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In Philosophy Now, Daniel Dennett engagingly tells his life story—or at least part one of it. It’s a fascinating read and for me the most interesting parts are these on Gilbert Ryle and AJ Ayer. In particular, the account of Ryle’s method of mentoring and influencing is remarkable an inspiring. Or maybe just evidence that [...]
Archive for September, 2009
Daniel Dennett Reminisces About Gilbert Ryle, JZ Young, and AJ Ayer
September 27th, 2009 
Daniel Fincke Solving The Alleged “Hardest Logic Puzzle In The World”
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke cuong set out to solve this puzzle: “Three gods A, B, and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by [...]
ZJ On The Old Testament’s Laws
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke ZJ combines impeccable logic with first class rhetorical flourish and justified indignation: In a nutshell, just saying that God changed the rules from the Old Testament days does not excuse believing that a just God could ever make such vile and unconscionable rules in the first place. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, God, Homophobia, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Religion, Videos 
Tags: Old Testament Atrocities, Religious Rationalization, ZJemptv 
No Comments »Nobody Cares About The Losers
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Robin Hanson notes that as sensitized as we are to various marginalized groups there are other categories of people who suffer from huge inequalities but for whom there are no sympathies to be found. Hanson writes: There is no social pressure whatsoever against maligning these groups. Especially striking are inequalities in attractiveness as a friend, [...]
Sundaily Hilarity: The Bible’s Scientific Accuracy
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke In this video, a blind atheist (with a beautiful Irish accent) points out the obvious lunacy of an apologist who makes his case that the Bible already gives knowledge of gravity and teaches us that women can determine the eventual traits of their children based on what they are thinking while conceiving them. It’s the [...]
Getting Meat Without Killing Animals
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The idea of being able to eat delicious meat without it coming at the expense of poor abused animals is just too good to be true. Here’s hoping this kind of thing really is our future: A controversial cooker that ‘grows’ meat and fish by heating animal cells in your kitchen claimed first prize in [...]
Posted in Culture and Technology, News, News Discussion, Technology Tags: Animals, Humane Eating, Meat No Comments »Mutant Apple Is Half Green And Half Red
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke So neat. And just today I was staring at a cover of a newspaper for writers that had as its cover a picture of a split apple just like this but with big staples all along the merge line. It was a really realistic and impressive photoshop. It’s bizarre for me now to see the [...]
The Right To Define Ourselves
September 27th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Greta Christina has an excellent post pushing back against all those who like to tell us atheists what we really believe (like that we claim 100% certainty about the non-existence of God when the majority of us actually do not) and how we “really have a belief system that’s just like a religion,” etc. Her [...]
Daily Hilarity: The Spider-Man Trilogy In 30 Seconds
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Youtube is chock full of (mostly) hilarious “5 second” films. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Film, Hilarious, Parody, Videos Tags: "5 Second Films", Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Tobey Maguire No Comments »Heather Jansch’s Horse Sculptures From Driftwood
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Just gorgeous stuff, see her full galleries here. Buy her book here. And she does more than just horses: These images are copyrighted to Heather Jansch. (© heather jansch, 2009) They may be reproduced for personal or educational use only. They must not be used in conjunction with any commercial or political activity without the [...]
Posted in Arts Tags: Animal Sculpture, Bear Sculpture, Heather Jansch, Horse Sculpture, Horses, Novelties, Sculpture No Comments »Steve King: “Same Sex Marriage Is A Totally Socialist Concept”
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke (via) I don’t know why he stopped there with calling same sex marriage a socialist concept when he could have gone on to add that it’s also a terrorist, big labor, tree-hugger, communist, Nazi, feminazi, reverse-racist, atheist, gun-banning, “blame-America-first” concept too. I mean, as long as you have no single reason to offer for the actual [...]
The United States Of McDonald’s
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Nowhere in the country are you ever more than 107 miles from one of our ~13,000 McDonald’s restaurants: Stephen von Worley of Weather Sealed explains his map: As expected, McDonald’s cluster at the population centers and hug the highway grid. East of the Mississippi, there’s wall-to-wall coverage, except for a handful of meager gaps centered [...]
