In a recent blog post, Atheist Climber wrote about an “Atheist Re-Enlightenment”. I thought it was an interesting notion, and he accompanied it by tweeting a link to the Wikipedia page on the Enlightenment. In the Atheist Climber article there is a discussion of the need for a re-enlightenment – and I certainly agree. What...
I’ve just watched the video of Phil Plait’s “Don’t be a dick” talk at TAM8. This talk has spurred a lot of discussion and a lot of strong feelings around the place. It’s probably spurred varying degrees of reflection by sceptics on our own behaviour. Personally I know it’s made me think more about...
Magic. Ghosts. Spirits. These are things that pop up in fairy tales and in children’s stories and tv shows & films. Sometimes even they’re debunked – for example in Scooby Doo (though I personally have never liked it) it’s always some guy with a mask and a clever contraption and some flashy chemistry –...
“Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you” …. Some things Richard Dawkins says I like. Some I don’t – for instance his indifference to Bill Maher’s anti-science woo-loving anti-vax nuttiness, because he made an anti-religion film, so it’s all ok. Also for instance – and it’s the instance that makes...
At the risk of upsetting any of my readers who fancy I am too hard on the religious, today’s “Friday Filosophy” will take at least as its starting point, an article written a couple of weeks back by one David B. Hart on the First Things website, entitled “Believe it or Not”. I’m struggling...
