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How would it be different? (via GodlessBlogger) Atheists are so awesome. Let’s watch another video! One following up to comments on the previous one! (again via GodlessBlogger) Your Thoughts?
Archive for August, 2009
Is The Idea Of “Nothing” Illusory?
August 25th, 2009 
Daniel Fincke I was thinking about the argument for the existence of God that hinges on the question of how something could come from nothing. And I wondered, is nothing even an intelligible concept? Everything we experience is something. We have a concept of zero since we can imagine there being zero of some particular thing either [...]
Disambiguating Faith: Faith Is Neither Brainstorming, Hypothesizing, Nor Simply Reasoning Counter-Intuitively
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke In this third reply to Adam (you can read the first two here and here, but need not in order to follow this post), I will examine his following suggestions: When I asked if it is rational to cease rationality, what I meant was the following. Since it is only rational to explore all possible paths [...]
Posted in Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Featured, Philosophy, Probability, Religion and Science 
Tags: Biblical Genocide, Brainstorming, Counter-Intuitive Reasoning, Counter-Intuitive Truths, Eucharist, genocide, Hell, History of Science, Hypotheses, Hypothesis, Irrationalism, James Clerk Maxwell, Laws of Electricity, Philosophy of Science, Rationality, Religious Ethics, Religious Rationalization, Richard Feynman, Transubstantiation 
7 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Are True Gut Feelings And Epiphanies Beliefs Justified By Faith?
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke In reply to my latest installment of the “Disambiguating Faith” series in which I replied to Adam’s query about whether an episode of House M.D. provided an example in which a choice to think irrationally (to eliminate symptoms when diagnosing an illness) might prove the more rational course. I argued that if eliminating symptoms helped [...]
Posted in Disambiguating Faith, Epistemology, Evidence, Faith, Featured, Philosophy Tags: Cognition, Confirmation, Dreams, Epiphanies, House M.D., Hypotheses, Perceptual Beliefs, Preconscious Reasoning, Sense Beliefs, Subconscious Reasoning, Thinking While Dreaming, Unconscious Reasoning 10 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Faith As Guessing
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke On Facebook (where you can also be my friend if you’d like), Adam replies to the latest installment of the “Disambiguating Faith” series with this question: Hate to be corny, but in an episode of House M.D., every rational road runs out and a case is seemingly unsolvable. Finally, by eliminating a symptom (which is [...]
Daily Hilarity: The Flying Spaghetti Monster On The Muppets
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Hilarious, Parody, Videos Tags: Flying Spaghetti Monster, Swedish Chef, The Muppet Show 2 Comments »On Meeting People Where They Are
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke While he was hospitalized a couple years ago, Daniel Dennett got irritated when people offered to pray for him and insisted that they thank doctors rather than offer their ineffectual prayers. The Wittenburg Door was appalled and inferred (quite unjustifiably) that Dennett did not understand that all many people mean to say when they say [...]
Revenge Of The Food
August 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke See more ads featuring attack food here. Your Thoughts?
Does Being A Theologian Require Being A Religious Believer?
August 23rd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Earlier today Deane Gilbraith discussed Kurt Noll’s distinctions between theology and philosophers of religion from The Chronicle of Higher Education (which we linked to three weeks ago without much comment.) Gilbraith’s commentator Roland objected to Noll in the following way: On another line – ‘theologians practice and defend religion’. In short, theology is apologetics, a [...]
Posted in Academic Disciplines, Featured Tags: Philosophy of Religion, Special Revelation, Theology 6 Comments »“What Makes Us Great Is Often What Makes Us Ridiculous”
August 23rd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Physicist Janna Levin wrote a novel about Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel called A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. She describes the parallels between the two mathematicians which inspired her to bring them together in fiction: Alan Turing is most famous for breaking the German Enigma code during World War II. But among scientists, he’s [...]
Posted in Arts Tags: Alan Turing, Historical Fiction, Intellectual History, Janna Levin, Kurt Gödel, Mad Geniuses, Novels No Comments »Airbrushed To Death
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Airbrushed to Death by ~spoonbard on deviantART Your Thoughts?
Jon Stewart Vs. Betsy McCaughey On “Death Panels”
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke One of his most contentious debates ever. A fascinating, must see watch. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Exclusive – Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 1 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Exclusive – [...]
