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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Can Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Make You an Intellectually Fulfilled Nihilist?
Richard Dawkins has famously said that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has made him, not just an atheist, but “an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” In other words, by mixing a scientific theory with an ideology, Dawkins has found that his strict … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, Albert Camus, atheism, atheist, Charles Darwin, evolution, Hitler, philosophy, Richard Dawkins
3 Comments
The Ontological Mystery (the Mystery of Being) Represented in Film
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Tagged America, american beauty, beauty, existence, God, life, love, meaning, mystery, the ontological mystery, the universe
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The Lake of Fire: Why Hell, If It Exists, Must Ruin Heaven
One reason I do not believe in hell is, were it to exist, it would make heaven impossible. In other words, the very pleasures of heaven would be rendered ridiculous by the concurrent knowledge that the torturing of vast multitudes was occurring at the … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, Christianity, End Times, fundamentalism, hell, Islam, James Dobson, John Macarthur, judgment day, the Bible, the lake of fire
3 Comments
Bill Moyers Talks to Robert Wright About the Evolution of God
I think it’s fair to characterize Robert Wright’s book this way: he has traced what he himself calls “the history of an illusion” to something less and less illusory. In other words, the history of religion, for Wright, is a … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, Christianity, evolution, God, Islam, Judaism, philosophy, psychology, robert wright
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A Good Question
At Christianity Today, Dinesh D’Souza reviewed Robert Wright’s book, The Evolution of God (2009), and asks a good question: Regretting the ‘problem’ passages that seem to justify violence in the Qur’an and also in the Bible, Wright speculates that ‘if … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Darwin, dinesh d'souza, God, jerry coyne, John Lennon, Nietzsche, philosophy, religion, robert wright, the Bible
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A Recent Debate on Atheism v. Theism
And an interesting match up. Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris v. Robert Wright, Dinesh D’Souza, and a rabbi, Shmuley Boteach:
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, God, philosophy, religion, robert wright, Sam Harris
2 Comments
Wilfred Owen’s “Futility”
One of Wilfred Owen’s great poems is titled “Futility” (1918). It begins with a commander of men at war directing a couple of his soldiers to move into the sun the body of a recently dead comrade: Move him into … Continue reading
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Tagged Albert Camus, atheism, atheist, death, existentialism, futility, God, Job, philosophy, the book of Job, the problem of suffering, Wilfred Owen
1 Comment
Mental Health Break
Karen Carpenter on the BBC, September 21, 1971:
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Tagged break ups, karen carpenter, life, longing, love, love letters, mental health break, music, psychology
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PZ Myers Finally Rises into Bryan Appleyard’s Radar
And Appleyard skewers him, returning rhetorical fire with rhetorical fire: I note also the appearance of this character P.Z.Myers. I’ve never read him before but I now discover he once did me over – ‘How stupid are the editors and … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, bryan appleyard, Catholic, Catholicism, Daniel Dennett, jerry coyne, New Atheists, PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins
7 Comments
Evolution Debated
An interesting William F. Buckley organized debate, refereed by Michael Kinsley, on evolution and intelligent design:
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Tagged biology, Charles Darwin, creation, evolution, God, intelligent design, philosophy, science
2 Comments
The Higher Self and the Lower Self: Theseus and the Minotaur
An 1843 sculpture, by Antoine-Louis Barye, of Theseus slaying the Minotaur: Theseus’s entering the center of the Labyrinth at Knossos and slaying the Minotaur has sometimes been associated with Apollonian order and culture overcoming the bestial elements of body and psyche. And in … Continue reading
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Tagged athens, Freud, Greek mythology, Jung, life, psychology, the double, the minotaur, the self, theseus
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Who is Servetus the Evangelical? Alvin Plantinga?
We’re about to find out because, at his website, he has announced that he will drop his pseudonym, and reveal his true name, on Thursday, November 19, 2009. The rather well know biblical scholar, James Tabor, says of Servetus the Evangelical: … Continue reading
LHC Watch: Physicist Otto Rossler Thinks the Large Hadron Collider Could Destroy the Earth
In an interview with Alan Gillis, Otto Rossler, a Max Plank Institute chemist and physicist with 300 scientific papers to his credit, thinks the Large Hadron Collider could destroy the Earth. Here he describes his visit to CERN this summer: Alan … Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bang, black holes, cern, chemistry, earth, large hadron collider, lhc, max plank, otto rossler, physics, science
2 Comments
Manicheanism, American Style!
Andrew Sullivan on watching Sean Hannity: It’s like listening to Hugh Hewitt. Or reading Pravda in the old Soviet Union. But somehow watching a human being so brainwashed and engaging in conscious brain-washing makes it worse. Hannity is a pathological … Continue reading
Heracles, Alcestis, and the Determined Human Heart’s Heroic and Relentless Path Through This World
Below is a fourth century Roman catacomb image of two courageous people who followed their hearts right into the very jaws of death: Heracles and Alcestis. The basic story from Greek mythology (and which Euripides made into a play) goes like this: … Continue reading
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Tagged alcestis, Apollo, catacombs, existentialism, fate, freedom, greek myth, Greek mythology, heracles, love, the heart, Valentine's Day
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It Depends on What Your Definition of Marriage Is
Dan Savage is absolutely brilliant here. It’s straight people, not gay people, who have progressively redefined marriage, liberalizing it through history, and now gay people are saying: Hey! What straight people have turned marriage into, we want too. Clear and … Continue reading
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Tagged divorce laws, equality, gay marriage, gay rights, God, homosexuals, Jesus, lesbian, the Bible
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