Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
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The growing epidemic of stats misuse
We have a difficult relationship with statistics. On one level, we seem to have replaced the 10 Commandments with the 10 Statistics – running our lives taking into account the need to limit our alcohol units, eat our 5 a day, read to our children, pay down our debts and reduce our stress levels. At another level, people show a cynicism of statistics which whilst not new (lies, damned lies….) does perhaps show a deeper level of mistrust than has existed previously.
Hilary Salt,
Independent, 6 November 2011
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Surely by now we’ve outgrown the body?
So how, if at all, might the concept ’soul’ be useful? I think it’s useful precisely because of the aspect that defies natural science and seems to embarrass some of the concept’s exponents, namely the way it conveys a notion of transcendence or transformation.
Sandy Starr,
Independent, 2 November 2011
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Facebook’s impact on the brain
Findings that parts of the brain can indeed be restructured rapidly by learning new tasks is nothing new.
Rob Clowes,
Independent, 1 November 2011
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Electric selves?
The social web: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and the host of other technologies that invite us to connect to each other through a variety of internet-based interfaces seem to be technologies that provoke existential questions. Who are we? What are we? Where are we going?
Rob Clowes,
Culture Wars, 31 October 2011
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What if we aren’t alone after all?
Our species has developed its beliefs, its cultures, its religions on the basis of our uniqueness, on the theory that the universe was designed expressly, perhaps solely, for us. Incontrovertible proof that we are not alone would force us to re-examine all our knowledge, to build new theories of life, its origins, its diversity, perhaps its purpose.
Richard Swan,
Independent, 27 October 2011
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The rise of the machines? Not any time soon
With all the developments in today’s technology it is easy to get carried away by science and technologists who argue we are on a precipice of a machine revolution with human beings on the way out.
Katherine Richardson,
Independent, 25 October 2011
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Why we cannot keep the lights on without nuclear energy
If we care about the security of our energy supplies: if we care about the affordability of our electricity: if we care about reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, then there is no alternative to unprecedented amounts of all viable, proven, renewable sources of electricity BUT we will still also need a significant proportion of nuclear energy in our electricity mix.
Dame Sue Ion,
Independent, 24 October 2011
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We should aspire to abundant and cheap energy for all
From fracking to Fukushima, to oil spills and the threat of global warming, an alarming aspect of the energy debate is the way it has become conducted through the prism of fear.
Tony Gilland,
Independent, 24 October 2011
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Sex: it’s not all in the brain
In Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine demolishes the trendy notion that male and female brains are different, but does not overcome the idea that stereotypes are deeply engrained.
Derbyshire and Powell,
spiked, 21 October 2011
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