Not too long ago I blogged in Myths About Evolution about a book that discusses said topic. Now, Sam Harris has written an article for the LA Times about 10 myths about atheism: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/10-myths-and-10-truths-about-atheism1/ He brings up how atheists are more hated in America than any other minority (not that ANYONE should be hated!) and [...]
READ MORE »Monthly archives for December, 2006
Why Do (Should) You Believe in God?
Ugh, fulfilling my resolution to be more positive and less bashing in the new year is going to be haaar-ard! But then, I guess most self-improving things are. Anyway, thought I’d share this pamphlet I found on the Intertubes: It looks very wordy, but it’s a very easy read, and very fascinating. A lot of [...]
READ MORE »Jesus-Come-Lately; God, the Sower of Confusion
Some time ago I posted some links to information on the very unoriginality of the Jesus story: Jesus in ancient Greece and Egypt? The traditions of salvation from sin, martyrdom for humans, virgin births especially, closed mystery cults around the half-man/half-god figure and his followers eating of his body, are old old old traditions. So [...]
READ MORE »Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?
Continuing my slam of other people until the New Year… Remember my post: The Banana Proves God? Pretty Fruity! A commenter on another blog who brought it up recently (Lacrimae Rerum) in response posted a link to this site which has a nice rebuttal of the absurd claims of the God-banana freak: http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=C101953&entry=10463 Here’s a [...]
READ MORE »Red Planet Madness
(I can’t come up with blog titles! Keep reading to find out about Mars and wacky stuff.) I can’t find the actual quote, nor who said it. It might have been Michael Shermer or Joe Nickell or Robert Price who said something like: “Religion allows many people to ‘legitimately’ believe something that one man would [...]
READ MORE »Myths About Evolution
One of the things that always rises volcanic ire in me is when people say “we evolved from monkeys.” No, no we didn’t, and not an evolutionist alive in the last 150 years has ever said such a thing. We and monkeys share a common ancestor that branched off, into multiple branches, throughout the millennium. [...]
READ MORE »Scholastic Success and Positivism
Got my Fall ’06 grades in today… A’s, baby! All A’s! Well, I only had two classes, so… both A’s! *glee* I had “ENG598: Early English Language & Literature“, which mainly focused on medieval cycle, miracle, and morality plays; and “ENG600: Problems and Methods of Research in English (and Theory)” which was a tough class! [...]
READ MORE »Feedback on Marxism/Libertarian Querey
I posted my previous entry, On Marxism and Libertarianism, on Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.philosophy.debate/browse_frm/thread/cd65fe3ac0383a49/d250248f56ec931a?tvc=1#d250248f56ec931a It’s gotten a lot of replies, and most of it confirmation of my fear: Both are ideologies that require certain perfect conditions and a more-or-less fundamental change in (current) human nature to be able to work well. But then, as my wife [...]
READ MORE »Death By Cute!
http://www.knitemare.org/cats/index.php?type=all http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=006718;p=1 (Be sure to go to all the continuing pages on that one.)
READ MORE »On Marxism and Libertarianism
This is a tough one because I’m not even close to being an expert on either concept. Not even really a knowledgeable beginner. Karl Marx’s Das Kapital is a multi-volume zillion page tome I’ve barely been able to get far into. One of my professors is a Marxist and says it took him about 10 [...]
READ MORE »My Writing Update
Coming later today, some thoughts, as promised, on Libertarianism and Marxism. The two of you that read my blog may have noticed that my word count up there in my novel progress hasn’t moved in some time. Not since I started grad school! The interesting thing is I’ve calculated that in the last three or [...]
READ MORE »654,965 Extra Iraqi Deaths Since War Started Says The Lancet
654,965 Extra Iraqi Deaths Since War Started Says The Lancet This news is nearly two months old, but today is the first I’d heard of it. Wow, that “liberal media” sure is stickin’ it to the Administration! More than half a million civilian deaths because of our invasion over what the evil dictator Hussein would [...]
READ MORE »Holiday Religious Display Dispute
Dispute leaves holiday travelers treeless in Seattle – CNN.com After consulting with lawyers, port staff believed that adding the menorah would have required adding symbols for other religions and cultures in the Northwest. The holidays are the busiest season at the airport, Betancourt said, and staff didn’t have time to play cultural anthropologists. Utterly ridiculous. [...]
READ MORE »What If It Were A Square?
Phil Plait over at BadAstronomy has an article about a church clearly violating the law with its ridiculously overbright lit cross on a hilltop: http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/12/09/science-versus-religion/ Evidently the local law is hesitant to do anything about the blatant violations because of the religious issue. Here’s the litmus test I would suggest: If the light display were [...]
READ MORE »Beer Review: Samuel Smith’s India Ale
Samuel Smith’s India Ale From:Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster) in United Kingdom (England) Style: English India Pale Ale (IPA) overall: 3.7 appearance: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 4 A – Beautiful clear, dark amber. Thick, creamy head that stays a reasonable amount of time and leaves a good [...]
READ MORE »Some Neurotic Literary Baggage
I’m wanting to write a post on my issues and questions of libertarianism and Marxism. But that’s going to take time. In the meantime, the notes I got back on a class paper yesterday reminded me of a couple of instances in my early writing life that I can’t forget and gets me angry every [...]
READ MORE »Atheists are an “Unprotected People”
Reading the latest James Randi Foundation news, I read this article about a college student being expelled supposedly for being belligerent–for being atheist. http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-12/120106dumb.html#i12 Looking for more info, I found this article from the Portland Mercury: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=84436&category=22101 It involves his questioning another student for her expressing beliefs in class regarding astral planed and energy fields [...]
READ MORE »Bush Family Tragedy
Last night I was watching Keith Olbermann and he was talking about George H.W. Bush’s crying while honoring his son Jeb at a lawmaker’s leadership forum. CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/05/bush.jeb.ap/index.html Keith had on a long-time Texas reporter who wrote the article in Newsweek(?) regarding the Bush legacy and G.H.W. Bush’s people being called in to the [...]
READ MORE »Drinking Our Rights Away
Found this sadly humorous mug that uses temperature changing color to illustrate our disappearing civil liberties: http://www.uncommongoods.com/item/item.jsp?source=related&itemId=13857
READ MORE »Religious Government Possible? No, and…Yes!
Stay tuned for a potentially surprising revelation about government and religion! (I sound like a local news commercial: “Tonight, we’ll show you how breathing Can Kill You! Tonight at 10.” With such sensationalist and yellow journalism, and the knowledge that local news studios will get money to air fake news from both government and corporate [...]
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