Category Archives: Religion

Links and Comments: Memory is Fallible; Fundamentalists Are Alike All Over

Posted on Tuesday 10 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple informed articles appeared today about the Brian Williams kerfuffle, how the NBC News anchor was discovered to have inflated his account, increasingly over the years, of being on a helicopter in the Iraq War in 2003, and speculation … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Memory is Fallible; Fundamentalists Are Alike All Over

Links and Comments: Audiences Cheering and Egging Them On; Christian persecution and criminalization; Why people doubt science

Posted on Monday 9 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s been widely observed that the Internet has allowed like-minded people of all stripes to find each other, create online communities, and reinforce each others opinions and prejudices, in increasingly specific bubbles of interests and ideologies. But the visibility of … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Religion, The Gays | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Audiences Cheering and Egging Them On; Christian persecution and criminalization; Why people doubt science

Links and Comments: Michael Shermer, Science and God, Religion vs Education, Your soul

Posted on Monday 2 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Michael Shermer’s new book As mentioned a couple posts ago, Michael Shermer has a new book out this week (I got my copy yesterday), The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom, which addresses … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Evolution, Morality, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Michael Shermer, Science and God, Religion vs Education, Your soul

10 Provisional Conclusions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence

Posted on Sunday 25 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Inspired by my post last night about A Secular Ten Non-Commandments, and the book’s invitation to generate one’s own set of beliefs, I sat down today to write out my own response… not of *commandments* (who am I, or anyone, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Ten Commandments | Comments Off on 10 Provisional Conclusions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence

A Secular Ten Non-Commandments

Posted on Saturday 24 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I started this book before the holidays, but what with the holidays and since then attention to the buying of one house and the selling of another, only just finished it a couple days ago, though it’s rather short. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Morality, Philosophy, Religion, Ten Commandments | Comments Off on A Secular Ten Non-Commandments

Narrative as Reality; or, Reality as Narrative

Posted on Wednesday 21 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

For tonight, Paul Krugman’s NYT column from a couple days ago: Hating Good Government Evidence doesn’t matter for the “debate” over climate policy, where I put scare quotes around “debate” because, given the obvious irrelevance of logic and evidence, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Culture, Evolution, Philosophy, Religion, Thinking | Comments Off on Narrative as Reality; or, Reality as Narrative

Links and Quotes: Michael Shermer, Ian McEwan

Posted on Monday 19 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon has an excerpt from Michael Shermer’s forthcoming book, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom (Henry Holt, January 20th). Today, of course, most Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe that moral principles are … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Morality, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Quotes: Michael Shermer, Ian McEwan

Links and Comments: Bruni on ‘religious liberty’; love vs hate; godless kids do just fine; Biblical law; anti-science senators; Pinker on Shakespeare; io9 resources

Posted on Monday 19 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Catching up: From a week ago Sunday’s New York Times, Frank Bruni, Your God and My Dignity. He captures better than I can the response to Jeb Bush’s demand to (as Michelangelo Signorile put it) ‘Respect’ My Opposition to Your … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Lunacy, Religion, The Gays | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Bruni on ‘religious liberty’; love vs hate; godless kids do just fine; Biblical law; anti-science senators; Pinker on Shakespeare; io9 resources

Sean Carroll on the afterlife, life, death, happiness, and our place in the universe

Posted on Thursday 15 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Today chanced upon this video speech by physicist Sean Carroll, on his blog, upon his winning an Emperor Has No Clothes Award, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation — won previously by everyone from Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Evolution, Philosophy, Physics, Religion | Comments Off on Sean Carroll on the afterlife, life, death, happiness, and our place in the universe

Religious Evolution and Obsolescence

Posted on Friday 9 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve mentioned before that there is an evolution of policy stances by conservative and Republican politicians, because the environment — the American public — has shifted its majority opinion on issues such as gay rights and even same-sex marriage. Thus, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Lunacy, Religion | Comments Off on Religious Evolution and Obsolescence