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- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: August 2010
American Herderite Watch: Tim Pawlenty Believes American Muslims Bear Collective Guilt for 9-11
Rather than treating people as Lockean individuals, Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, attempting to score points with the Herderite Tea Party base of the Republican Party, treats American Muslims as collectively responsible for 9-11. This from the August 9, 2010 … Continue reading
Love Your Gay Neighbor?
Abuse met with heroism. The below story from this week’s Sunday Mercury illustrates why the idea of gay marriage will, over time, win over the general public: it’s hard to erect your hate on good neighbors: A MARRIED gay couple subjected … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged gay, gay equality, gay marriage, lesbian, love your neighbor, negative capability, the golden rule, women's equality
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Maybe God Wants to Be Left Alone
Here’s a little double bind to contemplate: if we do not know the will of God, or whether he exists, and yet we nevertheless seek to discover answers to these questions, we might be annoying God. Why? Because God may not like people … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddhism, Christianity, God, Hinduism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Mohammad, monotheism, prayer, the lord's prayer, will of God
2 Comments
Sarah Palin Shows Disdain for a Middle Class Teacher
In the following clip, Sarah Palin doesn’t even try to conceal her contempt for a teacher (that is, someone devoted to developing the life of the mind and a love of books in her young charges). It’s as if Sarah Palin were saying to this … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, conservatism, education, learning, Republicans, right wing, rush limbaugh, Sarah Palin, stupidity, teachers
15 Comments
Ross Douthat’s Curious Reasoning about the Historical Jesus
Ross Douthat, in a recent New York Times piece, says that scholars would evaluate the documentary evidence for Jesus’s sayings and doings far more sympathetically if the New Testament had no miracles in it: If the letters of Saint Paul (the earliest surviving … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Catholicism, Christianity, critical thinking, faith, God, Jesus, reason, ross douthat, skepticism
2 Comments
Top Secret America: An Alien Has Landed?
I just read Part 1 of the Washington Post’s investigative report on ”Top Secret America.” Below is my brief digest of Part 1, accompanied by what I regard as the article’s key quotes. The full piece is here. The Washington Post calls the Fort Meade cluster of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, CIA, Dick Cheney, Dostoevsky, national security state, notes from underground, pentagon, secrecy, spies, top secret america, UFOs, underground man
6 Comments
Evolution v. Creation Watch: The Cambrian Explosion (545 Million Years Ago), the Cambridge Explosion (1869), and Natural Selection Replaced by the Eschaton?
Here is a depiction of the HMS Cambridge firing a torpedo (Illustrated London News, 1869): And here’s a fossil from the Cambrian explosion (image source: Wikipedia). . And here’s my question: does the Cambrian explosion (the relatively sudden appearance of … Continue reading
Jerry Coyne on Natural Selection and What Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini Get Wrong
University of Chicago evolutionary geneticist, Jerry Coyne, reviewing, for The Nation, Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s book, What Darwin Got Wrong (2010), gives as clear a definition of natural selection as you’re ever likely to find: In principle, natural selection is simple. It … Continue reading
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Tagged biology, Charles Darwin, creationism, evolution, genetics, jerry coyne, jerry fodor, natural selection, Robert Frost, science, simon conway-morris
1 Comment
A Cartoon for Virginia Heffernan
Context here. Hat tip: Andrew.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, elitism, fundamentalism, liberal christianity, New York Times, superiority, virginia heffernan
2 Comments
Quote of the Day
From an interview with Rutgers philosopher and cognitive scientist, Jerry Fodor: God provided us with tenure so we could do our best to say what’s true. I’m doing my best.
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Tagged Charles Darwin, evolution, free speech, God, integrity, jerry fodor, philosophy, speaking truth to power, tenure, truth
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Jerry Coyne v. Jerry Fodor: The Great Divorce
Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s book, What Darwin Got Wrong (2010), received a fair amount of attention (and drubbing) when it first came out in February. On Tuesday of this week, evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne expressed dismay that Jerry Fodor, in a recent interview, continues … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, biology, Charles Darwin, contingency, evolution, intelligent design, jerry coyne, jerry fodor, natural selection, philosophy, science
3 Comments
Is a Fortunate and Highly Improbable Energy Resonance (that Makes Carbon Atoms—and Us—Possible) a Coincidence or a “Put-Up Job”?
Physicist John Polkinghorne thinks it’s a put-up job, and explains:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anthropic principle, apologetics, astronomy, carbon, chance, contingency, God, john polkinghorne, physics, probability, religion, star stuff
1 Comment
Ontario Lacus: How Does It Feel to Live in an Alien World in Which Everything That Is Does Not Have to Be?
In a recent science article at the New York Times, the unpredictable blendings and contingencies of history jumped out at me in the way that Titan’s methane lake, “Ontario Lacus,” came to be named: In 2004 a camera known as the Imaging Science Subsystem on … Continue reading
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Tagged Adam, astronomy, contingency, Darwin, existentialism, fortuna, gay marriage, life, luck, Nietzsche, saturn, titan
2 Comments
Living and Dying with Purpose and Heroism: Christopher Hitchens and Enkidu
In a recent interview with Hugh Hewitt, Christopher Hitchens contrasts dying in a heroic cause with dying from a terminal disease (which, via Hitchens’s esophageal cancer, he may be doing): But it [dying in a good cause] avoids the boring thought that one is … Continue reading
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Tagged Christopher Hitchens, crows, eagles, Enkidu, existentialism, Gilgamesh, life, literature, meaning, philosophy, predators, scavengers
2 Comments
Did Atheist Physicist Lawrence Krauss’s Questioning of a Religious Person Cross a Boundary into Intolerance?
Physicist Lawrence Krauss, in a recent brief essay for Scientific American, recounts what happened to him when he asked, in a public forum, a simple question of a religious man. Krauss wanted to know how the man reconciled his religious views with his scientific … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Catholicism, censorship, free speech, God, Jesus, lawrence krauss, Richard Dawkins, self censorship, the Bible
5 Comments
Spineless Virginia Heffernan Attacks PZ Myers as Lacking Class for Sketching Mohammad
Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times wades into the gravity of the ScienceBlogs solar system (with PZ Myers as its sun) and finds herself distinctly unimpressed: Clearly I’ve been out of some loop for too long, but does everyone take for granted … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, apologetics, atheism, atheist, Islam, Jesus, Mohammad, PZ Myers, science, shame, south park, virginia heffernan
8 Comments
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris: Is This What a Rising Christian Political Star Looks Like?
Mayor R. Rex Parris, 58, a born-again Baptist who last year declared his city, the city of Lancaster, Ca., a “Christian community,” was profiled a while back in the Los Angeles Times, and I notice that the Times described R. Rex Paris’s … Continue reading
Chris Tse is Sorry He’s a Christian
A great poem recital (prayer? confession?) at a Vancouver poetry slam: Hat Tip: Andrew.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, Christianity, confession, Hamlet, Jesus, life, love, philosophy, poetry, psychology, religion
1 Comment
