Category Archives: Philosophy

Cosmos So Far

Posted on Thursday 24 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I should update my thoughts about the new version of the TV series Cosmos, since earlier I posted a mild critique about it needing to explain the background of scientific discovery – presenting not just the grandiose conclusions humanity has … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: Work Habits

Posted on Wednesday 12 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

When I remember a passage from something I read a day or two before, I think it’s worth capturing. From that Steven Pinker interview last week (originally at Mosaic), two paragraphs about work habits, and his book The Better Angels … 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 →

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Comments about the Ken Ham/Bill Nye Debate

Posted on Wednesday 5 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A selection of comments about the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate (which I didn’t watch). I think this is a demonstration about how some people think, and others don’t — they ‘believe’. (This divide between thinking and being is in a … Continue reading →

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Vast Universe

Posted on Thursday 16 January 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A Huffington Post by MIT physicist Max Tegmark — promoting his new book, in part — discusses the implications of recent physics that implies our universe is just one in a multiverse. That our universe is approximately described by mathematics … Continue reading →

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Two Interesting Articles

Posted on Friday 27 December 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Lee looks at the current political climate and what may be coming next. The Rising of the Sun The cause of these convulsions is privileged distress on a massive scale, as white Christian conservatives realize they’re losing their power … Continue reading →

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Sin against mankind

Posted on Monday 23 December 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Back to reading that A.C. Grayling book, and can’t resist documenting for the record this passage that Grayling quotes by one W.K. Clifford: It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. If a man, … Continue reading →

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New Ten Commandments

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Came across this recently, The New Ten Commandments which strikes me as eminently sensible and admirable. This is from a blogger named Adam Lee, who posts at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism and who’s published a book by the same name. He makes a … Continue reading →

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Hitchens and the Speculative End of Religion

Posted on Wednesday 18 December 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

There have been several online articles in recent days about Christopher Hitchens, author of god is not great [lower cases intentional], who died just two years ago. Jerry Coyne checks in on rival takes on Christopher Hitchens, both on Salon, … Continue reading →

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Awe

Posted on Wednesday 18 December 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a story that’s gotten some attention this past week — reports that when people look at awesome scenery, like the Grand Canyon, they are more inclined to attribute them to God (whatever that means). www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-hutson/awe-increases-religious-belief_b_4423247.html The emotion of awe … Continue reading →

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