-
Blog Stats
- 1,157,330 readers since June 2008
-
Recent Comments
- Matt on “Oh, Wow! Oh, Wow! Oh, Wow!”: When Singularities Come Nigh
- Santi Tafarella on Mao Luther King?
- Santi Tafarella on The Speech: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ SOTU Retort
- David Yates on Mao Luther King?
- Longtooth on President Barack Obama’s Long Game
- ruth1940 on MIT Physicist Ian Hutchinson Calls Gnu Atheists “Militant” and Wants Greater “Respect” Directed Toward Religion and Faith
- susie on Recommended Books & Films
- Santi Tafarella on Contemporary Iconoclasm: Jesus Statue Beheaded in Boston
- Apuleius Platonicus on Contemporary Iconoclasm: Jesus Statue Beheaded in Boston
- Paradigm on President Barack Obama’s Long Game
- eartha on Question of the Day: What is the Origin of the Yellow “Star of David” That the Nazis Required Jews to Wear at the Time of the Holocaust?
- Santi Tafarella on The Other 1%
- Paradigm on The Other 1%
- Santi Tafarella on The Other 1%
- Santi Tafarella on Atheist David Silverman to Tim Tebow: Read Matthew 6:5
-
Top Posts
- 55%: The Number of Americans Who Say That a Guardian Angel Has Protected Them from Harm (Source: USA Today)
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Woman in an American Field Hospital in Czechoslavakia, May 1945
- How Many People Could the Ancient Colosseum in Rome Hold?
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Anne Frank and Margo Frank in a Purim Holiday Photo with Other Jewish Children, February, 1934, and an Image from Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Where Anne and Margo Died
- Near Death Experience (NDE) Watch: Waiting for Dr. Sam Parnia
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Children Lined up with Heads Shaved in a Croatian Concentration Camp
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Stacked Corpses
- Negative Capability Defined: Walking in Mysteries---and the Shoes of Others---with Keats, Shakespeare, Whitman---and Barack Obama!
- In Evolution We Trust?: England Puts Charles Darwin on the Back of Its Ten Pound Bank Note
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Image from the Concentration Camp at Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, 1945
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Children Experimented upon at Auschwitz
-
Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Waiting for Coyne
Today I responded to biologist Jerry Coyne’s question, which he asked at his blog, about whether atheists should take theologians (or theological discussion) seriously. Here’s what I wrote: Professor Coyne: I’m an agnostic who (from my previous posts here) obviously has some intellectual … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, atheist, evolution, jerry coyne, philosophy, Prometheus Unbound, Reinhold Niebuhr, science, science v. religion, theology
3 Comments
Quote for the Week
Friedrich Nietzsche (from The Twilight of the Idols ): What is it: is man only a blunder of God, or God only a blunder of man?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged existentialism, Friedrich Nietzsche, God, Hinduism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Nietzsche, philosophy, religion, Richard Dawkins, the problem of evil
Leave a comment
Michael Jackson Pedophile Reality Check: Is It Mean to Suspect that Michael Jackson Might Have Been a Pedophile?
. The short answer is no, it’s not mean or irrational. Under normal circumstances nobody gets to do what Michael Jackson did (bring unrelated children into his bedroom overnight). No adult man gets to do that without suspicion cast upon … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1984, America, children, George Orwell, Michael Jackson, neverland, newspeak, parenting, pedophile, pedophiles, peter pan, walt disney
128 Comments
Toaster Epistemology
An interesting article about the toaster and its meaning for art, philosophy, invisible-hand capitalism, and the universe here.
The Big Picture
If you’ve ever wondered how Rush Limbaugh and Fox News have attained such large followings via their daily dishing out of “thought terminating cliches“ and oversimplifications, here’s part of the answer:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged citizens, Fox News, geography, history, illiteracy, life, Politics, religion, rush limbaugh, stupidity, thought terminating cliches, voting
3 Comments
Jazz Interlude
Louis Prima:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1960s, dance, jazz, jungle book, Las Vegas, louis prima, music, psychology
Leave a comment
Whence Nietzsche in Contemporary Atheist Reflection?
Philosopher John Gray sees it only in Michel Onfray: Among contemporary anti-religious polemicists, only the French writer Michel Onfray has taken Nietzsche as his point of departure. In some ways, Onfray’s In Defence of Atheism [titled in its U.S. edition as … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged existentialism, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Gray, michel onfray, philosophy, propaganda, psychology, public relations, sales
2 Comments
Thomas Jefferson’s Second Birth, and the Intersections of Apollo and Dionysus
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? (John 3:4 KJV) I love this portrait of Thomas Jefferson. In good Neoclassical … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged alpha male, alpha males, Apollo, Apollo and Dionysus, apollo v. dionysus, beavers, birth, born again, Dionysus, Jesus, life, Thomas Jefferson
Leave a comment
Evolution v. Creation Watch: What are Goose Bumps for?
It turns out that goose bumps are an evolutionary holdover from when we had fur. Here’s Harvard’s Steven Pinker: Our own bodies are riddled with quirks that no competent engineer would have planned but that disclose a history of trial-and-error … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged biology, Charles Darwin, creation, evolution, Genesis, goosebumps, life, reason, science, steven pinker, Thomas Jefferson, young earth creationism
Leave a comment
O Brave New World!
This month’s Wired is reporting on a shocking scientific finding: A self-assembling molecule synthesized in a laboratory may resemble the earliest form of information-carrying biological material, a transitional stage between lifeless chemicals and the complex genetic architectures of life. Called … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged biochemistry, biology, Charles Darwin, chemistry, creation, creationism, dr. frankenstein, evolution, Genesis, life, origins of life, science
Leave a comment
Quote of the Day: Robert Lifton on the “thought terminating cliche”
Thought terminating cliches? You know, like the ones that Americans hear weekly from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Here’s the psychologist Robert Lifton, from his book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism : “The language of the totalist environment is characterized by … Continue reading
Michael Jackson Wrote This
Michael Jackson was a man of contradictions:
Sisyphus Pushing v. Buddha Sitting
Someone recently said to me that to conclude that the universe is without purpose needn’t lead to pessimism and Albert Camus-like rebellion (as I have been suggesting lately). Nihilism might just as well mean “the loss of misery and despair as well. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, beatles, Buddha, Buddhism, Camus, existentialism, fools, heidegger, Hinduism, Sartre, sisyphus
Leave a comment
Poem for Summer Vacations
Passage O soul to India! Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor! Cut the hawsers—haul out—shake out every sail! Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough? … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged extremity, India, journey, life, literature, ocean, poem, poetry, sailing, summer, travel, Walt Whitman
7 Comments
Joan Fry’s “How to Cook a Tapir”
My wife’s friend (and our colleague at the college that we all teach at in California) hit the big time last month, seeing her University of Nebraska Press book, How to Cook a Tapir, reviewed in both the Los Angeles Times … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1960s, books, how to cook a tapir, joan fry, life, literature, memoir, travel writing, writing
Leave a comment
Gay Teen Exorcism in Connecticut
Pinch me. We are living in the 21st century, right?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, apologetics, atheist, connecticut, fundamentalism, gay equality, gay marriage, gay rights, James Dobson, Jesus, John Macarthur, pentacostalism
1 Comment
