‘Rationality is useless if it is not sound. This is what Martin Luther meant when he called reason a “whore”. Pick the wrong premises, and rationality is utterly screwed. Therefore, merely that someone is “rational” means absolutely nothing about whether that person is well-connected to reality.’
The holidays are approaching fast, and the first snows are coming over the United States. The ever-expanding day of Christmas will truly be here soon. And all around the world, both preachers and even some scientists will be talking about a perennial subject: the Star of Bethlehem and what it could have been
Myself and author James A. Lindsay were both involved in contributing chapters to John Loftus’s recent excellent addition to his growing number of titles.
By a vote of 229-191, the House has just passed a GOP-sponsored bill to ensure that a more “balanced panel of experts” will advise the Environmental Protection Agency. But critics say it will reduce the participation of independent scientists in favor of those with financial ties to industry.
What follows is a guest post by a woman named Heather over in Australia. She is involved in something called microfinance through an organisation called Kiva. Kiva is something I got involved in since one of the Skepticule podcast hosts mentioned it in a discussion on morality following one of my Pearced Off segments.
As you will read, microfinance is way of doing charity through loaning out to worthy causes and then receiving the money back to loan out again. This empowers those borrowing to better their lives off their own backs, and gives them the leg up they often need.
On the Skeptic Ink back channels one of my writing colleagues was asking about genetic influences on homosexuality, in answer to a conversation with a reader about a book “My Genes Made Me Do It” which seems to decry the use of genetics to understand the determination of homosexuality.
As I have said before, Holidays are coming, holidays are coming… It’s that time of year, you know, the interminable…
I like this simple explanation from Buzzfeed: I once saw a high school teacher lead a simple, powerful exercise to…
I have reported a few of these recently. One might think I am picking on Islam. But there is no other worldview or religion which is inspiring such mass killings. From 8 people being shot in the head in Kenya for not being able to recite the Qu’ran, to ISIS going nuts in the Middle East. I know a lot f liberal apologist (and as I say, I am generally as liberal as they come) point to other causal factors and try to blame the West and geo-political scenarios. But this is simply death for infidels in parts of Africa over which the West has little power, or at least not in the way that would inspire this kind of activit
Just World Theory is a core reason as to why theists believe in God. It is this desire for balance and fairness which is psychologically ingrained into us, no matter what ancillary beliefs we have. As a result, we see the world, the universe, as a thing which must be, on balance, fair.
Oh dear. Kenya again feeling the brunt of Islamist extremism:
Gunmen from the Somali militant group al-Shabab say they have attacked a bus in northern Kenya, killing 28 people.
The bus was travelling to the capital, Nairobi, when it was stopped in Mandera county, not far from the Somali border.
Gunmen separated out non-Muslims by asking passengers to read from the Koran, officials and witnesses said. Those who failed were then shot in the head.
From Addicting Info: In between clips of touchdowns and postgame interviews with sweaty athletes, ESPN typically doesn’t find itself having…
This meme is surprisingly on the money: …
This awesome news comes from CNN:
(CNN) — It’s a revolutionary decree. In the midst of the fight against Islamist rebels seeking to turn the clock back to the 7th century, a Kurdish region in Syria has just approved a new law ordering equality for women. Take that, ISIS!
Here is a broad selection of claims and quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia article “The Nature and Attributes of God” compiled by my friend Julian Haydon:
God is infinitely perfect
He is infinitely good, intelligent, wise, just, holy, etc
no Theist of average intelligence ever thinks of understanding literally the metaphors he applies, or hears applied by others, to God
Thus God is said to see or hear, as if He had physical organs, or to be angry or sorry, as if subject to human passions
In moving house I had to clear a lot of stuff up, throw a lot away and generally reassess what is important to me, and what I need to keep hold of.
In my loft was a few boxes of memorabilia: letters (remember them?) sent to me from girls (I was at boarding school) throughout my adolescence; gig tickets; trophies; trinkets; bits and pieces from travelling
The National Secular Society has released this fascinating piece which is relevant and in line with my last substantial post on Islam.
Moderate believers argue that Isis has misinterpreted the Koran. But no one can determine who is right or wrong, argues Matthew Syed.
Who are the real Muslims? Who are the bona fide, authentic, true-to-the-core followers of the Islamic faith? Now, that might seem like an easy question. Surely, the people who are Muslims are those who say, when asked: “I am a Muslim.”
Before I get stuck in, I want to emphasise how I am a liberal commentator and am happy to be shown where I am wrong; I do not want to level accusations at Islam which are wrong and which have developed out of a biased media caricature of what Islam is. It is easy to fire from the emotional hip and to rely on emotional social identity theory of ‘us and them’ such that I present an attack on Islam which is either straw man or unwarranted.
Moreover, there is an issue here with the while notion of causality, something which I have looked at in the post “Have I ever killed someone?” I will not so much deal with that in huge depth here as I want to look at the two ideas in unison in the next post on this matter.
From i09:
All together now: Fucking fuck.
Senator Inhofe, who is poised to become the most powerful senator on the environment, is the same man who has compared the scientific consensus over manmade global warming to Adolf Hitler’s conception of the Jewish conspiracy.
I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this, but it seems pretty cool. I found it on a comment on a Yahoo News Article:
For general interest I copied down the oath given to a new group of fighters with the PKK. The Kurdish YPG fighting in Kobane are a different organization and their oath may be different, but it is actually many of the same people.
From the BHA: A new survey published today has revealed that most of the British public does not think that…