I’m breaking my New Year’s Resolution for a couple of posts today. In a minute I’m going rail against the administration, but first, a rant against religious delusion. (I’ll get back to being positive after this; this is only a temporary resolution break. I’ve been doing pretty well all things considered so far.) Mark at [...]
READ MORE »Monthly archives for January, 2007
Passion for Science
Point of Inquiry’s latest show has an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of PBS’s ScienceNow. http://www.pointofinquiry.org/?p=94 He discusses how important it is to embrace the tools and methods of science. He states that ignorance of and lack of accepting the scientific view of examining the universe will be as personally harmful and dangerous in [...]
READ MORE »Randi, Psychics, and a Painful Larry King
James Randi, famous magician, skeptic, debunker, was on Larry King Live last Friday. Man, it’s painful to watch. Oh not because of Randi! But because King is an idiot and the “psychic” he also had on the show was a fount of ridiculous rationalizations. (Nurk! Too negative of me…. gotta be positive…. Hmm, is doing [...]
READ MORE »Things I Like About No Longer Being Christian
Debunking Christianity has a post by Theresa Frasch entitled: Things I Like About No Longer Being a Christian Really good, positive post (with a little negativity, but let’s focus on the positive.) Here’s a small sample: This is all there is; make the most of it. I like this thought better than thinking about spending [...]
READ MORE »Most Probably Definite
Argh, that’s so annoying! I could have sworn that a few months ago I’d blogged about about a podcast I listened to where the guest discussed fallacies of probability and chance. Specifically in applied to religious arguments against evolution/Big Bang by citing the astronomical chances of our universe existing exactly as it does now. But [...]
READ MORE »Gnosis Supposes His Toses Are Roses…
Jennifer on her blog “The Idle Rambling Thoughts…” has made an interesting post on her findings in Gnosticism. Check it out. =) http://whatbox.blogspot.com/2007/01/ive-been-doing-some-personal-research.html
READ MORE »Blogging is a Lonely Existance
I Blog, Therefore I am: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/8f5d/ I like the “0 comments” Among the shirts I really want are of course: “Science: It works, bitches” (but I can’t really wear that in public. and my favorite: > SELECT * FROM users WHERE ‘clue’ > 0; 0 rows returned I enjoy that there was a time that [...]
READ MORE »But They’ll never Take… Our Freedom!
Oh wait, they are. Yesterday’s Penn Jillette radio show was prompted by a clip from an Andy Griffith episode (posted on Reason.com) where he addresses Opie’s act of taping a private conversation of an accused prisoner: “Why Does Andy Griffith Hate America?” The clip can actually bring a tear to your eye. Especially when you [...]
READ MORE »Magical Thinking Works, Knock on Wood
Here’s an interesting article on the NY Times regarding magical thinking from superstitions to prayer. Why we do it, what use is it, can it be helpful, when is it harmful, etc. Cool thing is this is one online NY Times article that’s appearantly open to public viewing without requiring a user account.
READ MORE »Professional Writing Becomes Real
Wow. I mean, wow! I just had my first ENG 500Â class, “Professional Non-Fiction Writing.” Surprise, it’s an Integrated Service Learning class, meaning, we’ll be working with a community service to do something “real.” In this case: As a class we’ll be researching, writing, editing, and publishing a book. Something probably around 80 to 130 [...]
READ MORE »Let There Be Light!
After a week, we finally got power last night! *glee* Too late to watch the season return of Battlestar Galactica (the best show on TV since Firefly) and series premiere of Dresden Files, and Heroes and Studio 60. Oh well. Thank goodness for magic. *evil grin* I think the outage or return blew out the [...]
READ MORE »All You Must Do Is, BELIEVE!
I’ll try to make this quick. Power is still out, after a week, at home and I came in to work to recharge cell and laptop batteries before I go waste some time at Barnes & Noble. This is going to be a little critical and negative of a post harming my New Year’s Resolution [...]
READ MORE »The Continuous Slide Toward a Medieval America
Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton, I have discovered the man totally rocks,) has a good op-ed on his blog today regarding the Pentagon’s plans to allow testimony gained through the use of torture to be admissible in trial. Even though it’s well established that intel gained through torture is rarely credible.) regarding hersay and [...]
READ MORE »Extent of Suffering In Our World Makes the Existence of God Implausible
John W. Loftus on Debunking Christianity has a long but fantastic essay on the problem of massive suffering and what it means to the Christian concept of god: Extent of Suffering In Our World Makes the Existence of God Implausible. There is just too many excellent points he makes regarding how the Christian concept of [...]
READ MORE »Why Atheism, Jesus’ Love, and Secular Humanism
Oh it’s tough to not be negative and critical. It’s not tough being positive and upbeat, which I’m happy to say these last few weeks I think I’ve done a very good job of being, in my personal life. Even with the power outage and the long commuting each day all week, I’ve retained a [...]
READ MORE »Ice is Nice
It’s so pretty, the frozen wasteland that is where I live. Since the only people who read this save one or two, know me personally, you know I live in southwest Missouri. And if you’re not all those people who know save two or three, you’re right in the middle of the ice storm aftermath [...]
READ MORE »bush Leading Us Into Destruction
Last night’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” included another incredible final words section by the host. Keith Olbermann is a man I believe is our generation’s Edward R. Murrow. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16583889/ Read it, but I heavily recommend watching the clip. Here is just a little except of what he had to say: Only this president, only in [...]
READ MORE »Ann Druyan on Carl Sagan and the Passion of Knowledge
Point of Inquiry’s latest episode: Ann Druyan – Carl Sagan and The Varieties of Scientific Experience Another amazing episode! I’d posted about another interview with Carl Sagan’s wife and co-author of many of his books, Ann Druyan: Cosmos, Sagan, and Spiritual Fulfillment. In this interview she talks at length about the love Carl Sagan had [...]
READ MORE »This Awesome Universe, Galactic Clusters, Dark Matter “Photographed”
Phil Plait of BadAstronomy has a new very interesting entry: Dark matter and large scale structure. It describes some fascinating finds from the COSMOS program (“Cosmological Evolution Survey designed to probe the formation and evolution of galaxies as a function of cosmic time”) regarding the mapping of swaths of the sky. It includes a link [...]
READ MORE »Bush says feds can open mail without warrant
I’m just putting this out there as news and in my new resolution to not be negative, I’m not going to comment. Enjoy! The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush says feds can open mail without warrant President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant.Bush asserted the [...]
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