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Technology vs. Tyranny: In an attempt to make it easier for dissidents in countries such as China and North Korea to communicate without fear of government sanctions, researchers at Georgia Tech have developed software that can hide information inside messages posted to Twitter and other social networks, as well as in images that can be [...]
Archive for July, 2010
World War II Riddled With Cliches And Implausible Plot Turns
July 12th, 2010 
Daniel Fincke Via Yglesias, comes this review of World War II: But then there are some shows that go completely beyond the pale of enjoyability, until they become nothing more than overwritten collections of tropes impossible to watch without groaning. I think the worst offender here is the History Channel and all their programs on the so-called [...]
Arrested For Being A Single Man In A Shopping Mall
July 12th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Saudiwoman writes: I have to tell you what I was up to last night. My very dear friend Tine has finished her time here in Saudi and is leaving soon. Unfortunately, being cooped up in expat compounds; she has never had a chance to see muttawas in action. These lions of Saudi morality are a [...]
Posted in Islam, Islam, World Affairs, World Affairs 
Tags: Morality Police, Muttawa, Saudi Arabia 
No Comments »Tom Wilson’s “Over 40 Song”
July 12th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In the comments section to a recent post, I expressed the existential amazement at our place in the universe and what we really represent within it: I wonder what would be so alienating to you about seeing ourselves as “merely” the self-awareness of the logos of the universe as it (in Hegelian fashion) becomes self-conscious [...]
New Hitchens Interview
July 12th, 2010 Daniel Fincke But not a word about his illness. It is a series of rapid fire questions and answers on a range of topics, with little elaboration. Here are a few interesting bits: Several chapters are devoted to your Trotskyist youth. What attracted you to the left? The name. It was the left opposition to Stalinism, capitalism, [...]
Daily Hilarity: How To Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking
July 12th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Thanks to ProfMTH for the tip! Your Thoughts?
How Our Morality Realizes Our Humanity
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a previous post, I discussed the intrinsic connection between being and goodness and between functional activity and being. I argued, for example that the various components of a heart need to function as a heart to be a heart and similarly that a human being must act morally to realize her humanity. Specifically, I [...]
Posted in Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Duty, Duty, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Love, Love, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Aristotle, Empowerment, Existentialism, Functionalism, Power, Teleological Ethics 13 Comments »“I Didn’t Evolve From You”
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Some classic Saturday Night Live with Dana Carvey as Regis Philbin and Jan Hooks as Kathy Lee Gifford. The era on the show that they come from (and which extends for me just a couple years beyond them) ~1986-1994 was when I came of age, so it will always be my favorite: Thanks to Heather [...]
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Creationism, Creationism, Hilarious, Parody, Parody, Religious Satire, Religious Satire, Satire, Satire Tags: Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Kathy Lee Gifford, Regis Philbin No Comments »Why Progressive Interpretations Of The Old Testament Still Do Not Justify Its God Morally
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In reply to this video on various immoral things outright commanded in what is supposed to be God’s law in the Old Testament, Loyal writes: Militaristic non-Christians often seize upon the many difficult passages where God is condoning morally repugnant acts. I am glad you admit that they are morally repugnant acts and neither morally [...]
I Am Not Militaristic.
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In reply to this video on various immoral things outright commanded in what is supposed to be God’s law in the Old Testament, Loyal writes: Militaristic non-Christians often seize upon the many difficult passages where God is condoning morally repugnant acts. The use of the word “militaristic” to characterize all who “seize upon the many [...]
Sundaily Hilarity: Permission Slip
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I have been hearing numerous appalling stories of late of public school districts incorporating field trips to churches into their activities. On Facebook, in reply to my friend Jessica’s anxiety about what to do about a proposed trip for her own son, another friend, Glynis pointed to an e-mail exchange presenting one approach for dealing [...]
Moral Guidance From God’s Law In The Bible
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A video for sharing with your Christian friends as a (difficult) conversation starter… Your Thoughts?
Posted in Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Religion Tags: biblical denial of human rights, Biblical Violence No Comments »65 Million Years With A Creationist
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I love a long story whose point doesn’t cinch until the very last three words at the very end. Don’t skip ahead!!! Your Thoughts?