The Evolution Of The Brain
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke An astounding natural process explained in fascinating detail: This video is the latest of 7. Click here to watch the entire series on origins, from the beginning. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Biology, Evolution, Videos Tags: Brain, Chemistry, Cognitive Science, Natural Selection, Neurons, Synapses No Comments »Confident Atheists As Happy As Confident Theists
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Intriguing study results summed up by Daylight Atheism: But the real meat of this study is its findings on life satisfaction and emotional well-being. Prof. Galen makes the point that previous studies, which often found that higher religiosity is correlated with greater life satisfaction, are methodologically flawed. They treated all the nonreligious as a single [...]
The Integral Role Of Emotions In Good Decision Making
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio on the indispensable connection between emotions and value assessment and how these are necessary for decision making. The full talk: Your Thoughts?
Katie Couric Presses Glenn Beck To Define The “White Culture” He Alleges Obama Hates
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I am simply appalled at the deep cynicism that keeps this rotten reckless, racist, careless, moronic, lying lunatic on the air: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Barack Obama, Cutural Criticism, Glenn Beck, Politics, Pop Culture, Videos Tags: Glenn Beck on "White Culture", Katie Couric No Comments »The Internet In The Hands Of Dictatorships
September 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Evgeny Morozov discusses how repressive regimes use the internet to spread propaganda, finding it is a more powerful tool than censorship. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Authoritarianism, Culture and Technology, Politics, Videos, World Affairs Tags: Evgeny Morozov, TED No Comments »Daily Hilarity: Ricky Gervais Reads Genesis
September 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Just hilarious stuff from Ricky Gervais back in 2003: Remember to go out and support a rarely honest and explicitly atheistic Hollywood film next weekend, Ricky Gervais’s The Invention Of Lying. And, finally, this audio of Gervais features him riffing on Wittgenstein a bit. It’s not terribly funny but it’s rare you get a comedian [...]
Bubble Blowing As An Art
September 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Great stuff: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arts, Videos Tags: Bubble Blowing, Children's Entertainment, Louis Pearl, Novelties No Comments »A Birther Infomercial
September 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Oy: The full video, which will play across the country, was made by “Live Prayer.com” is here, the website of fundamentalist Christian minster Bill Keller. Talking Points Memo coverage is here. Your Thoughts?
Obama Backs Off Proposal For Creating Lawful Procedures For Preventive Detention
September 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke During his May speech on civil liberties at the National Archives in May Obama argued for the idea of creating a legal mechanism for indefinitely detaining people without charges. He said at the time: I know that creating such a system poses unique challenges. . . . But I want to be very clear that our goal [...]
Jared Diamond On The Evolution Of Religions
September 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates Of Human Societies on the evolution of religion: Your Thoughts?
Chomsky Argues Islamic Fundamentalist Political Power Is Result Of US Support Against Mideast Secular Nationalism
September 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Chomsky is asked whether New Atheists like Sam Harris are correct that religious fundamentalism is the actual primary motive for Middle Eastern fundamentalist violence. The argument he winds up making is that, contra-Harris, the issue is that the US and Israel have made concerted efforts to destroy all secular nationalist endeavors by promoting religious fundamentalists [...]
Daily Hilarity: Faithwatch
September 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke This is off the wall hilarious: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Christianity, Comedy, Hilarious, Jesus, Parody, Religion, Religious Satire, Satire, Videos Tags: Baywatch No Comments »“Sweet Child O’ Mine” Victoria Bergsman Style
September 24th, 2009 Daniel Fincke From Victoria Bergsman (formerly of The Concretes but here as taken By Trees) comes this gorgeous, understated rendition of the classic bombastic Guns ‘n Roses ballad: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Indie Rock, Music, Music Videos, Videos Tags: Sweet Child o' Mine, Taken By Trees, The Concretes, Victoria Bergsman No Comments »
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