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Tag Archives: Voltaire
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, budget deficit, Christianity, europe, Islam, religion, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
8 Comments
Twitter Blasphemy: 18,000 Facebookers Call for the Death of Feminist Hamza Kashgari for Insulting the Prophet Muhammad
As of this morning, 18,000 is the number of Facebookers calling for the death of Hamza Kashgari for Twitter blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. The number was 8,000 on Thursday, 13,000 on Friday, and 16,000 on Saturday. Does anyone know … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, facebook, feminism, free speech, freedom of speech, hamza kashgari, Islam, liberty, mark twain, muhammad, Muslims, Voltaire, women's rights
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, critical thinking, enlightenment, fundamentalism, gnu atheism, modernism, reason, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
2 Comments
Kansas City Bishop Robert W. Finn Knew of the Child Pornography Photographs Taken by Father Shawn Ratigan
Father Robert W. Finn is bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph archdiocese. He is also, according to today’s New York Times, an outspoken theological conservative. And he’s a protector of at least one child abuser. That child abuser’s name is Father Shawn Ratigan. Here’s the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Catholic Church, Catholicism, church and state, God, Jesus, law, pedophiles, priests, religion, robert finn, Voltaire
3 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.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Allah, cairo, cairo university, democracy, Egypt, God, Islam, liberals, muhammad, religion, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
7 Comments
Damon Linker Owns the New Atheists
Damon Linker, a contributor to the New Republic, is, to my mind, one of the more insightful writers on religion and irreligion writing in the United States today. In a recent interview with The Economist, Linker offers what I can only describe … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheists, Camus, damon linker, freedom, jerry coyne, new atheism, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Socrates, Voltaire
17 Comments
The Prodigal Son (and Daughter) Culture
Should we call our time the era of the prodigal sons and daughters? Chris Hedges, from page 44 of his book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009): We are a culture … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, atheism, Chris Hedges, culture, fundamentalism, Jesus, reason, Sarah Palin, television, the doubting community, the prodigal son, Voltaire
3 Comments
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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Tagged anglo-french enlightenment, atheist, Buddhism, critical thinking, enlightenment, God, Hinduism, human universals, Islam, Jesus, reason, Voltaire
16 Comments
Do You Support a Burqa Ban in France?
About 2000 Muslim women in France wear the full body burqa, and the French Parliament is slated to vote on its ban Tuesday. The idea of a burqa ban is popular in France (in polls, about 80% of French citizens tend to … Continue reading
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Tagged burqa, France, fundamentalism, Islam, Jesus, liberty, Mohammad, religion, slavery, the Enlightenment, Voltaire, women's rights
12 Comments
What is the Enlightenment’s Distinctive Feature? And What Contemporary Movement is the Enlightenment’s Most Representative Heir?
Zeev Sternhell, in his recent book, The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale 2009), offers reason as the Anglo-French Enlightenment’s distinctive feature, and the ingredient that made for its historic break with the past (41): Criticism of the existing political order, but also criticism … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Daniel Dennett, hume, New Atheists, philosophy, reason, Richard Dawkins, science, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
11 Comments
In praise of Chateauneuf (Voltaire’s godfather and tutor)
Below are some rather impious lines from La Moisade, a 17th century French satirical poem (author unknown). It opens with this sass of Mosaic legislation: A teaching so irrelevant Shall not my doubts destroy? With empty sophism thou shalt not My reason … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Catholicism, child rearing, critical thinking, God, humanism, Jesus, Moses, skepticism, teaching, the Bible, Voltaire
3 Comments
Are Patriotism and Religion the Last Refuges of Scoundrels?
In 1775, in the year just prior to the American Revolution, Samuel Johnson famously quipped that: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. And this morning, thinking about this truism, I asked myself this question: What is it about patriotism that … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Christianity, glenn beck, God, Jesus, patriotism, reason, religion, Richard Dawkins, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
20 Comments
A bit of writing advice from Voltaire
Trying to find your take on the world, and your writing voice? Here’s a bit of advice from the 18th century philosopher, Voltaire (from the “Authors” entry in his Philosophical Dictionary ): If you are said to be sick, content yourself … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged audience, blogs, opinion, philosophy, readers, rhetoric, social psychology, Voltaire, writing
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Muslim assaults cartoonist on a university campus
But don’t call his violence Islamofascism. This reported today by AP: A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog said Tuesday he was assaulted while giving a lecture at a university. Lars Vilks told The Associated Press a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, Christopher Hitchens, fascism, free speech, God, Islam, islamofascism, lars vilks, Mohammad, Muslims, Voltaire
12 Comments
Matt and Trey could equal an earthquake in LA!
. At least that is the implied claim of the Pakistani-born Muslim I took a picture of above (as he was passing out free copies of the Quran). The picture was taken this weekend during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cartoons, earthquakes, fundamentalism, Islam, matt parker and trey stone, Mohammad, Muslims, philosophy, south park, the Enlightenment, theo van gogh, Voltaire
5 Comments
Two books for thinking about Chile’s devestating magnitude 8.8 earthquake this morning
See here and here.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged chile, earthquakes, philosophy, suffering, Susan Neiman, theodicy, Voltaire
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