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What do the distinctions in the map mean in specific legal terms? This post runs down the history and present kinds of religious exemptions in American law. (The map comes from the same blog, The Volokh Conspiracy) Your Thoughts?
Archive for July, 2010
The Latitude Offered For Claims Of Religious Exemptions To Laws On A State By State Basis
July 10th, 2010 
Daniel Fincke Daily Hilarity: Stephen Colbert On Homosexuals
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Okay, I couldn’t post that video in which a Christian singer unironically sings “I am America” without balancing it out with a little of Stephen Colbert deliciously ironic, I Am America (And So Can You!). In this clip he all too depressingly accurately apes homophobic logic: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Comedy, Comedy, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Parody, Parody, Political Satire, Political Satire, Religion, Religion, Religious Satire, Religious Satire, Same Sex Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Satire, Satire, Videos 
Tags: I Am America And So Can You, Stephen Colbert 
No Comments »Contemporary Christian Music Goes Tea Party
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The title of Krista Branch’s song is “I Am America”. How modest. Your Thoughts?
Twain Uncensored
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The unabridged Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, delayed by Twain’s request for a century, is coming this fall. The New York Times describes choice passages: Twain excoriates “the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War” and Gen. Leonard Wood’s “mephitic record” as governor general in Havana. In writing about an attack on a tribal group in the Philippines, [...]
Posted in Arts, Arts, Culture, History Tags: Cuban-Spanish War, Frances Cleveland, General Leonard Wood, Literature, Mark Twain 1 Comment »Daily Hilarity: Ominous Music Panics Country
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic Thanks to Becca for the link. Your Thoughts?
How Jon Stewart Dropped The Ball On The Faith And Science Quesiton (But How Religion Can Be Redeemed Nonetheless)
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Marilynne Robinson is the author of Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self (Terry Lectures). In the interview below from last night’s Daily Show she gives a standardly awful false choice between thinking scientific methods can answer every question on the one hand and accepting religious explanations of [...]
Penn Jillette On Magic, Atheism, And Libertarianism
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A really enjoyable video, especially for his remarks on magic, other magicians, and why magic on TV isn’t real magic. And I really appreciated his stress on the importance of having “out” atheists to identify with. In his case he discusses being joyed, inspired, loved, and comforted by having famous atheists like Martin Mull, Randy [...]
Posted in Arts, Arts, Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Politics, Politics, Pop Culture, Pop Culture, Religion, Religion, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Videos Tags: Libertarianism, Magic, Penn and Teller, Penn Jillette, Tolerance No Comments »On God As The Source Of Being But Not Of Evil
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Introduction This post is a long one but an important one for understanding what sophisticated Roman Catholic philosophers have traditionally meant when they have said that “God is good” and that the existence of evil is not to be taken as counter-evidence to their belief in God’s goodness. Very often we atheists are dismissed as [...]
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, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Thomas Aquinas No Comments »“What Is God?”
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Peter Rodger went around the world asking people from numerous viewpoints, “What Is God?” for his documentary, Oh My God. Watch it here. Your Thoughts?
U.S. District Judge Rules DOMA Unconstitutional
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A just outcome, but I am not sure how I feel about appealing to states’ rights to define marriage for themselves, which could inevitably be used as a justification for individual states to deny gays’ rights to marriage. The case is about equal rights, not states rights, and should have been settled as such: A [...]
Hope For A Vaccine Against HIV
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Exciting news: The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. Researchers screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies. Now the trick will be for scientists to develop a vaccine or [...]
Christian Puppet “Drill Sgt.” Skit
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke For those of you who enjoy gawking at kitschy Christianist militarism pitched to kids, Cringevision relays this painfully bad video: H/T: Christian Nightmares Your Thoughts?
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Religion, Religion, Religulous, Religulous, Videos Tags: Amalekites, Moses No Comments »Do You Like Anti-Catholicism Mixed In With Your End Times Delusions?
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke If so, the new Jack Chick tract on the end times will really hit the spot! (If you’ve ever just wondered what it would be like if Glenn Beck wrote a Jack Chick tract, this seems the closest approximation.) H/T: Secular Outpost. Your Thoughts?
