-
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: September 2009
Atheism, Philosophy, Near Death Experiences, and Causal Dependency
In terms of atheism and philosophy, a big issue that near death experiences (NDEs) drive us to confront is what we think about the causal dependency of the mind upon the brain. In British philosopher Keith Ward’s exceptional book, Why There … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, death, jerry coyne, keith ward, near-death experiences, philosophy, PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, science
5 Comments
What I Think about Near Death Experiences (NDEs)
For the past couple of weeks now, I’ve been reading and thinking about NDEs as a phenomenon, and if I were forced to bet, I think that the near death experience is real. In other words, it’s probably more than … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged death, life, NDEs, near-death experiences, neurology, philosophy, psychology, science, skeptic, the brain
3 Comments
A British Chemist Shares Her Near Death Experience
And she says she experienced absolute audio and visual clarity when her mind was outside of her body:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged chemistry, consciousness, death, life, mind, near-death experiences, science
4 Comments
Trial Lawyer Chris Murphy Shares His Near Death Experience
And he learned something important: And:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, death, faith, illness, life, NDEs, near-death experiences, reason
Leave a comment
Andrew Sullivan on Richard Dawkins
In case you missed it, Andrew Sullivan, at his blog yesterday, compared Richard Dawkins to the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: It’s telling that both Mohler and Dawkins are both dedicated to the maintenance of a certain brand of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, Andrew Sullivan, atheism, atheist, Baptist, Christianity, jerry coyne, PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins
Leave a comment
The Glorious Mary Travers of the Folk Trio Peter, Paul, and Mary Died Today
Of cancer. She was 73. She was 27 when she sang this:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1960s, 60s, America, cancer, death, freedom, life, mary travers, protest, Vietnam, women's liberation, women's rights
Leave a comment
I Love this Penn & Teller Segment on Bottled Water
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged advertising, bottled water, bullshit, environment, fitness, health, penn & teller, reason, science, skepticism
2 Comments
From the BBC Documentary, “The Day I Died”: Pam Reynolds’s Truly Mind Blowing Near Death Experience
I’m an agnostic, but Pam Reynolds’s story blows my mind. And if you’re an outright atheist, watch the two clips below very, very carefully, because Pam Reynolds’s story is a pretty good reason not to be terribly confident that you’re … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, apologetics, atheism, atheist, death, God, jerry coyne, life, near-death experiences, religion, Richard Dawkins, science
5 Comments
Close Literary Reading 101: Stories and Style
I thought it might be fun (at least for me) to lay out, in a series of short blog posts, some of the basic terms and ideas that I present to my students when talking about the ”close reading” of literary texts. Maybe … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged borges, close reading, English, fiction, Jorge Luis Borges, life, literature, mark twain, poetry, thoreau, writing
4 Comments
The Rational, the Irrational, and the Nonrational: Are These the Right Categories for Meaningful Distinctions?
In a Chris Hedges talk that I recently listened to (on my iPod), Hedges made, in passing, a critique of the New Atheists that they frequently fail to make distinctions between: the rational the irrational the nonrational In atheist terms, according … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, atheist, Chris Hedges, philosophy, psychology, rationality, reason, rhetoric, skeptic, skepticism, UFOs
5 Comments
Eugenics is Fun! Genetic Tracking of Children in Chinese Summer Camps!
According to this rather sunny CNN report from China, the genetic tests applied to these summer camp toddlers “work even on newborns!” Gee. That means, of course, that the tests could also be applied to preborns, doesn’t it? Did you notice that the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, children, China, Darwinism, eugenics, evolution, history, psychology, Social Darwinism, sports, summer camp
3 Comments
What Do Atheists Like Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne Have in Common with Rapture-Ready Fundamentalists Like Tim LaHaye and Mark Driscoll?
Answer: Both sides confidently believe that if all the other guys not already with them would just get the hell out of the way, spectacular human progress could be made. Here’s how John Gray puts it in his excellent book, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, fundamentalism, jerry coyne, psychology, rapture, religion, Richard Dawkins, second coming
Leave a comment
The New Atheist Dream Come True: Let’s Pretend that Religion, and Religious Taboos, Have Vanished from the Earth, Then Ask Ourselves, “Whence the Future of Eugenic Research?”
God’s a delusion (Dawkins). Religion poisons everything (Hitchens). So let’s have the end of faith (Harris)! Okay. You’ve got your wish. Let’s imagine that the New Atheists have won. The world is our big and collective secular oyster to do whatever we want … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, China, eugenics, evolution, mcdonald's, Paul Kurtz, planet of the apes, religion, science, Social Darwinism, taboos
13 Comments
By Profession, this Woman is an Engineer, and She Had a Near Death Experience
She believes that she went to another world, and it changed the way she now lives in this one:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, atheist, death, engineering, life, near-death experiences, paranormal, philosophy, psi, psychology, religion, theist
Leave a comment
This Near Death Experiencer Says We Should Not Fear Death
She shared her experience at the 3rd Spiritual Retreat for Near Death Experiencers, St Louis, May 2008: What weight do you suppose we should give near death experiencer testimony? At one level, it’s akin to a person in Italy in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheist, death, fear, Jesus, life, love, materialism, meaning, philosophy, psi, purpose, ufo abductees
Leave a comment
Why I Like Jerry Coyne (and Dean Radin, William Dembski, Michael Behe, and Stephen Meyer as Well)
UPDATE (May 27, 2010): I’ve left my below orignal blog post alone, unedited, from last year. I wrote it in a mood of annoyance. I felt that Coyne was being cruel to people—and name calling—and I responded in kind. I don’t think … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, dean raddin, Discovery Institute, evolution, jerry coyne, Michael Behe, near-death experiences, psi, stephen meyer, william dembski
1 Comment
My Kids, My Wife, and I Have All Gotten Our Flu Shot
Have you? It’s also a good idea to ask your doctor about getting the pneumonia vaccine as well. It lasts for ten years, and it can reduce flu mortality by about 50% (since a lot of flu deaths are associated … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged fitness, flu, flu season, flu shots, H1N1, health, swine flu
2 Comments
