Mark R. Kelly
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Recent Posts
- Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)
- A note about book notes
- Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015)
- Carl Sagan’s THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science As a Candle in the Dark
- Intuitive Theories about Intuitive Theories
- But What’s at Stake? Hal Clement’s Needle
- Things Are As They Are: George R. Stewart’s EARTH ABIDES
- Links and Comments: Secrets of Success, the 2010s, Gibson’s future, History v. Narratives
- Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
- Carel Van Schaik & Kai Michel, THE GOOD BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible (2016): Introduction
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Meta
Monthly Archives: April 2016
Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery
This article in The New Yorker, After the Fact by Jill Lepore, considers the current US presidential race in light of a new book by Michael Patrick Lynch, The Internet of Us, subtitled “Knowing More and Understanding Less in the … Continue reading
Reading In and Around the Bible: Acts
Latest set of notes on my readings, for the first time in my life, of the books of the New Testament, reading as a non-believer, inclined to skepticism, often to simple bemusement. The history of the world of supernatural claims … Continue reading
Posted in Bible
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Reading In and Around the Bible: Divorce and Homosexuality
Still writing up notes on the Biblical book of Acts, which I finished reading last Friday, and working my way through Ehrman’s JESUS BEFORE THE GOSPELS, which I’ve returned to after having read the four gospels. Ehrman’s comments about Jesus’ … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Irrational Voters; Republicans and Gays; Religious Liberty v Progress
Robert Sapolsky in last week’s Los Angeles Times: We’re rarely rational when we vote because we’re rarely rational, period. How various discoveries about mental biases and motivated thinking play out in elections. Probably the most striking thing about any of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Human Progress, MInd, Religion
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Reading In and Around the Bible, 5: John
Latest set of notes on my readings, the first in my life, of books of the New Testament, finishing yesterday the Gospel According to John. (I earlier skimmed the OT but have been reading the NT itself.) Sources of commentary … Continue reading
Posted in Bible
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Founding Father Thomas Paine and the Bible
I haven’t subscribed to Free Inquiry magazine for years, but I picked up the latest issue last week and was fascinated by a piece about Thomas Paine, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, whom the modern religious … Continue reading
Trump, Abortion, Conservatives, and Guns
(From two posts on Facebook over the past week, somewhat edited.) 31 March: I confess a bit of bewilderment at the outrage over Donald Trump’s comments about abortion, not just from the pro-choice left, but also the anti-abortion (‘pro-life’) right. … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion
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Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR
This is an almost unbearably sad, yet poignant and moving and thoughtful, memoir by a young Stanford neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36. His life changes from being the physician to being … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Meaning, Religion, Science
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Oliver Sacks, GRATITUDE
An even shorter book than Rovelli’s, this is a collection of four short essays written by the neurologist and author after learning he had only a few months left to live, all of which originally appeared in the New York … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion
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Carlo Rovelli, SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS
Very slender book, drawn from a newspaper column and intended for readers who know nothing about science. I read it because it’s short and because a NYT review of the book, pointed out that its final chapter is about human … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science, Species Reset
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