Monthly Archives: September 2013

The One Book I’d Have Every College Student Read

Posted on 12 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

If I could pick one book that I think every college freshman should read, it would be… LOGIC AND CONTEMPORARY RHETORIC, by Howard Kahane. Subtitled, “The Use of Reason in Everyday Life”. It covers principles of reasoning, invalid and fallacious … Continue reading →

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Sunday Links and Commentary

Posted on 8 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

PZ Myers compares the atheist movement to the plight of World SF Conventions — in terms of their resistance to being open to interests of younger members. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/09/06/the-future-will-not-be-the-past/ Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/former-christian-fundamentalist-how-science-made-me-lose-my-religion?paging=off When an engineer raised in a fundamentalist Christian community sees … Continue reading →

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David Barton, Just this once

Posted on 7 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Life is too short for this kind of post very often, but once in a while I can’t resist. Discredited historian David Barton (whose book about Jefferson was withdrawn by its [Christian] publisher Thomas Nelson, for gross inaccuracies), claims that … Continue reading →

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Another favorite song from May: Empire of the Sun: Alive

Posted on 6 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Though I rather liked it better before I saw the video.

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Favorite song from May; Mr Little Jeans – Oh Sailor

Posted on 6 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly
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Religion and Community

Posted on 5 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Another provocative, insightful essay by Connor Wood, expanding on the theme of the earlier essay I linked, this one keying off the conclusion of a study done by three psychologists. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/scienceonreligion/2013/09/ritual-creates-tribesand-tribalism/ The study concludes it’s not religious belief, per se, … Continue reading →

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Progressives and Regressives

Posted on 4 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

The passage cited in the previous post reminded me of a Facebook post from Robert Reich, several weeks ago, which I managed to track down via Google and capture here for my reference. Why is it that most progressives live … Continue reading →

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Conservatives and Liberals, and why we need both

Posted on 4 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

I came across new blog on the vast Patheos website, Science on Religion, and this post by one Connor Wood, a PhD student at Boston University in religion and science, a post called Calling an End to the Culture Wars, … Continue reading →

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Frederik Pohl

Posted on 3 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m not sure it’s generally appreciated the extent to which Frederik Pohl underwent a sea change in the mid-70s, much as Silverberg had done a decade before [partly under Pohl’s editorship]. Pohl had been a significant writer in the ’50s, … Continue reading →

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Does anyone ever change their minds about anything?

Posted on 3 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Via Andrew Sullivan Why Even Your Best Arguments Never Work The arguments people make are those that appear the strongest to themselves and the people who already agree with them. But such arguments tend to be meaningless to people who … Continue reading →

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