Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- Conservative Principles vs. Reality
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 2
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 1
- Intentional Ignorance
- Discipline, Lies, Ignorance, and Consensus Truth
- Cruelty, Nonsense, and Reality-Checks
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 5 (conclusion)
- Busy Weekend: Quick Summary
- The Absence of Empathy
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 4
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Meta
Category Archives: Religion
Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 2
(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index) (Post 1) Here are the first four chapters (out of ten), which deal with the arguments for and against the existence of God, summarized in 3700 … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Religion
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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 1
(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index) Of the four books published in the mid-2000s by the so-called “new atheists,” this one by Richard Dawkins was the most blunt and least conciliatory; it … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Religion
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Intentional Ignorance
Paul Krugman on Republican lies and misrepresentations about health care; Short items about a drop in US religiosity; Trump lying about falling gas prices; David French on how Trump keeps pardoning criminals as long as they’re loyal to him. – … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Religion
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Cave Man Morality and the Normalizing of Racism
Right-wing panic and hypocrisy over the election of Zohran Mamdani; While the right-wing increasingly embraces the racist views of Nick Fuentes; How the election clapped back at Trump; Robert Reich on how Trump has put America into reverse; Brief items … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Religion
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Democratic Erosion, SNAP, and God-Sized Holes
A NYT Scale of markers of democratic erosion; Heather Cox Richardson’s even-handed assessment of the SNAP crisis; Jerry Coyne dismantles Arthur C. Brooks’ arguments for not dismissing the idea of God; (And my take on how the common conceptions of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion
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Notes from the Reality-Based Community
Hemant Mehta on a new wave of atheist content creators; Scientific “groupthink” is a myth, an effect of how our fundamental theories are extremely successful; Richard Dawkins can’t understand how Tom Holland and his readers believe ancient legends and myths … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Religion, Science
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Sam Harris: THE MORAL LANDSCAPE
Subtitled “How Science Can Determine Human Values” (Free Press, Oct. 2010, 291pp, including 100pp of acknowledgements, notes, references, and index) Sam Harris came to fame in the years after 9/11 for writing a critique of religion called THE END OF … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Religion
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What People Know, and What They Want
What undecided voters say they are concerned about, vs. reality; Tom Tomorrow on effect and cause, within the Trump administration; An OnlySky piece by Michael Carteron about the paradox of modern life; Jerry Coyne on Charles Murray’s “God-sized hole”; My … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Politics, Religion
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Drizzly
Intro; Are religions by their nature fascist? Latest on the Republican war on science; Peanut allergies go away when infants are exposed early on; Takes on what socialism is. – – – It was drizzly all weekend. Yesterday we attended … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion, Science, Social Progress
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Slop
Essays about AI slop, and how this endangers objective truth; Trump is tearing down the East Wing of the White House, after he said he wouldn’t; Responses to Trump’s poop video; Paul Krugman on Trump’s loss of touch with reality; … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Religion, Technology
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