The renowned biologist and environmentalist E. O. Wilson wrote a book Consilience in which he argued for the unity of all knowledge. There is a chapter towards the end where he compares the transcendental view of morals and ethics and compares it with his own view, that of an empiricist. In describing his own view, he says (p. 246-247)
[Read more…]
Sometimes I think that by not watching TV, I am missing a lot of unintentional humor. I then think that maybe I should watch TV more, but fortunately the fever quickly passes. Luckily, The Daily Show keeps me up to date on the silliness, like the recent ad campaign that the GOP is releasing targeting women voters.
[Read more…]
I mentioned before my concern about the lack of people of color at the few gatherings of nonbelievers that I have attended. But it is not that they are not out there and this weekend there is a gathering in Los Angeles where they will speak out about their concerns and the need to combine atheism with social justice concerns.
[Read more…]
The police have released their report on the drunken brawl involving the Palins and it turns out to be a doozy, even though no charges will be filed.
If the McCain-Palin ticket had won, and McCain died in office, official White House state dinners would have been a lot more lively with president Palin and her family involved.
It has been clear for some time that, since their actual policies and practices are so unpopular with key demographics, the GOP strategy for winning elections is to try and reduce voting by likely Democratic voters by enacting strict voter ID laws under the pretext of preventing fraud, a problem that does not exist in any significant way to matter. But yesterday, these measures received two significant setbacks.
[Read more…]
On two consecutive days, Stephen Colbert looked at those who seem to thrive on dismissing health experts about the threat of an Ebola epidemic in the US and instead wallow in mindless fear and fear-mongering.
[Read more…]
John Freshwater was a public school teacher in Ohio who was teaching creationist ideas in his science classes, keeping Bibles on his desk, and had the 10 Commandments posted on the wall. In one case, parents charged that he had used a Tesla coil to make the sign of a cross on a student’s arm. He was dismissed in 2011 after he refused to obey a district demand that he refrain from such actions.
[Read more…]
Gabriel Sherman says that NBC News aggressively courted Jon Stewart to take over the role of host of Meet the Press held by David Gregory when the latter was kicked out. NBC offered him practically anything he wanted but it did not work out. Sherman then goes on:
[Read more…]
When it comes to same-sex marriage, the current state of play can be a little confusing, consisting as it does of a mixture of legislative and judicial decisions. Since the US Supreme Court has declined to hear, for now at least, cases that deal with this issue, we are left with a patchwork of laws passed by referenda and legislatures and state and federal courts. We have basically three different situations:
[Read more…]