Category Archives: Culture

Sophisticated Theology, Proofs of God, Humanism, Religious Persecution, Morality

Posted on Thursday 20 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I got the book! You know, the one with the best arguments for God Jerry Coyne lists books to read before criticizing atheism (just as theists keep issuing books about the ‘best’ arguments for god which they insists atheists must … Continue reading →

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Same-sex marriage, Context, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Posted on Tuesday 18 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Some comments tonight about gay marriage, prompted, as most of my posts are, by online articles and debates. For the past couple of weeks there have been back and forth articles on Slate, The Atlantic, and the New York Times, … Continue reading →

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Evolutionary Politics

Posted on Monday 17 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Fascinating. Via Andrew Sullivan’s summary at Political Biology Chris Mooney looks at a book by Avi Tuschman about evolutionary accounts of politics— Conservatives, he suggests in one of three interrelated evolutionary accounts of the origins of politics, are a modern … Continue reading →

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Cosmos Is Great So Far, but It’s Missing Something

Posted on Monday 10 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The new Cosmos series seems to be just fine, so far. It celebrates science and our knowledge of the vastness of the known universe, and takes a legitimate stand against the religious resistance that would deny or trivialize this knowledge. … Continue reading →

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Agnotology, Science Denialism, and Joan Slonczewski

Posted on Sunday 9 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A column in the business section of the LA Times this morning, by Michael Hiltzik, Cultural production of ignorance provides rich field for study [curiously the print edition that I read this morning has the title “Sowing doubt about science”] … Continue reading →

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Hollywood, God, Stories, and Cosmos

Posted on Thursday 6 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Lawrence Krauss, physicist and cosmologist and author of The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing, responds in The New Yorker about Matthew McConaughey’s reference to God in his Oscar award acceptance speech. Apparently there was a Twitter … Continue reading →

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Coyne on Bryan’s Myth, vs Reality

Posted on Tuesday 4 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne discusses the Bryan College issue. Bryan College forces its faculty to swear to historical existence of Adam and Eve Coyne is not only a *real scientist* but also a guy willing to address the arguments of those with … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Evolution, Religion | Comments Off

Frozen and its supposed Gay Agenda

Posted on Sunday 2 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

We went to see Frozen today, the Disney animated movie, because Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises wasn’t playing anywhere quite near or convenient enough for today’s schedule, and because Frozen is apparently the favorite for the Oscar this evening… and, thirdly, … Continue reading →

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Panic and Alarm (and Why This Is About Science Fiction)

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria Sad case study of a man whose father disappeared into the paranoid, outraged worldview of Fox News. Like certain kinds of religious extremists, Fox … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Science, science fiction | Comments Off

A Better World

Posted on Sunday 23 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne links this item at Prospect by Daniel Dennet: If I ruled the world. His prescription for a better world: educate the children. I would like my first step on ascending to the dictatorship to be decreeing high quality, … Continue reading →