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Contrary to first impressions, it does not seem at this point that Jared Lee Loughner’s shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and nineteen other people was directly inspired by the Tea Party movement or by Sarah Palin. What has dribbled out so far about Loughner’s ideas seems closest to anarchism in ideology and there are amateur diagnoses [...]
Archive for January, 2011
Moral Luck, Sarah Palin, And The “Targeting” Of Gabrielle Giffords
January 10th, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Applied Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin 
Tags: Blame, Gabrielle Giffords, Moral Luck, Moral Responsibility, Responsibility 
6 Comments »Sheriff Dupnik: “AZ Has Become The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry…The Tombstone of the U.S.”
January 10th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Sheriff Clarence Dupnik speaks out against violent rhetoric and ideologies: Your Thoughts?
Posted in News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics Tags: Clarence Dupnik 1 Comment »The Heroes In Tucson: Bill Badger, Patricia Maisch, Joseph Zamudio, and Daniel Hernandez
January 10th, 2011 Daniel Fincke How about we make Bill Badger, Patricia Maisch, Joseph Zamudio, and Daniel Hernandez household names? How Hernandez, an intern, saved the congresswoman’s life: “About 10 minutes into the event, we ended up hearing shots, and I’m pretty sure I heard someone say ‘gun,’” Hernandez said. “After that I ran from where I was – about [...]
Daily Hilarity: Hipster Huck Finn
January 10th, 2011 Daniel Fincke So, as you have probably heard, there is a new edition of Huckelberry Finn which has replaced all instances of the N-word in the book with the word “slave” to make the book palatable to a number of schools which have avoided using Mark Twain’s classic because of its use of the N-word. Now, here [...]
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, News Discussion, News Discussion, Parody, Parody, Satire, Satire Tags: Hipsters, Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, N-Word, Richard Grayson 2 Comments »Sundaily Hilarity: Jim Jeffries On Religion
January 9th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Totally hilarious: Thanks Shane for the heads up. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Comedy, Comedy, God, God, Hilarious, Religion, Religion Tags: Heaven, Hell, The Devil 14 Comments »A Scathing And Detailed Review Of The Tea Party’s Madness
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke For some reason, I just felt like rewatching this tonight: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Your Thoughts?
Interview With Gabrielle Giffords On Prior Attack On Her Congressional Office
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke She calmly and gracefully defended the value of the democratic process amidst a great deal of abuse from the Tea Party: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Your Thoughts?
Posted in News, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics Tags: Gabrielle Giffords 1 Comment »The YouTube Videos Of Giffords’s Attempted Assassin
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The attempted assassin Jared Lee Loughner’s videos, in short they’re incoherent lunacy focusing mostly on his desire for a new currency. Your Thoughts?
May This Be The End Of Sarah Palin’s Cultural Influence
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Even on the off-chance that the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords does not turn out to be at the hands of a right wing terrorist, can we now at least agree that Sarah Palin should be shamed out of politics by all on the left, center, and right for her disgraceful use of violent imagery and [...]
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Terrifying and infuriating news: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman at a public event in Tucson on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about whether she was killed. The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office told member station KJZZ the 40-year-old Democrat was killed. At least nine other people, including members of [...]
Daily Hilarity: The Memo To Shred All Memos
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Ben Greenman’s “Paper Trail”: January 3 To all employees: Please shred all documents. – - January 4 To all employees: Yesterday’s memorandum was incomplete. It should have read, “Please shred all documents, including this one.” – - January 5 To all employees: Yesterday’s memorandum should also have been shredded. We apologize for the oversight. – [...]
Disambiguating Faith: Faith Which Exploits Infinitesimal Probabilities As Openings For Strong Affirmations
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Pete C. argues that because our comprehension is limited, it is hubris for us to rule out faith in things that alleged to go beyond it: I’m not sure where I fall in the spectrum of agnosticism (if i belong there at all) so I can’t really self identify. But I will offer an explanation [...]
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, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Spinoza, Spinoza 2 Comments »Daily Hilarity: More Thorough Relationship Status Options
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke via Buzzfeed Your Relationship Status?
TOP Q (7): When, If Ever, Are Intellectual Mistakes Morally Culpable?
