Scott Atran talks about terrorism.

[Dumpy Dooby]

Scott Atran, Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, France, has experimented extensively on the ways scientists and ordinary people categorize and reason about nature. He currently is an organizer of a NATO working group on suicide terrorism. His publications include In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion and The Native Mind: Cognition and Culture in Human Knowledge of Nature (co-authored with Douglas Medin and forthcoming from Oxford University Press).

Google Video

[Dumpy Dooby]

This was one of the better talks on terrorism that I have seen. He does a good job at dispelling a lot of myths. He cites his sources, and he basically explains what we're doing wrong, and what we need to do.

The most interesting fact was that a suicide bomber is more likely to come out of a soccer club than out of a mosque. I thought that was very interesting.


Anyway, I recommend watching this. It's from the Beyond Belief 2.0 series. I think I posted that in the Speak Easy. If I didn't, then I'll go do that right now.