Category Archives: religion

Missing the Point

Jason Rosenhouse has himself missed the point in his criticism of Josh Roseneau’s response to Jerry Coyne’s blog about Chris Mooney and others’ “accommodationist” heresy against the high priests of evangelical atheism.

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John Shook is Selling a Book

Wow! That’s a pretty blatant bit of self promotion. Start by asserting that everyone is arguing from ignorance but don’t do anything to dispel that ignorance in the article, and end with a promo for the book that you claim … Continue reading

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Spectral Atheism

Jean Kazez distinguishes between  Hard and Soft Atheism in a post on her blog whose title leads me to think of the range as a spectrum. In the opening paragraph she identifies atheism as a belief, saying  “It’s not enough … Continue reading

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Dawkins on Ratzinger on Godlesness

If the pope [1] can blame Hitler [2] on godlessness and atheist extremism, then it is not surprising that the truly godless might have something to say in response: the full text;       the video.

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Spirituality, Metaphor, Myth, and the True Meaning of Truth

The discussion following this comment is actually more interesting than the post itself (in which Jerry Coyne mocks Chris Mooney’s recent discovery of 1970’s style “spirituality” as the bridge between science and religion).  The commenter, one Timothy F Simpson, is … Continue reading

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Who Needs Saving?

It is disappointing to see a supposedly sophisticated voice of religion still so literalistic.

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Freedom from Rationality

Quinn O’Neill at 3quarksdaily has commented on both tone and content of the reason vs religion “debate”, suggesting, among other things, that freedom of religion requires that all views be treated with respect and tolerance.

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Who’s a Dick?

In his writings[1] Dick Feynman was never a dick (except perhaps in the eyes of those responsible for security during the Manhattan Project), and Dick Dawkins is not usually a dick but sometimes he comes close. I suspect that I … Continue reading

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The Rigor of Love and The Love of Rigour

Even — and indeed especially — those who are denominationally faithless can have an experience of faith. The above quote comes from Simon Critchley’s recent article about Kierkegaard, The Rigor of Love, that appeared in the NYTimes’  Opinionator Blog on … Continue reading

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Pascal’s Wager and the Value of Truth

Pascal’s Wager has been cited, and the value of ‘truth’ has been questioned, in a rather curious Guardian article by Harriet Baber who has been trashed by PZMeyers who has been called out by ‘Siris’ (with John S Wilkins agreeing … Continue reading

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Selfish Altruism

‘Psychological Altruism’ is just a special case of ‘Biological Altruism’ and the “gene” for either is the most selfish of all. Of course the concept of genes for actual characteristics all being in one-to-one correspondence with discrete sequences of DNA … Continue reading

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Why People Hate Mathematics and Atheists

Jason Green’s response to the readings for Week 1 of the Downes&Kop Critical Literacies course concludes with the question  “how does one think critically without it coming across as a baseline of distrust?” I actually think that a “baseline of … Continue reading

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Science & Religion again

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, coauthors of “Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future”, writing in the LA Times, ask “Must science declare a holy war on religion?” Their concern appears to be that Richard Dawkins and other so-called … Continue reading

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More on Religion

Just a couple of items which may be interesting but which I haven’t yet had time to write about: Review by Simon Blackburn in the Guardian of ‘ The Case for God’ by Karen Armstrong – “eloquent and interresting’” he calls … Continue reading

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I was led to this Sunday Times profile of Taleb via Arts&Letters Daily. Taleb’s view that market collapses are more sudden and extreme (though less frequent) than rises seems believable to me but is presumably easily checked from the record, … Continue reading

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The Reality Club: MORAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION

In The Reality Club: MORAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION Jonathan Haidt seems close to getting the point. He hasn’t quite nailed it, but then neither have I, so I can’t quite say what needs to be added or … Continue reading

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Dawkins: How dare you call me a fundamentalist

In How dare you call me a fundamentalist the Times online presents an excerpt from Richard Dawkins’ introduction to the paperback edition of ‘The God Delusion’ in which he responds to some critics of the hard cover edition.

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Why Dawkins is Wrong – by D. S. Wilson

Skeptic: eSkeptic: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

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The Strange Death of Multiculturalism

Ian Buruma, in an article for Project Syndicate, discusses (with implied approval) the decline of “multiculturalism” as a dominant ethic in Europe (especially the Netherlands) as increasing secularism has blurred traditional religious distinctions, and some consequent challenges arising from the … Continue reading

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The DNA of Religious Faith

David Barash reviews some theories of religion in an article in The Chronicle: 4/20/2007

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