Tag Archives: enlightenment

Islamic Terrorism in Paris and Charlie Chaplin’s Hitler Ballet

It occurs to me this evening that Charlie Chaplin’s classic globe dance, as a means of trying to enter and represent visually the psyche of Hitler, is curiously apropos to the why question surrounding Paris tonight. The idea of violently … Continue reading

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Memo To Democrats: Thomas Jefferson Is Not The Confederate Flag

Thomas Jefferson is a Southerner, but he is not the Confederate Flag. I understand why the contemporary Democratic Party would backbench the two white males (Jackson and Jefferson) who founded the Democratic Party, but I still love Jefferson. His words sing. … Continue reading

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Paul Wallace Claims Fundamentalism, Gnu Atheism, and Modernism Are All Doomed

In a blog post at RD Magazine titled, “Atheism is Doomed,” Paul Wallace draws a curious equivalence between fundamentalism and atheism for which he provides no evidence: [T]he sound and fury of contemporary religious fundamentalism is the last desperation of a dying worldview. It … Continue reading

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The Problem of Pure Consciousness

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              . Sunlight rivers through the shimmering  Sycamore tree, pools on the ground, Makes of shadow a living shoreline.  I vibrate there. The juggler’s balls are Frightfully high in the rarified air. Eight Sheriff’s deputies in four cars came, but They did … Continue reading

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Why We Should Build Human Solidarity on Reason, Not Race, Faith, or Nation

Reason, to my mind, is a human universal (though some do it far better than others). In other words, barring intellectual disability or brain injury, human beings have a universal capacity for reasoning with others: we can deduct, induct, experiment, … Continue reading

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John Gray’s Phrase for Missionary Atheism: “Enlightenment Fundamentalism”

With all the “hoo-haw” back and forth on the Internet about whether there is such a thing as “fundamentalist atheism,” I noticed that the philosopher John Gray today used a curious phrase in an essay for New Statesman: Enlightenment fundamentalism. Below … Continue reading

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From Torquemada to the War on Terror: A Review of AC Grayling’s Latest Book, “Toward the Light of Liberty”

A.C. Grayling is a British philosopher. He is a friend of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, and although he is not as well known as these two authors, his latest book, Toward the Light of Liberty (2007) is every bit as … Continue reading

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