Ross Douthat half admits to the intellectual bankruptcy of his opposition of to same-sex marriage and then tacitly demonstrates it with his pathetic reply when pushed to address the topic last month at the New School: “I am someone opposed to gay marriage who is deeply uncomfortable arguing the issue in public.” Mr. Douthat indicated [...]
On Bloggingheads, philosophers Simon Keller and Niko Kolodny dissect love. If you don’t have the hour to watch the whole thing or if you are only interested in one of the subtopics they discuss, below is the set of topics. The time listed next to each topic indicates how long that portion of video runs. [...]
In a series of posts this semester, I am going to blog all (or almost all) the lecture topics for the two Philosophical Ethics classes I am teaching this semester. Each of these posts will primarily explicate the reading or a theme that dominated class discussion in a way that should be accessible to novices [...]
In a series of posts this semester, I am going to blog all (or almost all) the lecture topics for the two Philosophical Ethics classes I am teaching this semester. Each of these posts will primarily explicate the reading or a theme that dominated class discussion in a way that should be accessible to novices [...]
In a series of posts this semester, I am going to blog all (or almost all) the lecture topics for the two Philosophical Ethics classes I am teaching this semester. Each of these posts will primarily explicate the reading or a theme that dominated class discussion in a way that should be accessible to novices [...]
A new variation of James Rachels’s classic thought experiment against the distinction between killing and letting die from Chaos Pet: Well, who is really responsible? Bob? George? Both? Neither? Your Thoughts?
(I’m moving this post written for “Blasphemy Day” to the front page today as its basic themes relate to “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” which occurs today.) So today is “Blasphemy Day.” Here’s what it’s about: Blasphemy Day International is an international campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a national day to promote free speech [...]
Unreasonable Faith reports on news that it’s already happening: “Operation Straight Up” has been allowed to provide entertainment to troops with the goal of “sharing the gospel with soldiers in combat” — something they say has never been allowed before: Capt. Chris Plekenpol, a spokesman for OSU, was responsible for the lives of 100 men [...]
After this introductory paragraph, every sentence in this post will summarize and link a different post expressing my views, primarily on topics related to atheism, philosophy, and ethics—which are the primary preoccupations of this blog. I am organizing all of these links into this one summary statement of “Camels With Hammers’ Philosophy.” This post will [...]
I was really irritated last night by Derren Brown’s choice to use his lottery trick on national TV in Britain to propagate fundamentally bogus mathematical thinking and to convince a group of people that their belief in their abilities to reach into the subconscious was able to generate knowledge of winning lottery ticket numbers. It’s [...]
The following quotes from Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, with whom Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to “regularly consult,” are graphic, sickening, and devastating to anyone with a conscience. Read at your own discretion: Asked if a confession obtained “by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure” was “valid and considered credible according to Islam,” Mesbah-Yazdi [...]
From Philosophy Bites, comes Walter Sinnott-Armstrong on Morality Without God. Sinnott-Armstrong is the editor of the spectacular series of volumes on moral psychology featuring essays featuring both philosophers and psychologists in interaction with each other. Now he has a new book out, Morality Without God. (via Atheist Media Blog) Your Thoughts?
Full video of Sandel’s talk: Your Thoughts?
Michael C. Hall discussed the European response to Dexter and how it differs from the American one. …people are fascinated. And I think in some markets overseas, they’re interested in the show in that it’s an American show, interested in what it might say or might not say about American culture, so that’s an added [...]
Numbers 5:14, 18, 44: If feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—then he is to take his wife to the priest…. After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he [...]
Yesterday I began my series of posts attempting first to disambiguate the various senses of the word faith, to explore how the various practices referred to under this one word’s umbrella all relate to each other and how they can be ethically and epistemologically assessed, both as they occur individually and in various combinations with [...]
The Economist has a chart on views on torture which reports a disquietingly high amount of tolerance among Americans for the practice: OPINIONS on whether the use of torture should be prohibited appear to vary widely around the world. According to opinion polls conducted early in 2008 respondents in western European democracies such as Britain [...]
Over at Unreasonable Faith, guest contributor Custador thinks he is a bigoted atheist: The knowledge that my cousin is a creationist has actually made me dislike him. I wonder now if I’m any better than any other prejudiced person — a racist or a sexist or a homophobe — because I pre-judge a group of [...]
Sadly this video has been taken down from YouTube.
Daniel Florian sums up the case that indeed he is not: Dear Pro-Lifer, Your God is not pro-life. You might find that statement surprising, but I know this from your own holy book. Despite what you may have been told, the Bible is not a pro-life document. It is, in many parts, pro-death. In one [...]
Paul Campos argues so in this thought provoking interview with Megan McArdle, which I recommend reading in full: Obesity is defined completely arbitrarily as a body mass index of 30 or higher (175 pounds for an average height woman). Now body mass follows more or less a normal distribution, whiich means if the the mean [...]
I love egg and cheese sandwiches in the morning. Every once and a while I go to my local diner and order one takeout. I never stay there to eat egg and cheese sandwiches but in the past I have gone there as frequently as once a week to eat dinner with a friend. But [...]
Thanks to Unreasonable Faith for the find. Your Thoughts?
I am puzzled by appeals to history to oppose gay marriage because history is only the story of what people have done and never of itself directly tells us anything about right or wrong. Results of history can serve as warnings about effective and uneffective approaches to goal x or goal y but what people [...]