PZ Myers’s “divorce” from skepticism highlights how we sometimes forget how trivial our disagreements – and the actors in those disagreements – are. All these blogs, quabbles, rifts and so forth are sometimes operating in some crude filter-bubbles, where we can become sanctimonious, defiant, and so stubborn that we’re unable to see our own errors.
Read MoreMaking progress in resolving disagreements with regard to culture, values and religious beliefs is difficult enough, given the emotive nature of the beliefs in question. We could perhaps make the task slightly easier through paying attention to not misrepresenting each other, and also sometimes through getting our own houses in order.
Read MoreIt’s wrong to impute negative intentions – that’s where the principle of charity comes in. And while an insistence on people setting aside any pre-existing perceptions regarding your motives might be logically coherent, it’s not sufficient in this world of real insults and (at least psychological) harms.
Read MoreSometimes, one simply despairs when considering the idiocy this species is capable of, such as the authorities in Swaziland deciding that victim-blaming in cases of rape should become official policy.
Read MoreIs it plausible that a Jewish man would – in 2012 – call for Jewish folk to be labelled with a “mark of shame”? Well, plausible or not, it’s just happened.
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