Guy P. Harrison

I’m a molecular pattern in flux. A blob of matter cursed with consciousness. A minority lifeform toiling away somewhere inside a microbial colony. Human in search of humanity. Free man without freewill. A domesticated primate. An urbanized hypnotized eukaryote. Run fast, lift heavy. Joy is a heavy set of squats. Accomplishment is maintaining sprint seed beyond 300 meters. Breathe trees and feel the ocean. Absorb the sky. Watch ants and listen to wind. I’m only 98.7 percent Bonobo genes. I am, however, proud to say that I am 100 percent ancient atoms. I think, therefore I don’t know. I may be a confused ape groping about in time and space, but I’m also an appropriately humble skeptic and an unflinching advocate for science and critical thinking. History matters. Those who know little or nothing of the past, cannot understand the present or anticipate the future. Anthropology can save us from ourselves by shining 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 understanding 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. 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, 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) I’m an optimistic nihilist who has seen a fair bit of this tiny world (40 countries on six continents). I’ve been a thousand feet deep in the ocean and stood 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 on a branch in Papua New Guinea, and felt a thousand Caribbean sunsets. I ran in the footsteps of prehistoric Africans and made a friend on a wall in China. I’ve interviewed people who shaped world history, hung out with beggars in some of the worst slums on Earth, met Queen Elizabeth, and shook hands with Michael Jordan. Humans generally scare and disappoint me, but I love them anyway. The unexamined brain is not worth thinking with... There is a neural garden inside your skull. Tend to it with dedication and love. Plant good seeds. Work the soil. Weed out mistakes every chance. Enjoy the 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. I’m a positive 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. Think before you believe. 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 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 this one lonely world. 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 the slight understanding of how spectacular and exciting my larger home, the cosmos, really is. Never walk up a hill you can run up. Golf courses are wasted on golfers. They should be reserved or barefoot running. Star Trek is hope. The gravity well of my diversions/passions is wide and deep. 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