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?!?): read more

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 read more

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 read more

Seneca Falls, we have a problem

All right, I admit that title might be a little confusing, since not too many people are familiar with the hamlet of Seneca Falls, New York, but on top of it being only 12 km from where I grew up (which is well worth remembering,) it was the location of the first Convention on Women’s Rights in 1848. We’ve come a long way since then – unfortunately, the direction has become read more

Say it isn’t so!

Courtesy, once again, of Why Evolution Is True, comes another article in the New York Times, this one about a bible-belt pastor that left religion behind. Despite the fact that the author, like many journalists, has only a superficial understanding read more

Too smart to be intelligent

You know, I try to let philosophy prove its worth to me. I constantly recognize that, if so many people believe it’s useful, that maybe I’m the one that’s missing something. I don’t dismiss the contemporary philosophers without hearing what they have to say. Yet every time, this proves to be almost totally wasted effort. This latest example has demonstrated read more

Animal ethics

This one’s been kicking around in my head for a while now, so I finally sat down to order some of the thoughts – put my ducklings in a row, so to speak. For the sake of easier writing, I will be using the term “animal” to simply mean “not human,” even though I am well aware that humans are animals too.

Animal rights, and the ethical treatment of animals, is obviously read more

Fixed it!

The car was having a lot of issues, so I took it down to Craig’s Garage and gave them my list of problems: leaking oil seal, transmission getting stuck in second gear, bad alignment on the left front wheel, the heater not working, gas gauge intermittent, electric window on passenger side stuck down, a bad rattle at higher speeds, and ratty wiper blades. Many hours later, the read more

Curiosity

As I sit here watching, more or less live, all the guys at JPL as the Mars Science Laboratory (otherwise known as “Curiosity”) prepares to land on Mars, I’m wandering off in speculation about humans as a species and our own curiosity, the trait that makes us do things exactly like this.

[The vehicle is being drawn by Mars gravity and is on its way up to 5.9 kilometers per second, read more

Excuses, excuses

Some time back, I posted about an article published in Skeptic magazine regarding religion and violence. As I gave some indication then, discussions about the topic tend to be very superficial, and in a lot of cases deal with popular misconceptions and gross misrepresentations. Yet it’s read more

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