Posted in Politics Tags: Betsy McCaughey, Death Panels, Health Care Reform, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow No Comments »Dawkins’s Dream: To Persuade Muslim World Of Evolution
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Via RichardDawkins.net, comes this piece from The Guardian: None of Professor Dawkins’ books, on evolution as well as religion, has ever been translated into Arabic, and his work has been heavily censored in Turkey. In an interview with The Times, he said that popularising evolution in the Islamic world, where creationist beliefs are strong, was [...]
Afghani Husbands Allowed To Starve Wives Who Refuse Them Sex
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Sendai Anonymous heartily congratulates these men on their civil progress: According to beebs, it is now perfectly legal in Afghanistan for men to starve their wives if they refuse to have sex with them at least once every four days. I don’t really know what’s so magical about four days and not three or five, [...]
A Trove Of Experimental Philosophy Papers
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke For those unfamiliar with the growing “experimental philosophy” movement, there are some philosophers in tandem with psychologists doing interesting work that has tried to study questions posed by contemporary moral philosophers by employing experimental means. They are trying to uncover what our moral intuitions really are like and how they actually function. Of course moral [...]
Posted in Academic Disciplines, Education, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Philosophy, Psychology Tags: Experimental Philosophy No Comments »Judge This: Are The Guns At The Protests And Town Halls A Form Of Terrorism?
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke David Sirota makes the case: In early August, a protester came to a raucous Tennessee congressional forum packing heat. Days later, President Obama’s healthcare event in New Hampshire was marred by a protester posing for cameras with a pistol and sign reading, “It is time to water the tree of liberty” — a reference to [...]
Robert Wright On The Colbert Report
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Robert Wright www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News Robert Wright wrote The Evolution of God which argues that religions can be turned into forces for inclusion and peace if only they can be shown that their interests are served by doing so. In [...]
Posted in Comedy, God, Videos Tags: Robert Wright, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, The Evolution of God No Comments »The Religion Of Peace Murdering Gays In Iraq
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Sickening: (via Atheist Media Blog)
Posted in Civil Rights, Fundamentalism, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Islam, LGBTQAA, News, Politics, Religious Extremism, Videos Tags: Iraq, Persecution of Gays, Religious Violence No Comments »Roland Joffé Makes Film About Opus Dei Founder
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Roland Joffé, who made the classics, “The Killing Fields” and “The Mission,” is making a movie about St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of the controversial and powerful Opus Dei. He claims to have full creative control and to have entirely rejected the initial script given to him. What drew him to the project? he [...]
Daily Hilarity: God Is Dead (And The Kids In The Hall Are Alive Again)
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke In honor of the exciting news that the “Kids in the Hall” from Kids In The Hall, one of the gold standard comedies of my youth (and one of the earliest great HBO original shows, along with the wonderful Dream On) will be reuniting for a new 8-part comedy TV series, here is a clip [...]
Is Birtherism More Nationalist Than Racist?
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Daniel Larison has an interesting spin on what’s more operative in the Birther movement’s attempt to discredit Barack Obama as genuinely American: Assuming that racism is the central or overriding element behind this obsession, as Aziz does, is the easiest move in the world, but it is not necessarily accurate. It is a ready-made answer [...]
Nietzsche Source And Nietzsche Grid
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Carlos Ruiz is working on an internet source that organizes references to Nietzsche on various topics to make his work more searchable. I take it is something of an e-concordance he wants to design. He’s calling it a “Nietzsche Grid” and is taking input on the project here. And, far more importantly, there is the [...]
Spider-Man Looks Dead
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Thankfully, I refer not to the True Spider-Man. Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man who lives in our hearts will never die. And I’m sure the Marvel Comics Spider-Man will persist as long as there is such a thing as Marvel Comics. And most importantly to me, the Raimi-Maguire-Dunst Spider-Man looks slated to take its fourth chapter [...]
Posted in Arts, Film, Film Reviews, Music, Pop Culture Tags: "Across the Universe", Julie Taymor, Sam Raimi, Spider-Man, Spider-Man films, Spider-Man Musical, U2 No Comments »Daily Hilarity: PhD Comics
August 21st, 2009 Daniel Fincke Alright, maybe these aren’t all that hilarious. One or two made me actually laugh outloud but it was the painful truth of several that make it worth posting. More comics can be found at PhD Comics (and thanks to The Scientist for linking to the video so that we could find it):
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