At the moment (at least as I type this,) two prominent atheists are tossing forth and back about the old question of what would, or could, constitute evidence for god. Michael Shermer at Skepticblog and Jerry Coyne at
Category: Critical Thinking
Too cool, part 16: Now this is smart
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about his young son, then three years old. It turns out the sprog was not only playing games on his folks’ computer, he had figured out how to install new ones on his own. This was not a child prodigy, and he wasn’t reading at the time – he’d learned it intuitively, by watching what his parents did and noticing how user interfaces
Like we mean it
This is an extension of a much earlier post on meaning, or the universe’s apparent lack thereof, as well as Sean Carroll’s presentation from The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012. Both of those are virtual prerequisites for making the most out of this post, primarily because I don’t feel like reiterating a bunch of stuff.
So, given that there is no meaning to life, the universe, & everything
Don’t ask
I’m pretty hard on philosophy, but I’m even harder on pseudophilosophy, the practice of asking questions that aren’t even comprehended or, much worse, are asked for the sake of asking. Unfortunately, quite a few people still seem to fall for this, and we have been treated to countless instances – blogs, articles, books, etc. – where someone has taken the bait
Testify!
Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist and one of the bloggers at Cosmic Variance, gave a talk at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012 in July, regarding the nature of scientific unknowns and how this translates to our confidence in physical reality.
Intolerance will not be tolerated!
Walkabout podcast – Intolerance will not be tolerated!
Among a collection of concepts that are poorly understood and almost completely mismanaged in our current culture sits intolerance. Ask anyone if intolerance is good or bad, and I bet you’ll garner ‘bad’ as an answer the majority of the time. This is an indication
Oh, I don’t know… satan?!
Many years ago when I worked for a humane society, I attended a major training seminar for animal cruelty investigation, and one of the topics within was the tricky subject of animal sacrifice. There, I first learned of santeria, an offshoot of christianity practiced by mostly Cuban and Haitian immigrants to this country and, disturbingly, protected by law as ‘legitimate’ religious rituals.
Ain’t it the truth?
[Edited to add the podcast, and correct a couple of typos while I was at it]
Walkabout podcast – Ain’t it the truth?
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating (because, somehow, people still aren’t getting it – am I not reaching anyone?!?):
What are you afraid of?
I’ve had this topic sitting in the background of any number of posts, and have been meaning to address it in detail for at least a year. In the wake of even more muslim-related violence and a long string of christian hand-wringing, now is as good a time as any.
While I’m going to concentrate on the big two which display this so readily, feel free to notice how often it comes up in any
But how? Part eight: Getting emotional
Walkabout podcast – But how? Part 8
This is an extension of some thoughts that came up from doing this post, and highlights a sudden realization that I had. While I’m embarrassed that I never tumbled to it before, at least consciously, it’s