Tag Archives: Prometheus

What Gay Marriage Is Really About

If we zoom out to a perspective of one hundred years from now, what has the gay marriage debate of the early 21st century really been about? I think that historians of the future will see an underlying issue that … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Santi Tafarella: Why I Blog

The following was recently posted at the Antelope Valley College website, and I thought I’d put it up here as well: Santi Tafarella Talks About the Ultimate Freedom: Uncensored Thinking Recently AVC faculty member Santi Tafarella passed an amazing number. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Are the New Atheists Insufficiently Serious?

R. Joseph Hoffmann, an atheist himself and the author or editor of numerous academic books—including Jesus in History and Myth (Prometheus Books 1986)—thinks so, writing at his blog recently the following: The mode of critique [by New Atheists] is lodged somewhere … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Who is Dagny Taggart? Atlas Shrugged Part 1, the Movie, is Coming to Theatres April 15th

Atlas Shrugged Part 1, the movie (which depicts the first third of Ayn Rand’s famous novel of ideas) comes into general release on April 15th, and I must say that the following YouTube teaser clip posted by the film’s producers is … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Promethean Who Stole Fire from Google: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on 60 Minutes

You’ll have to click over to YouTube to see this 60 Minutes segment on the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, but it’s really interesting. Talk about a Promethean! Zuckerberg’s genius, I think, is to have tamed a human form of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In a word, I hate all the gods?

In introducing his new book, To Set Prometheus Free, philosopher A C Grayling explains his choice of title by referring to Aeschylus’s play, Prometheus Bound, and quoting from it: As so often, the Greeks themselves understood with a preternatural clarity … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

They call the new cell ‘Synthia’: What is synthetic biology, and what, exactly, is Craig Venter up to?

The New York Times explains: In the approach toward which Dr. Venter is driving, engineers would specify the entire genetic code of a cell — essentially the software that runs the cell — on computers, making design changes as if … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Steven Novella, the Ambivalent Blasphemer

At SkepticBlog this past week, Steven Novella endorses blasphemy as social protest (sort of):  There are those, for example, who champion blasphemy as a form of social protest. PZ, Penn and Teller, Christopher Hitchens and others argue that nothing should … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Moses for the 21st Century: Ed Moses

Ed Moses of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California may be leading the world—through nuclear fusion—into a real Promised Land—the Promised Land of an abundant energy future. If you are not already up to speed on what Ed Moses and his team of scientists … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Evil, Nietzsche’s “amor fati,” Prometheus, and Thomas Edison

What is evil? If we call evil whatever outrages a human imagination’s ordering will and vitality; that is, if we define evil in its relation to us, then we quickly notice that evil comes in three forms: There are natural evils that … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The New Prometheuses? Are Physicists on the Verge of Stealing the Secrets of the “God Particle” (the Higgs Boson’s Mass) from Heaven?

Stealing fire from heaven. The most important physics experiment in the history of, well, all of history, is slated to take place over the late winter of 2009 and the first few months of 2010. This is when the CERN particle … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A LIBERAL AND HUMANIST Mythic Hero: Out of Compassion for Our Suffering and Ignorance, He Stole Fire from Heaven and Gave It to Mankind—and For This He Endured the Punishment of Zeus. An Image of PROMETHEUS Bound to a Rock, and a BIRD Plucking at His Liver

He fought the gods and, by exposing their injustice, delegitimized them, and won.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

See Here CBS’s “Sunday Morning” Segment on Atheism in America (with Julia Sweeney and Christopher Hitchens)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

George Carlin on God and the Problem of Suffering

In memory of George Carlin (1937-2008), that Prometheus who stole comedy-fire from frowning heaven, and brought it to earth, relieving humans, if for only an hour, of their suffering, wherever God would not or could not. In one of his stand-up routines he … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment