostic is the best choice, since you can’t prove one or the other and better leave the question unanswered. But today I think that religion and the belief in the supernatural is dangerous and threatens our modern life. To be honest: our modern life wouldn’t be possible without all those brave people who stood up against the church and other misbeliefs of their time to pursue progress.

Related content:
Richard Dawkins – Enemies of Reason (Part 1)
Church of the Flying Spaghetti  Monster

Many economists have demanded this for a long time, but in the last couple days I had to explain things to really educated people that I thought were totally clear. I’m really glad I already learnt some basic economics in business college. But it wasn’t until the third term of economics at university and after reading Freakonomics that I really started applying economic principles to almost any imaginable situation in life. And trust me: there are many. Some examples I came about in the last days:

• Why do glaziers earn less than opticians?
• Why is it so expensive to go by train?
• Why are houses in Austria are scattered all over the place with public transport far, far away?

All these questions can be answered using simple concepts like opportunity costs or supply/demand. I believe that people could make a lot more sense about the world if would be taught a little bit of economics in secondary school. Maybe instead of teaching them the difference between a pig’s and a cow’s leg. (Yes, I learnt that.)Read on:Freakonomics-Blog at NYT