Category Archives: Conservative Resistance

Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Posted on Sunday 13 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

What we read from this morning’s newspapers… New York Times, Simon Critchley, There Is No Theory of Everything. An essay (which is longer online than the version in print) about science and the humanities and about a teacher of his, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, Morality, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Posted on Saturday 12 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: Kim Davis is the new face of the religious right: Angry, marginalized and increasingly desperate No doubt Davis is a comical figure whose self-righteousness is only equaled by her ignorance both of the text of the Bible she clings … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Narrative, Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Posted on Wednesday 9 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A fine essay by Lawrence M. Krauss, at The New Yorker: All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists. He’s reacting both to the current embarrassing kerfuffle about Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who thinks her sincerely held religious convictions trump … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Links and Comments: Religion and Education; Religions around the world; deGrasse Tyson on the history of the universe

Posted on Tuesday 1 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

ABC News: latest example of how religious groups reject education, because, of course: NYC to Probe Secular Education at Jewish Schools. There was no science, no geography and no math past multiplication at the ultra-Orthodox Jewish school Chaim Weber attended. … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Religion and Education; Religions around the world; deGrasse Tyson on the history of the universe

The Methodical, Cheerful, Bluntness of Isaac Asimov

Posted on Wednesday 19 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I switched gears a couple weeks ago, after reading several recent (2014 and 2015) novels, to spend some time revisiting one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed science fiction authors, Isaac Asimov. It’s hard to tell, at this point about … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Isaac Asimov, Personal history, Science | Comments Off on The Methodical, Cheerful, Bluntness of Isaac Asimov

Links and Comments: Autism and the Perception of Reality

Posted on Tuesday 18 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Two recent items about autism. First, at Alternet, Florida Principal Tries to Quietly Ban Book to Appease Christians, Sets off Sh*tstorm Instead, in which said principal responded to a “handful of Christian parents” who objected to the acclaimed 2003 novel … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Conservative Resistance, Culture, MInd, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Autism and the Perception of Reality

Links and Comments: Fermi Paradox; books by Brian Attebery and Frank Wilczek; Religious suppression; Religious fantasy

Posted on Monday 10 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

NY Times, Dennis Overbye: The Flip Side of Optimism About Life on Other Planets. (The print version was titled “A Case for Why We’re Alone”.) A consideration of the “Fermi paradox”: why, if by reasonable estimates there are likely millions … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Cosmology, Narrative, Physics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Fermi Paradox; books by Brian Attebery and Frank Wilczek; Religious suppression; Religious fantasy

Links and Comments: Biblical Literalism; the Manhattan Option; the excessive optimism of 2001; Neil de Grasse Tyson explains everything

Posted on Monday 3 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Lee: So Wrong For So Long: On Liberal Biblical Reinterpretation Lee discusses the cognitive dissonance of those who espouse progressive social views while maintaining fealty to their Biblical-based religions. They rely on relativistic interpretation of scripture, as if the … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, MInd, Religion, Science, science fiction, Space | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Biblical Literalism; the Manhattan Option; the excessive optimism of 2001; Neil de Grasse Tyson explains everything

A Just Ended (perhaps) Arc of History

Posted on Sunday 5 July 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

History happens, and historians establish dates, sometimes retroactively, about when history happened even though people at the time might not have noticed. Here’s a nice perspective about how one 150-year-old arc of history may have just closed, in The New … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture | Comments Off on A Just Ended (perhaps) Arc of History

The Arc of History: The Expansion of Marriage

Posted on Friday 26 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

So much reaction to today’s Supreme Court decision I hardly need to chime in, except perhaps to note how this, of course, supports my Provisional Conclusion #7, Another, social, arc of human history has been a gradual expansion of allegiance … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, The Gays | Comments Off on The Arc of History: The Expansion of Marriage