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Monthly Archives: May 2011
Eugenics Revival Watch: Scientific American editor, Mariette DiChristina, calls eugenic goals expressed in 1911 “lofty aspirations”
Curiously, the editor at the Scientific American website (Mariette DiChristina) recently approved the posting, with only minimal comment, of an editorial written in its pages 100 years ago, in 1911, advocating eugenics. Here are three quotes from the editorial: It is not … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, biology, Darwin, eugenics, genetics, Hitler, jerry coyne, Nietzsche, Richard Dawkins, science, scientific american
5 Comments
Atheism’s Real Problem Going Forward: Universal Humanism vs. Johann Gottfried Herder, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Friedrich Nietzsche
The fact that we evolved from social primates, and not, say, loner sharks, is sufficient to account for human moral impulses. Aristotle famously defined us as the political (or social) animal. But being a tribal species in which demonized out-groups are … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, history, humanism, Johann Gottfried Herder, Machiavelli, moloch, Nietzsche, Richard Dawkins, the enlighenment, the future, Thomas Jefferson
30 Comments
I Plank, Therefore I Am
. If you don’t know what planking is, it’s where you have somebody take a picture of you lying, typically face down, rigid as a board, in an unexpected place. You then post it on the Internet. In the above photo, for … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Albert Camus, atheism, atheist, Dostoevsky, Jesus, life, philosophy, plank, planking, the absurd, underground man, yoga
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What is Humanism, and Where is 21st Century Atheism Taking Us, Really?
Just as Unitarianism is the featherbed for catching the falling Christian (Erasmus Darwin), humanism is the featherbed for catching the falling atheist. What humanism functions to conceal for the squeamish atheist and agnostic (and I am one of those squeamish agnostics) is … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, China, Darwinism, eugenics, evolution, God, humanism, jerry coyne, Nietzsche, nihilism, the future
25 Comments
Two Paths to Self-Control: The Buddha and Jesus vs. Ulysses and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor
Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology at Duke University, has an interesting recent blog post on self-control, which he frames as a dual dilemma: should we intensively train ourselves to be serene Buddhas, indifferent in the presence of immediate pleasures that might undermine our larger … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddha, crucifixion, Jesus, life, meditation, psychology, sailing, self control, sin, sirens, temptation, Ulysses
1 Comment
Harold Camping’s Apocalypse Fail Watch: To Be Rapture Ready, Adrienne Martinez Gave up on Medical School!
Concerning radio evangelist Harold Camping’s apocalypse prediction fiasco, the Christian Post this afternoon reports on a specimen of the human wreckage. Here’s what the past year has been like for the Martinez family (after Adrienne and Joel came under the spell of the May 21, 2011 rapture … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cults, fraud, Harold Camping, hysteria, Jesus, John Macarthur, prophecy, prophecy fail, rapture ready, religion, Revelation, strange
10 Comments
Near Death Experience (NDE) Watch: Waiting for Dr. Sam Parnia
Late last year, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on near death experiences (NDEs), and it included an aspect on the phenomenon that I’d never heard of before: near death awareness: In his book, “Visions, Trips and Crowds,” David … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, body, cancer, death, God, life, mind, NDEs, near-death experiences, psychology, skeptic
21 Comments
Harold Camping Rapture Fiasco Watch: A Wry Asian’s Take
A pretty good summing up of American fundamentalist inanity, and, at the end, a refreshing solution to the question of why there is so much ridiculous suffering (and stupidity) in the world: . The ending, in its eccentric way, echoes … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, End Times, fundamentalism, God, Harold Camping, Jesus, psychology, rapture, religion, social psychology
3 Comments
Doctors, Jeopardy, and Computers
When I was recently watching online NOVA’s Smartest Machine on Earth—an exceptionally fascinating documentary on the IBM computer that defeated the two most accomplished (human) Jeopardy players in the game show’s history—it occurred to me that it won’t be long before … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged computers, diagnosis, doctors, economics, IBM, medicine, ray kurzweil, stocks, technology, the singularity, utopia
3 Comments
Theism vs. Atheism Watch: A Visual Analogy for God’s Creation of the Universe? Or Just Some Curious Coincidences Born of Matter in Motion?
The following brief YouTube video strikes me as an analogy for what the universe is actually doing (passing from a lower entropy state to a higher entropy state with lots of curious patterns appearing along the way). See if you agree. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, creation, evolution, Genesis, God, in the beginning, Jesus, origins, philosophy, physics, science
6 Comments
A Sign of the Times
It’s not just car factories that are disappearing from Michigan. Property owners in Troy appear indifferent to keeping their library open. Ironically, Troy’s official motto is “The City of Tomorrow, Today.” I guess libraries are relics of the past. Note the 1970s architectural style of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged books, computers, e-books, gutenburg, illiteracy, libraries, literacy, straining out the gnat, swallowing camels, taxes, troy
5 Comments
The Reports of Freud’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated (but Not Osama bin Laden’s)
At The Daily Beast is the following rather arresting paragraph: “Interestingly and ironically,” says [University of North Carolina Chapel Hill religious studies professor Omid] Safi, “some of the Muslim societies that are the most repressive toward women or that have … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cigars, Freud, Islam, Muslims, osama bin laden, pornography, religion, repression, sublimation, women's equality, women's rights
4 Comments
Let My People Go: A New Exodus from Egypt?
Blogging at the Jerusalem Post, Barry Shaw offers a provocative take on Egyptian Christians, describing them as: . . . defenseless as were the Jews in Europe seventy years ago. And his advice to Christians as an Israeli observer is the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Christians, Egypt, freedom, freedom of religion, God, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, Moses, muhammad, the exodus
7 Comments
Are You Sitting Down?
Maybe you shouldn’t be. The below chart was at Andrew Sullivan’s blog this morning, but I don’t know how accurate it is. It claims that long hours of sitting is deadly. Intuitively, this seems plausible. The information—if it is information and not, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged death, disease, exercise, fitness, health, life, meditation, running, sitting, spring, walking, yoga
4 Comments
The Islamic Bomb: Osama bin Laden is Just One Head Removed from a Nuclear Weapons Seeking Hydra
At Slate this week, Christopher Hitchens uses his gift for tart summing up to give the following obituary to Osama bin Laden: It seems thinkable that he truly believed his own mad propaganda, often adumbrated on tapes and videos, especially after … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged India, Iran, Islam, Israel, muhammad, nuclear terrorism, nuclear weapons, osama in laden, Pakistan, the bomb
16 Comments
“The Age of Doubt”: Christopher Lane’s New Book on Victorian Agnosticism Looks Interesting
At New Humanist is an essay by Christopher Lane (adapted from his recently released book on doubt and agnosticism among the Victorians). Here is Lane writing about the (failed) defensive maneuvers taken by the Christian faithful against the rising cultural tide of religious doubt: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, doubt, God, humanism, Jesus, philosophy, psychology, religion
1 Comment
I Have a Conspiracy Theory about the Discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan
What does it mean, exactly, for Osama bin Laden to have been discovered so close to Islamabad (just 80 miles away)? I have a conspiracy theory. I think it means that there were at least some elements within the Pakistani military … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged conspiracies, conspiracy theory, fundamentalism, India, Iran, Islam, nuclear weapons, osama bin laden, Pakistan, terrorism, the bomb
2 Comments
Prometheus Unbound 