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Can we morally blame people for failing to pursue the truth well enough or for employing irrational methods of belief formation? Is belief something not in our volitional control at all? Is it an entirely passive thing to “just believe” something? Or even if we have some volitional control over what we believe, does it [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tags: Blameworthy Beliefs, Epistemic Duties, Ethics of Belief, Free Will, Praiseworthy Beliefs, Virtue Epistemology 3 Comments »Is It A Waste Of Time For Atheists To Care About Spirituality?
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Badger3K objects to my suggestion that rationalists should “take back” spirituality from the peddlers of woo and faith: Spirituality has always been associated with religion, superstition, and woo (including the new age bs). There has never been anything to “take back” – it was always their word to begin with. If you feel awe, say [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism Tags: Awe, Gratitude, Meaning, Reverence, Sacredness, Spirituality, The Numinous 9 Comments »The Billionaire Metaphysician
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There’s hope for us all: For 20 years, Don Brownstein taught philosophy at the University of Kansas. He specialized in metaphysics, which examines the character of reality itself. In a photo from his teaching days, he looks like a young Karl Marx, with a bushy black beard and unruly hair. That photo is now a relic [...]
Mikey Weinstein On Countdown
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Your Thoughts?
On Defending True Spirituality And Taking The Word Back From Spiritually Bankrupt Fundamentalism
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke So Chris Mooney’s article in Playboy about the spirituality of scientists has sparked some interesting debate in the atheist blogosphere. His new post on the subject explicitly interprets his aims and themes in the piece as essentially saying what I interpreted them to be—to defend the idea that you can have completely sufficient spirituality without [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Spinoza, Spinoza Tags: Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jerry Coyne 9 Comments »Daily Hilarity: Cranky Puppet John McCain
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Let’s All Stand on John McCain’s Lawn www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook Your Thoughts?
Posted in Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Comedy, Comedy, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Hilarious, Parody, Parody, Political Satire, Political Satire, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Satire, Satire Tags: DADT, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal, John McCain, Jon Stewart, Puppets, The Daily Show 1 Comment »TOP Q (6): Why Should Pleasure And Pain Matter Morally?
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I have already begun to explain my own view of the nature and limits of the ethical value of pleasure and pain (and I’d pleased if you considered my views there and, admittedly, a bit pained if you do not bother to!) But I would like to throw this out as today’s open philosophical question: [...]
Catch Up Before You Speak Up
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Luke Muehlhauser admonishes his fellow atheists to do a better job of catching up with the current states of various aspects of the scholarly debate between theism and atheism before presuming to publicly debate theists. He gives a couple instructive examples of failure to do so: In a debate with theist Bill Craig, agnostic Bart Ehrman [...]
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, Philosophy Of Religion Tags: Bart Ehrman, Bayes' Theorem, Christopher Hitchens, David Hume, JH Sobel, Logic and Theism, Luke Muehlhauser, Miracles, William Lane Craig 6 Comments »Telling About Kissing
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Greg Laden gives the thumbs up to Sheril Kirshenbaum’s new book The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us and sums up some fascinating takeaways about kissing: Kissing is not a human universal. Not all cultures do this. The history of kissing is complex and interesting, to the extent that we know about it. [...]
Posted in Evolution, Evolution, Science Tags: Greg Laden, Kissing, Science of Kissing, Sheril Kirshenbaum No Comments »Wakefield’s Study Linking Autism And Vaccines Was Fraudulent
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Not just bad science, we’re looking at outright fraud: Evidence published a decade ago, giving birth to the belief of a connection between vaccines and autism, has been deemed outright “fraudulent,” according to an editorial published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a former British surgeon, published research in 1998 that seemed [...]
TOP Q (5): Should Parents, On Behalf Of Their Children’s Interests, Get Extra Votes?
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Michael Kinsley has a daring suggestion: [E]xtend the franchise to children, but let parents vote on their underage children’s behalf. In effect, parents would get an extra vote for every child. How would this solve the entitlement problem? It wouldn’t, directly. But it would revise the allocation of political power to more closely reflect who [...]
Atheist Philosopher Of Religion Keith Parsons Abandons Theism Debate And Calls Theist Positions Frauds
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This happened during last semester when I was less capable of blogging in a timely manner. Now that there’s a fresh article on it, I thought I would highlight this piece by Julia Galef summarizing what went down (particularly because it adds even a little more kindling to the excellent debate among the Camels With [...]
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, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Brian Leiter, Debunking Christianity, Keith Parsons, Leiter Reports, Peter van Inwagen, Prosblogian, Secular Outpost No Comments »
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