Seculars, Human Nature, Abstraction

Posted on Wednesday 14 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Some more abstract, intellectual topics for today.

  • As the rise of ‘nones’ increases, what will society look like in a hundred years?
  • How people are instinctively nice, more often than religions give them credit;
  • An idea from S.I. Hayakawa about a ‘ladder of abstraction’ for communication skills.

OnlySky, Bruce Ledewitz, 14 Aug 2024: From secular society to secular civilization, subtitled “In a hundred years, the Nones will likely be a majority of the US population. What will that secular society be like?”

OnlySky is back, but only publishing one new item every day or two. My initial reaction to this piece, at least the subtitle, Continue reading →

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They’re Losing It

Posted on Tuesday 13 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump and conservatives deny everything they don’t like by blaming “they” or the “Deep State”;
  • And hurling words like “communist” without meaning;
  • Why are we living in a future dominated by idiots?;
  • Donald Trump doesn’t understand oceans;
  • And the brother of pastor who claimed his pro-Trump prophecies came from God calls fake. Well of course.

Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 13 Aug 2024: Donald Trump’s “fake crowd” lie about Kamala Harris shows how much he’s lost it since January 6, subtitled “It’s the same coping mechanism MAGA used to deny the popularity of Taylor Swift and the Barbie movie”

More about Trump’s claims about Harris’s crowds. It’s sad. Everything that goes wrong for conservatives is always about the mysterious “they”…

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… or the equally mysterious and fantastical “Deep State.”

Continue reading →

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Joan Didion, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING

Posted on Tuesday 13 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Inspired by that NY Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, I read three short memoirs that I already had copies of in my library. Here’s the first. (These will be briefer ‘short takes’ compared to my usual lengthy summaries with comments.)

I’d read bits of a couple other Didion books before this one came out in 2005, and it must have gotten some buzz, because I bought it right away; my copy is a “second printing before publication.” Maybe I was intrigued by the title, too.

(Knopf, Oct 2005, 227pp.)

Didion, who died in 2021, was a novelist, essayist and screenwriter, and she was married to John Gregory Dunne, also a novelist and screenwriter. (They wrote the film True Confessions together, based on his novel.)

Continue reading →

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Why Do You “Believe”? Who Do You Trust?

Posted on Monday 12 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

One item for today, about which I think is a key principle.

NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 12 Aug 2024: The Problem Is Not A.I. It’s the Disbelief Created by Trump.

This triggers off the recent news items about Trump’s skepticism about the crowds at Kamala Harris’ events. Ironically, he’s accusing her big crowds of being faked, by AI. (Note again: projection.) Tufekci:

Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Politics | Comments Off on Why Do You “Believe”? Who Do You Trust?

Reason for Hope, Despite

Posted on Sunday 11 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Let’s begin with a positive story.

Salon, Rae Hodge, 11 Aug 2024: A daring escape from cynicism: Scientist explains why “hopeful skeptics” are outsmarting doomers, subtitled “A new book from a Stanford neuroscientist aims to prove that cynicism blinds us as badly as rose-colored glasses”

This is an interview with the author of a new book, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, to be published in September, that counters the common presumption that humans are basically evil (and therefore need religion to cure them). Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 5

Posted on Saturday 10 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Final post summarizing this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4.

The final three chapters return to the cosmic scope of the book’s overall theme, exploring what we’ve concluded about the far future and the possible end of the universe, and addresses the idea of ‘meaning.’ Plus some closing comments of my own.

Ch9, Duration and Impermanence: From the Sublime to the Final Thought, p244

In this chapter Greene speculates on the deep future, all the way to the final possibility of life, and thought. He employs a new way of representing deep time (somewhat analogous to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmic Calendar”). He imagines the timeline of the universe as the floors of the Empire State Building. Each floor represents 10 times the number of years as the previous floor. Each single floor thus dwarfs all those below it. At 13.8by since the Big Bang, we’re just a few steps above floor 10.

Continue reading →

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Weird and Demented

Posted on Friday 9 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The weird news story of the day is something Trump said yesterday at a press conference in Florida.

Here’s the first place I saw it:

Salon, Nandika Chatterjee, 9 Aug 2024: “I call complete B.S.”: Trump made up a story about nearly dying in a helicopter crash, subtitled “The former president falsely claimed he almost died in a helicopter crash with Kamala Harris’ ex-boyfriend”

Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 4

Posted on Friday 9 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More summary of this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2, post 3. In these chapters Greene summarizes how imagination, extrapolating from dreams and the perception of patterns, led to the formalization of myths into religions, which may have value without being actually true. And speculation into the value of the arts, how they too are ways to think symbolically, or moments of truth beyond rational explanation. At best, bids for vicarious immortality.

Ch7, Brains and Belief: From Imagination to the Sacred, p188

Continue reading →

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More About the Weirdos

Posted on Thursday 8 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Why folks in Louisiana are obsessed with placing Bibles in every classroom;
  • The books Utah is banning from all classrooms;
  • How JD Vance’s shifting religious beliefs have aligned to the ancient authorities;
  • And short items.

When I was growing up, “weird” wasn’t such the calumny as was the word “weirdo.” A couple of my friends on Facebook have taken the accusation of being “weird” as a badge of honor.

Slate, Madeline Zehnder, 7 Aug 2024: Bibles for Everyone, subtitled “Why Oklahoma’s plan to put a copy of the Good Book in every classroom matters.”

Why are they so obsessed by this? Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 3

Posted on Thursday 8 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More summary of this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2. Today’s chapters concern how life gave rise to consciousness, and how mind gave rise to the imagination, and to stories.

Ch5, Particles and Consciousness: From Life to Mind, p115

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, MInd | Comments Off on Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 3