Daily Show Reunion, Carell And Colbert Reprise “Even Steven” Segment On Colbert Report
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Last night’s episode of The Colbert Report was an instant classic. Here were two hilarious segments featuring Colbert’s old Daily Show colleague Steve Carell: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'The Carell Corral www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News The Colbert Report Mon – [...]
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Videos Tags: Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show No Comments »Iran Bans Mullets
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in News, News Discussion, News Discussion, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Iran, Mullets No Comments »On The Intrinsic Connection Between Being And Goodness
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke All things, insofar as they are, have goodness. This is because, for any existent thing whatsoever, to be is necessarily better than not being (regardless of whether a given existent thing consciously acknowledges this or is even capable of thinking about it at all). This goodness is partly a function of the fact that every [...]
Ann Druyan And Carl Sagan On The Empathic Ethical Behavior Of Humans Vs. Macaque Monkeys
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Really fascinating bit of radio audio discussing a variation of the Milgram experiment performed on macaque monkeys, comparing its results to when the actual Milgram experiment was first done on humans: Thanks to Amanda for the great find. Your Thoughts?
Typical Mind Fallacy: The Limits Of Generalizing From One Example
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke “Everyone generalizes from one example. At least, I do.” – Vlad Taltos (Issola, Steven Brust) My old professor, David Berman, liked to talk about what he called the “typical mind fallacy”, which he illustrated through the following example: There was a debate, in the late 1800s, about whether “imagination” was simply a turn of phrase [...]
Posted in Daniel Dennett, Daniel Dennett, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Historical Philosophy, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind Tags: Behaviorists, Berkeley, David Berman, Generalization, Gilbert Ryle, Less Wrong, Typical Mind Fallacy No Comments »Daily Hilarity: Kept Alive By Prayer
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Via Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comic Strips, Comic Strips, Faith, Faith, Hilarious, Prayer, Prayer, Religion, Religion and Science No Comments »Slavoj Žižek Trashes His New Book
July 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I found this amusing: As a cleaner flits about, I ask him if he is surprised at his popularity, particularly among the young. “My God, I am the last person to know the answer to these questions,” he says, looking genuinely dismayed. “But, really, I am now thinking there is so much pressure on me [...]
Daily Hilarity: Sassy Gay Friend Fixes Hamlet
July 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Thanks to Katharine (in the epic comments section of The Buddha Is Not Serious’s post on You’re Not Helping, where new damning information was revealed today. For updates, go here, here, here, and here.) Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Parody, Parody Tags: Hamlet No Comments »30 Preposterous Things You Need To Believe To Be A Christian
July 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke John W. Loftus, the former minister turned atheist, author of Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity, and the primary blogger at Debunking Christianity (whose updates you can follow daily in our blogroll feed) has a terrific summation of 30 extraordinarily unlikely ideas, at least most of which most Christians would have to [...]
Do New Atheists Unjustifiably Shirk Their Burden For Evidence?
July 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Michael Antony has an interesting but problematic article in Philosophy Now exploring whether “New Atheism” holds itself to a double standard when it comes to rules of evidence. He argues that New Atheists dismiss religious belief explicitly on “evidentialist” epistemic criteria whereby we must always proportion our belief to evidence, but at the same time, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, PZ Myers, PZ Myers, Religion, Religion, Secularism 9 Comments »Gay Rights Advocate Decapitated In Uganda
July 6th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Unspeakably sad and outraging: A search for a missing pro-gay priest, the Rev Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga, who disappeared almost two and half weeks ago after delivering a scathing speech at St. Paul’s Church, Kanyanya supporting homosexuality in Uganda, led the joint search team of Integrity Uganda and Namirembe Diocese to the severed head of another [...]
The Steady Disappearance Of Tenure
July 6th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A dispiriting report: Over just three decades, the proportion of college instructors who are tenured or on the tenure track plummeted: from 57 percent in 1975 to 31 percent in 2007. The new report is expected to show that that proportion fell even further in 2009, dropping below one-third. If you add graduate teaching assistants [...]
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