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Tag Archives: the Enlightenment
Critical Thinking: Roger Kimball Is Against It
Catholic conservative Roger Kimball is editor of The New Criterion, which is a great journal. I read it. I like it. But sometimes Kimball comes a little unhinged. He often seems, for example, to regret that the Enlightenment ever happened at … Continue reading
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Tagged Catholicism, critical thinking, philosophy, Politics, reason, religion, Roger Kimball, the Enlightenment
5 Comments
Telling The Truth About The United States Is Hard
What makes the United States the greatest country in the world? I dunno. Yosemite? ___________ I like the above video’s puncturing of American exceptionalism. I especially like the Yosemite line, but when the piano starts to play, and the patriotic … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, history, patriotism, philosophy, the Enlightenment, the united states, Thomas Jefferson, Yosemite
13 Comments
Free Thought Road or the Orthodox Route?
Wow. I like this Anglo-French Enlightenment inspired cartoon from 1890: __________ Talk about push-back to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress! “Freethought Road” takes you past a secular schoolhouse and Investigation, Reason, Education, Humanity, Justice, Science, Virtue, Love, and Liberty, with “Truth” shining … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, critical thinking, faith, God, reason, religion, the Enlightenment
1 Comment
Steven Pinker Embraces Scientism
At The New Republic, Steven Pinker comes out swinging against those who direct the pejorative term “scientism” at atheists and agnostics. Pinker thinks that, just as gays turned tables on the bigots and came to embrace the pejorative term “queer,” atheists … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, evangelicalism, faith, postmodernism, reason, science, scientism, steven pinker, the Enlightenment
3 Comments
Enlightenment Up!
The following is from a recent debate in Australia between physicist Lawrence Krauss and a couple of Muslims. __________ What I find hopeful is the very existence of such a debate (between young Muslims and an atheist scientist). It suggests … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, God, Islam, philosophy, science, the Enlightenment
3 Comments
Sunita Williams’s Guided Tour of the International Space Station
This is life in space with departing International Space Station Commander, Sunita Williams. A few hours after making this video, she returned to Earth, landing in Kazakhstan with two of her colleagues, one from Russia and one from Japan. __________ If … Continue reading
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Tagged astronauts, NASA, progress, science, space, space station, the Enlightenment
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Don’t Tread on Me (Epistemically)
This falls into the category of Stop the epistemic power-plays! It comes from a recent article in Scientific American written by Shawn Lawrence Otto: The Founding Fathers were science enthusiasts. Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer and scientist, built the primary justification for … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, democracy, determinism, free will, philosophy, science, the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson
3 Comments
Zeev Sternhell’s Question: What Is To Be Done About The Anglo-French Enlightenment?
In The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale 2009), Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell (b. 1935) sees a fault line running through much of contemporary global culture: what to do about the Anglo-French Enlightenment. By the Anglo-French Enlightenment, he means the intellectual movement initiated in 17th … Continue reading
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Tagged Communism, critical theory, freedom, herder, individualism, philosophy, reason, Socialism, the Enlightenment
6 Comments
Blame Atheists for Ballooning Budget Deficits and Islam’s Growing Clout in Europe?
Maybe. In a fascinating summary, at NewGeography.com, of global demographic research, Joel Kotkin points the finger at Enlightenment secularism for the ballooning budget deficits and low birth rates in industrialized countries: The increasingly perilous shape of public finance in almost all … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, budget deficit, Christianity, europe, Islam, religion, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
8 Comments
Richard Dawkins’ Atheist Reason Rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C., March 24th, 2012: Edward Feser Doesn’t Like It
Edward Feser, a Catholic philosopher living in California who has written some really high quality academic books, offers at his blog the following reason for why he thinks the atheist Reason Rally this weekend will prove to be a ridiculous, … Continue reading
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Tagged America, atheism, atheist, edward feser, faith, Jesus, reason rally, Richard Dawkins, the Enlightenment
23 Comments
Gray on Pink(er): Because of Our Evolution, the Irrational We’ll Always Have With Us
John Gray thinks Steven Pinker’s thesis in his new book—in which Pinker argues that the world is progressing toward an ever less violent future—is deluded. In the Jacob-wrestle between Enlightenment rationality and our evolution-formed imperatives, Gray is betting that our … Continue reading
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Tagged critical thinking, evolution, John Gray, optimism, pessimism, progress, reason, steven pinker, the Enlightenment
5 Comments
Critical Thinking Watch: Background Knowledge, Coherence, and Reflective Equilibrium
_____ In the context of this post, the above Amadeus clip should make sense momentarily. But what I really want to direct your attention to, after you read my set up comments here, is the below video by Massimo Pigliucci. Pigliucci … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, critical thinking, Jesus, massimo pigliucci, philosophy, reason, science, the Enlightenment
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Today is Carl Sagan Day!
Bet you didn’t know that. But it’s true. Here’s the Center for Inquiry promoting November 12, 2011 as “Carl Sagan Day”: An all-day event at Broward College near Ft. Lauderdale, FL in celebration of the life and teachings of Carl … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, atheism, carl sagan, center for inquiry, free inquiry, free thought, nuclear weapons, philosophy, science, the Enlightenment
1 Comment
The Truth of Progress: Steven Pinker Interviewed by Reason Magazine
Steven Pinker’s new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, on the decline of violence through history, is great—maybe his best book ever. Well, on second thought, let’s say it ties his The Blank Slate. That’s saying a lot. Here’s Pinker talking about The … Continue reading
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Tagged nonviolence, peace, progress, psychology, reason, science, steven pinker, the Enlightenment, violence
3 Comments
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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Tagged apologetics, atheism, critical thinking, enlightenment, fundamentalism, gnu atheism, modernism, reason, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
2 Comments
Sarah Churman, Deaf from Birth, Hears for the First Time
Implants, not from the laying on of hands. Try not to cry. _____ A big thank you to the Enlightenment (yes, that Enlightenment) and Francis Bacon (who got the whole “let’s try systematic empiricism” thing going in earnest). Hat tip: Andrew. … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, deaf, healing, hearing, Jesus, life, miracle, reason, science, the Enlightenment
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Which Germany would you like to live in? Luther’s, Hitler’s, or Habermas’s?
In thinking about what worldviews are broadly contending for the human future, it occurs to me that Germany, over the past 500 years, has basically passed through the three key ones: The religious civilizational vision. This is embodied today by contemporary fundamentalists … Continue reading
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Tagged Germany, history, Hitler, jurgen habermas, Martin Luther, philosophy, Politics, the Enlightenment, the future
16 Comments
Debating the Future of Islam in Egypt
The birth pangs of a new Egypt: a Hitler-like religious fanatic (living in London!) argues with an Enlightenment influenced liberal over the future of Egypt: Hat tip: Concerned Christian.
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Tagged Allah, cairo, cairo university, democracy, Egypt, God, Islam, liberals, muhammad, religion, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
7 Comments
Worldview Wars (and Who’s Winning)
I think that what evangelical Albert Mohler wrote recently at his blog is true: The future shape of the world appears to be a worldview competition between Christianity, Islam, and Western Secularism. And I think it’s quite obvious which one … Continue reading
Prometheus Unbound 