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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Meta
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Panic and Alarm, part two
In a thematic echo of yesterday’s post, CJ Werleman of Alternet (using language more blunt that I try to use) sees the right-to-discriminate-against-gays bills in Arizona and numerous other states as the desperate moves of a dwindling Christian right. Dwindling … Continue reading
Panic and Alarm (and Why This Is About Science Fiction)
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
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Why the World Is This Way Rather Than That Way
Good quote from Sean Carroll (from his post debate reflections about theistic vs naturalistic worldviews. (via) If we would presume to contemplate theism from an intellectually honest perspective, we would try to decide what kind of universe we would expect … Continue reading
Uganda, Scott Lively, Arizona, Mark Regnerus, Gay Denialism, and the connection between them
You wouldn’t necessarily think there’s a connection between antipathy toward homosexuality and with being Christian (*footnote below), and I have no particular animosity against Christianity any more than other religions (all of which I find unpersuasive and obsolete, if not … Continue reading
Josh Barro
Just became aware of reporter and (Republican, gay) commentator Josh Barro, triggered by news that he’s leaving Business Insider for the New York Times, though it turns out I’d read a piece by him before a few weeks back: There … Continue reading
A Better World
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
Debates about Science, Creationism, Accommodationism
Slate: The Myths of Anti-Creationism This is the latest round in a fascinating debate in recent days between William Saletan of Slate and Sean McElwee in Salon. Can you be a creationist and also be a scientist? McElwee says no; … Continue reading
Wishful Thinking vs What We Know About How the World Works
Physicist Sean Carroll’s site is always interesting to dip into – he has a long list of posts from the past decade under his ‘Greatest Hits’ tab – and here is one from 2011 about Physics and the Immortality of … Continue reading
The Passing of Blind Obedience to Decaying Creeds
Traditional religionists are in panic, it seems, from advances in social policy concerning same-sex marriage (which we proponents call “marriage equality”) and other things like legal euthanasia (is your right to die your decision – or the government’s?). Here is … Continue reading
Posted in Religion
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Prothero and Vick on that debate
Donald Prothero summarizes the Nye-Ham debate. http://www.skepticblog.org/2014/02/12/hearts-and-minds/ Tristan Vick explains why he didn’t watch the debate, but sides with those who think it was a good idea. http://www.advocatusatheist.blogspot.jp/2014/02/why-i-didnt-watch-bill-nye-vs-ken-ham.html We have to debate Creationists, if anything, to share the accumulated information, … Continue reading