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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: November 2010
In Baghdad, Muslims Go Ahead and Hate Their Christian Neighbors
If there’s a hell, the Muslims who slaughtered their Christian brothers and sisters in Baghdad over the past ten days have certainly raised their odds of going there. The following was buried in a much longer story at the New York Times yesterday. The … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, billy jack, Christianity, God, Iraq, Islam, Jesus, muhammad, Muslims, peace, religion, violence
3 Comments
Free Will Objectivism Fail: Two Mathematicians Demonstrate that Ayn Rand’s Philosophy is Incoherent
At ScienceNews.org is a troubling piece reporting that two highly acclaimed Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, have mathematically demonstrated the following: if humans can actually choose what to observe (or not observe) in a particular sort of physics experiment involving particle spin, then the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Ayn Rand, consciousness, determinism, free will, idealism, materialism, math, philosophy, physics, science, T.S. Eliot
11 Comments
Climate Change Noah Man, John Shimkus, May Be the Next Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
John Shimkus, R-Ill., appears to be headed for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce committee. This is the same John Shimkus who, at a committee meeting a year ago, quoted Genesis 8:21-22 as his grounds for not worrying about global climate … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged fundamentalism, Genesis, global warming, herderians, Jesus, john shimkus, libertarianism, Noah, Republicans, rush limbaugh, the Bible
1 Comment
Video of the Apparent Missile Launch Seen over Los Angeles Yesterday
As of right now, the Pentagon is denying responsibility for Monday’s apparent missile launch near Los Angeles, claiming not to have any idea what might have caused the appearance of so large a contrail (“condensation trail”). Might it be from a submarine? … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged airplanes, chemtrails, clouds, conspiracy theories, contrails, mystery, reason, skepticism, sky, the navy, the pentagon
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1 Part Critical Thinking + 1 Part Behavior Modification = Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
The Enlightenment premise that the average person can deal rationally with life’s demands invites a question: what might a psychotherapy that foregrounds critical thinking habits look like? Enter Albert Ellis (1913-2007) and his Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Ellis, an atheist and humanist, believed that rational life habits could … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged albert ellis, atheism, critical thinking, humanism, musterbation, philosophy, psychology, rational-emotive behavior therapy, reason, seneca
6 Comments
Denise Levertov’s “An Ignorant Person”
Below is a glorious Denise Levertov poem, “An Ignorant Person”. The poem was written in 1959, and appeared in Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts in September of 1961 (pg. 120): Way out there where words jump in the haze is the land … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, balloons, beat, beauty, denise levertov, interpretation, life, literature, love, particular vision, poems, poetry
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Cereal, Comma, and Robert Duvall
Not that kind of cereal, but the serial comma. A great example (via Making Light) of what can happen when you drop the serial comma from a sentence: For those who don’t like to squint at small print, the newspaper … Continue reading
The Thirteen Missing Explanatory Links in the Atheist v. Theist Debate
Below I offer what I would call “the thirteen missing explanatory links” in the atheist v. theist debate. To my mind they constitute the most intractable problems for anyone trying to arrive at some sort of worldview coherence (whether you … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, apologetics, atheism, atheist, critical thinking, God, Jesus, logic, meaning, philosophy, theism
20 Comments
Andy Irons, 32, Dies of Dengue Fever, a Viral Disease
Here’s a video of Andy Irons, a three-time world surfing champion, talking about his love for surfing and one of the purest moments of his existence as a human being:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 30s, andy irons, carpe diem, death, dengue fever, life, surfing, viruses
1 Comment
