#peopleagainstbadthings

There’s always the definition problem. We’re all against BadThings. That’s why they’re called Bad, isn’t it – because they’re Bad and we’re all against them. It’s just that we disagree on which things are Bad.

Caroline Criado-Perez looks at an example of this in the arguments over rape.

A couple of days ago on Twitter, the hashtag “MenAgainstRape” started to trend. Some people found this a positive and heartening response to a week where the hashtag “RapeApologist” also got some traction. [Read more…]

An unending river of inspiration

Glendon Mellow – of the Flying Trilobite, and a longstanding reader of B&W – has a wonderful interview with Surly Amy at the Scientific American blog.

He asked her what prompted her to tap into the wide world of science-art.

When I first got involved, I felt like there was an absence of creative people  both online and at science and secular events. There was sort of a stigma floating around that rationality didn’t have space for artists since artists often have the reputation of not being critical thinkers. Artists are thought of as ‘hippies’ or ‘dreamers’. Scientists and academics are often stereotyped as uncreative or ‘stiff’ in mindset. [Read more…]

Companions

Michael Nugent has a draft manifesto to promote ethical atheism. I see this as a companion to atheism+ – as the same kind of thing, and compatible, and equally reasonable and unthreatening. I also see both as companions to other related campaigns and organizations and platforms and statements. I’ve seen a good deal of panic and hair-clutching about atheism+, which seems bizarre. There are no gulags.

The ideas in this draft manifesto are not new. Many atheist activists already promote many or all of them. This manifesto tries to combine the best of our existing ideas into a set of principles and aims that all ethical atheists can promote, regardless of our policy differences on how best to implement them. [Read more…]

To claim otherwise is blasphemy

Yulia Latinina, who hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio, explains the religious views of many Orthodox Christians, whom she calls Homo Orthodoxus. They sound quite similar to fanatics in the US, Pakistan, Rome, northern Nigeria – you get the idea.

First, this belief holds that God does not forgive. A typical example: During a recent demonstration against Pussy Riot, an Orthodox activist screamed “God does not forgive, and to claim otherwise is blasphemy,” while  beating a female supporter of the punk group. [Read more…]

Atheism+ in the news

Hey, the Staggers blog is onto Atheism+.

Let me introduce you to Atheism+, the nascent movement that might be the most exciting thing to hit the world of unbelief since Richard Dawkins teamed up with Christopher Hitchens to tell the world that God was a Delusion and, worse than that, Not Great.

Less than a week old in its current form, Atheism+ is the brainchild of Jen McCreight, a Seattle-based biology postgrad and blogger at the secularist Freethought network. [Read more…]

Access to distant, remote associations

The cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman says there’s research that seems to indicate that social rejection fuels creativity.

I’ve always thought so. (Also that it works the other way too. Dreamy imaginative kids probably aren’t great at social skills, so they get social rejection, so they do even more fantasizing and pretending and nerding out. Loop loopy loop.)

By definition, creative solutions are unusual, involving the recombination of ideas. Unusual, divergent ideas and access to distant, remote associations are hallmarks of creative thinking. Perhaps those who like to distance themselves from others are more likely to also recruit associations from unusual places and think beyond conventional ideas. [Read more…]