Daily Archives: August 6, 2009

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds—Republican Style!

At Salon today, Joan Walsh suggests that the Republican base’s general hysteria over Barack Obama could lead to even more incidents of violence than we’ve already seen over the past few months: The “town hells,” in short, don’t represent populism, they’re a display … Continue reading

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Five Years Ago This Month: Deere and Deer in Yosemite Valley (August, 2004)

  Francis Bacon (from his 1625 essay “Of Nature in Men”): Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return.   And this from Emerson’s “Self Reliance” (1841): Power is in nature the … Continue reading

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Today’s Number: 77

That’s the percentage of Republican senators who voted today not to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. 77%. Think about that number. Out of 40 Republican senators, just nine defied their nativist Republican base voters to support the first … Continue reading

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Pretty Good Reasons to Believe in God Watch: Atheism’s Guilt Problem

What, you say? Atheists, of all people, surely don’t have a problem with guilt. They can cuss, smoke, and masturbate to their hearts’ content, not feeling morally supervised by disapproving and invisible eyes. They can read any book they want. … Continue reading

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Pretty Good Reasons Not to Believe in God Watch: Guilt Free Atheism?

There are definitely problems with the following argument, but it nevertheless seems (for a lot of people) a rather strong utilitarian reason for becoming an atheist: Guilt free sensual and intellectual indulgence. Most theistic religions are, to put it politely, … Continue reading

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Pretty Good Reasons Not to Believe in God Watch: God’s Apparent Dilly Dallying in Getting Us Here

As an agnostic, I would offer the following as a pretty good reason not to believe that God exists, and for being an atheist (were I so inclined): If God exists, and if one of God’s chief purposes for creating the … Continue reading

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Pretty Good Reasons to Believe in God Watch: Death Fear Reduction

As an agnostic, I would offer the following as a pretty good utilitarian reason for believing in God, and to not be an atheist (were one so inclined): For a lot of people, belief in God appears to reduce the fear of death, and it … Continue reading

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