Category Archives: Religion

Religious Liberty and Christian Theology

Posted on Sunday 8 May 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: Republicans have turned God upside down with their so-called “religious liberty”. The “liberty” part in “religious liberty” is not intended to empower the believers of a dominant religion, such as, say, Christianity, to give them the “liberty” to impose … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion | Comments Off on Religious Liberty and Christian Theology

Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery

Posted on Saturday 30 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

Posted in Culture, Religion, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery

Links and Comments: Irrational Voters; Republicans and Gays; Religious Liberty v Progress

Posted on Saturday 9 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

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 | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Irrational Voters; Republicans and Gays; Religious Liberty v Progress

Trump, Abortion, Conservatives, and Guns

Posted on Friday 8 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

(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 | Comments Off on Trump, Abortion, Conservatives, and Guns

Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

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 | Comments Off on Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

Oliver Sacks, GRATITUDE

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

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 | Comments Off on Oliver Sacks, GRATITUDE

Links and Comments: Historical Jesus; God’s Plan; Sagan on religion v science

Posted on Thursday 31 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Relevant to some of my current reading, and the recent Easter holiday: Salon from last year, Valerie Tarico, 5 good reasons to think Jesus never existed. Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are “mythologized history.”  In other … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Historical Jesus; God’s Plan; Sagan on religion v science

Links and Comments: Trump; Democrats v Republicans; American exceptionalism; government regulations

Posted on Saturday 19 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

As Donald Trump seems to be on the path to claiming the Republican nomination for president, Republicans who are appalled by him are increasingly expressing misgivings. Salon has this fascinating article about how some Republican pundits admit that the crude … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Trump; Democrats v Republicans; American exceptionalism; government regulations

Links and Comments: Trump; Magic; Scalia and science; Cruz; God of the gaps

Posted on Sunday 13 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Partly because I’ve had a cold, or a couple different colds, for much of the past month, I’m behind on links and comments. So relatively briefly, here’s what I’ve collected. In reverse order, from most recent date. \\ Slate: “How … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Politics, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Trump; Magic; Scalia and science; Cruz; God of the gaps

Links and Comments: Susan Jacoby; Erasure; Boars and the Sixth Extinction; Jerry Brown and Jean-Pierre Dupuy

Posted on Tuesday 9 February 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

From last Sunday’s papers, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. » NYT: Susan Jacoby: Sick and Tired of ‘God Bless America’ Well, of course; this is someone daring to point out the obvious, mostly unmentioned privilege that … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Evolution, Morality, Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Susan Jacoby; Erasure; Boars and the Sixth Extinction; Jerry Brown and Jean-Pierre Dupuy