Jesuit Priest Criticizes Church Demands For Lock Step Agreement
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke James Martin, a Jesuit priest and Colbert Show regular turns to the Huffington Post to criticize the Roman Catholic Church’s top down approach to thinking and the culture of fear it engenders: Today in the Catholic Church almost any disagreement to almost any degree with almost any church leader on almost any topic is seen [...]
Creepy Panda Bear Commercial Of The Day
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke This video (via The Daily Dish) really changes my perception of pandas: For some reason this website is brimming with panda bear videos, so here are a couple of bonuses for panda bear enthusiasts: Here one escapes incarceration: Baby Pandas Playing: Your Thoughts?
“The Shifting Sands of Evidence & Argument” (Why Religious Arguments Fail to Persuade)
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke How can we go about persuading better in debates about religious beliefs? ProfMTH develops and, in some cases, rightfully disagrees with ideas from Jennifer Faust: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Psychology, Psychology, Religion Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Coherentism, Fundamental Beliefs, Jennifer Faust, John Baillie, Peripheral Beliefs, Persuasion, ProfMTH, Property Basic Beliefs, Quine, Quine's Web of Beliefs, St. Anselm, William Lane Craig No Comments »How Palin Might Win A Presidential Nomination
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke John Ellis lays out a scary scenario: As the Republican avalanche of 2010 builds — and I saw a poll the other day of a Democratic-leaning state Senate district on Long Island where the “right track” (8%)/”wrong direction” (83%) was unlike anything I had ever seen — Palin has smartly positioned herself as the champion [...]
Posted in Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Tags: Tea Party No Comments »Natascha McElhorne’s Grief
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I have long had a mild crush on Natascha McElhorne since her role in The Truman Show as Truman’s dream woman beyond his confines. So, I was struck and saddened to read that for two years now she has been coping with the loss of her husband, which happened while she was pregnant with their [...]
Why I Think Theistic Religion’s Psychological Grip Can Be Weakened Or Broken
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a recent comments section, Gregory Wahl argued to me that religion is so deeply rooted in psychological needs, specifically the longing for immortality, that there is an inherent limitation to the ability of all my philosophical arguments to dissuade the faithful. As this line of reasoning goes, they do not believe for intellectual reasons [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Sociology Tags: Atheistic Existentialism, Atheistic Nihilism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalist Nihilism, Healthy-Soul Religion, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nihilism, Nihilistic Existentialism, Sick-Soul Religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Values, William James No Comments »Why Did So Many Pro-Prop 8 Witnesses Back Out Of Testifying?
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke After pre-trial depositions, many pro-Prop 8 witnesses backed out of testifying, citing fear of reprisals in response to their testimony. Anti-Prop 8 lawyer David Boies is asked what he did to scare them off during the depositions: Your Thoughts?
Tom Tancredo Calls Obama The Greatest Threat To America
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke He essentially compares Obama to the Soviet Union and Al-Qaeda and argues that he is an even wors threat to America than them. It’s just baseless and shameless and insane: H/T: Discernible Chaos Your Thoughts?
LGBT Teens Often Kicked Out Of Homes, End Up In Detention, And Are Abused
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Heartbreaking stuff. “LGBT youth are more likely to be arrested than straight youth because they’re more likely to be pushed out of their homes.” Once arrested, LGBT inmates often are subjected to unnecessary pretrial detention, verbal and physical abuse from peers and guards, lockdown, attempts at religious antigay conversion, and in some cases, even orchestrated [...]
Researchers Claim Anxiety Heightens Religious Idealism And Extremism
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Really interesting (and unsurprising) results: In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a [...]
Classic Video Games If They Had A “Super-Easy” Mode
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Boy, there was a lot of nostalgia watching this and I haven’t even owned a video game console since I think about 9th grade. I found it gleefully funny in the cases where I knew the games being altered. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Parody, Parody Tags: College Humor, CONTRA, Duck Hunt, Mike Tyson's Punchout, Mortal Kombat, Nintendo, Pac-Man, Pong, Q-bert, Sega Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario Kart, Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, video games, Wii Fit No Comments »
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