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- 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
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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: July 2009
The 50 Greatest Films of All Time?
See the list, based on the polling of cinema professors, reviewers etc. here.
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Lark News
An evangelical Onion written as self-parody by Evangelicals. Hmm. See it here.
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Tagged Christianity, comedy, evangelical, funny, God, humor, religion
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Are Scientists Who Blast Religion Hurting Their Own Cause?
Yes. Or at least that is the assertion of two science writers in a recent essay for Newsweek. Read it here. Money quote: The stunning irony in the longstanding tension between science and religion in America is that many scientists who … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheist, biology, creationism, evolution, Politics, religion, Richard Dawkins, science
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Did the Irish Just Lose Their Right to Free Speech with Regard to Criticism of Religion?
It appears so. Ireland now has an unambiguous and explicit blasphemy law, passed on Friday, and its language is chilling. Staks Rosch has all the details here. Below are the Blasphemy Clauses of the Defamation Bill. Let me emphasize again … Continue reading
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Tagged atheist, blasphemy, Christianity, freedom, freedom of speech, human rights, Islam, Judaism, religious freedom, Richard Dawkins, the Bible, women's rights
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Non-Zero? Are Religion and Atheism Morally Neutral?
Below, agnostic Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God, discusses religion and atheism with atheist John Horgan. Wright has a rather novel view of religion and atheism, seeing both of them as morally neutral, with their “demonic” sides only … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, atheism, Christianity, ecology, evolution, God, Islam, Judaism, religion, robert wright, scarcity, zero sum games
3 Comments
Was Michael Jackson a Paedophile? British Millionaire Terry George, Now 42, Says the 21 Year Old Michael Jackson Regularly Used to Call His Home, When He was 13, and on at Least One Occasion Masturbated while George was on the Phone Line
The 21 year old Michael Jackson masturbating while his 13 year old “friend” was on the phone line? That’s the deeply disturbing claim made by a 42 year old British millionaire businessman, Terry George. The Britisher says he has long forgiven Jackson. Being … Continue reading
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Tagged culture, dance, law, Michael Jackson, music, paedophiles, pedophilia, phone sex, sex, terry george
6 Comments
Twitter Meets the Rhetorical Wars over Religion? Are You a Clicheatheist or a Clichetheist?
Actually, I hope that you’re neither, but I would coin these terms for atheists and theists who engage in combative and absolutist rhetoric with each other, and do so unself-critically, without empathy, and with an impatience for nuance, using what psychologist Robert Lifton … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, cliche, clicheatheist, clichetheist, fundamentalism, rhetoric, theist, thought terminating cliches
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Paul Davies Intellectually Jacob-Wrestles with the Ontological Mystery (the Mystery of Being)
Physicist Paul Davies, from the conclusion of his book, The Goldilock’s Enigma: So, how come existence? At the end of the day, all the approaches I have discussed are likely to prove unsatisfactory. In fact, in reviewing them they all seem … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, atheism, being, existence, God, heidegger, life, multiverse, ontology, paul davies, silence, the ontological mystery
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Bad News for Democrats
When the midterm elections hit in the Fall of 2010, it’s probably not likely that the unemployment picture will look all that much better than it does today (at least if a Wall Street Journal panel of economists’ forecasting is in … Continue reading
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Tagged Democrats, depression 2.0, economics, economy, Politics, recession, Republicans, rush limbaugh, UCLA, unemployment
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Quote of the Day
Physicist Paul Davies: If almost any of the basic features of the universe, from the properties of atoms to the distribution of the galaxies, were different, life would very probably be impossible. Now, it happens that to meet these various … Continue reading
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Tagged anthropic principle, galaxies, God, paul davies, physics, religion, science, space, stars, the ontological mystery
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CIA Eight Years: The Plot Thickens
Dick Cheney appears to be at the center of an eight year cover-up from the Congress of a secret CIA program. This today in the NY Times: The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years … Continue reading
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Tagged America, CIA, congress, Constitution, democracy, Dick Cheney, leon panetta, marlon brando, murder most foul, the godfather, watergate
2 Comments
H1N1: The Flu is Coming
Better get ready for it now. This today in the NY Times: The Obama administration warned Americans on Thursday to be ready for an aggressive return of the swine flu virus in the fall, announcing plans to begin vaccinations in … Continue reading
An Agnostic Defends Negative Theology
Atheist biologist Jerry Coyne, of the University of Chicago, has a rather nasty post at his blog deriding negative theology, but I think that negative theology has some merits that Coyne might not be considering. In fact, if God exists (and as an agnostic I don’t … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, God, Michael Shermer, negative theology, philosophy, reason, religion, Richard Dawkins, theology
6 Comments
Quiet Diginity and Grace: A Model for Living with the Absurdity of Our Existential Condition and Our Flungness into the World?
Rational atheist Stoicism for our time:
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Tagged Albert Camus, apologetics, atheist, Buddhism, Christianity, comedy, existentialism, humor, life, stoicism, yoga
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What Might I Substitute for Empiricism in Getting at the Truth of Ultimate Questions?
I would say nothing. I think that empiricism and reason are the best that we can do. So then why, as an agnostic, am I defending (in a previous post) Francis Collins’s explicitly theological gestures? Here’s why: I think that, with … Continue reading
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Tagged biologos, empiricism, francis collins, manichean, Michael Shermer, philosophy, Richard Dawkins, richard rorty, skeptic, truth
7 Comments
