Tag Archives: truth

Three Things I Think Are True

At this point in my life, I think there are three things that are true–the first one being rather obvious: I am a limited being, embedded in the system I’m trying to explain. This means I cannot be wholly confident that … Continue reading

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Does the Truth Matter or Not?

Catholic Andrew Sullivan, in the context of reading the biblical scholar Bart Erhman’s new book, How Jesus Became God (Harper 2014), makes a crisp and refreshingly direct statement to his fellow biblical religionists who ignore expert consensus and the general … Continue reading

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What is Information? A Three Word Definition

The three word definition. The physicist Brian Greene, in his book The Hidden Reality (Knopf 2011), gives the best definition of information I’ve ever encountered: So, you start to ponder. What actually is information, and what does it do? Your … Continue reading

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Glasses, Not Mirrors: Richard Rorty’s Whole Philosophy In 900 Words

I’m going to try to sum up the whole of Richard Rorty’s philosophy in just 900 words. Do you suppose I can do it? Here goes. The religionist, the scientist, and the ironist. There are three types of people in … Continue reading

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Howard Kurtz is My Hero

Journalist Howard Kurtz has been goofing up lately, but the way he addressed it this past weekend is incredibly impressive (as can be seen in the below video). It’s rare, almost unheard of in any context, for someone to so … Continue reading

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Ludwig Wittgenstein for Beginners

First thought. To get a handle on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, one can start with a simple question: what does the scientist (as opposed to the philosopher) do and accomplish? The answer seems pretty straightforward. The scientist reasons and experiments … Continue reading

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You Don’t Know What Work Is

John Churchill has a contrarian take on work: Is there no intrinsic value ─ no good in itself ─ in the work of a life that does not rise, in its own span, above the level of the mop and … Continue reading

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Three Grandmas Watch Something Naughty

Very naughty. A nice reminder that adults can see and hear things without the least harm. __________ I love the display of irony here because we all know that this is exactly how individuals tend to respond to “shocking” images … Continue reading

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Appearances vs. Reality

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Critical Thinking as a Spiritual Path: Prepare Ye the Way of the Truth?

Yale Divinity School graduate, and former evangelical, Jonathan Dudley, explains, in a recent essay, how lay evangelicals tend to evaluate expert testimony (and so arrive at ridiculous conclusions): Lay evangelicals evaluate the arguments made by “experts” in a manner different from many non-evangelicals. … Continue reading

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Neutrinos Faster than the Speed of Light: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

Or, as the New York Times put it today, “Incredible claims require incredible evidence.” The reference is to the mind-blowing (apparent) discovery that there are neutrinos that can outpace the speed of light. Here’s more from the New York Times: According … Continue reading

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If You’re Angry, And Words Fail

Don’t shoot! Try gesture:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          . Or, how about this? (Buddhist equanimity.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       . The above painting is from a Laotian monastery. It’s an image of the Buddha leading monks through a treacherous path. He is silent and calm, walking through … Continue reading

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Truth and Justice Watch: Where Barack Obama Began and Osama bin Laden Ended

  Over the past week, we’ve discovered where Barack Obama began (we have his long-form birth certificate) and Osama bin Laden ended (with Barack Obama). This is an irony that shouldn’t escape us, for it has long been a Republican … Continue reading

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In the Free Will Debate, Does the Truth Matter?

According to the New York Times this morning, researchers have discovered a curious correlation between belief (or disbelief) in free will and behavior: [W]hen people doubt free will, they do worse at their jobs and are less honest. This raises … Continue reading

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Chris Hedges the Prophet on Print Culture Turning to Image Culture

Former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, has, over the past couple of years, taken on the mantle of a secular prophet—an emperor has no clothes truthteller—writing scathing (and I think powerful) books and essays documenting the messes that we find ourselves … Continue reading

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Was Keats Right? Surfer-Physicist Garrett Lisi’s TED Talk

The poet John Keats famously wrote, at the end of his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the following: Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. I’m not sure this … Continue reading

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The Simple Truth

I think what the ideologically motivated person wants is a one party controlled state. Left or right, it is a poverty of wisdom and proportion to desire such a thing. The great danger is that the right, in a time … Continue reading

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The Human Bones Discovered at Masada: An Example of Religion Hindering Science

At the academic web magazine, Bible and Interpretation, anthropologist Joe Zias complains about ultra-orthodox Jews hindering archaeology and anthropology: For several decades self-appointed groups of the ultra-orthodox have been waging an all out cultural war against the archaeological community in general and … Continue reading

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Ground Zero Mosque Fact Check

Not that the facts matter (for the right in this country makes up its own facts exactly as it pleases), but some AP reporters actually went to the bother of fact checking some of the claims that prominent Republicans like … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

From an interview with Rutgers philosopher and cognitive scientist, Jerry Fodor: God provided us with tenure so we could do our best to say what’s true. I’m doing my best.

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