Reading Time: 4 minutes My plan was two posts about Facebook, but events keep running ahead of my little typing fingers. This is the second of a probable five-in-a-row about Facebook. I’ll start by describing an exchange in which I took my own advice pretty well, then continue with a couple of less successful efforts. A reminder: This series […]
Deep Dive
Exploring the big questions—life, death, morality, consciousness, meaning—from a secular point of view.
Posted inCritical thinking, General
Silos / Can you hear me now? 3
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s a natural and adaptive human tendency to cling to the familiar, to distrust difference. That worked well for millennia to keep us safe, but now it’s an unhelpful relic that fuels groundless fears and keeps [insert favorite fearmongering media villain here] afloat. Most of us are surrounded by friends who think like us, who reinforce […]
Posted inCritical thinking, General, Parenting & Family, Science
Can you hear me now? (Intro)
Reading Time: 3 minutes A Charlotte Allen published an op-ed in the LA Times about just how dreadfully sick she is of atheists. A Facebook friend asked me what I consider to be the “negatives of church.” A good question that I answered. Another Facebooker asked why I am “so against God.” An unanswerably silly question. He rephrased, I […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Death & Dying
International Day of Peace 2009
Reading Time: 3 minutes (A revised and updated post from September 2007.) War is most often unnecessary, ineffective, immoral, or all three. Discuss. Let’s define necessary as “something essential; something that cannot be done without,” and effective as “something that accomplishes its stated objectives.” I believe war most often fails to meet both of these criteria. It’s usually unnecessary, […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Science
The All-American rollercoaster
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s been one of those rollercoaster weeks for fans of intelligence in the U.S. On Wednesday, we watched a US President deploying bone-crushing intelligence and rhetorical gifts in pursuit of progress in health care policy, one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Now there’s this: New Charles Darwin film is ‘too controversial’ […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Science
Science from Giants
Reading Time: < 1 minute A big dino-roar to Kate Miller of Charlie’s Playhouse for tipping me off to an unbearably cool new thing for kids–a CD/DVD by the brilliant and unpredictable band They Might Be Giants called HERE COMES SCIENCE. The tracks: 1. Science Is Real 2. Meet the Elements 3. I Am a Paleontologist 4. The Bloodmobile 5. […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Parenting & Family, Raising Freethinkers
A simple plan
Reading Time: 3 minutes Seems a bit of a donnybrook has ausgebroken in the comments on one of my YouTube videos. Don’t get excited, now – it’s mild enough. But it started with a pretty common misunderstanding of my position. And my real position on this is among my most deeply-held convictions as a parent, so I can’t stay […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Parenting & Family, Raising Freethinkers
Big Brothers (1 of 2)
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Dad Dad, come here, you’ve got to see this.” I followed Connor (14) into the kitchen, where our dog Gowser, a 65 lb. Rhodesian ridgeback mix, was eating contentedly. Connor got down on all fours and began nuzzling his face toward the food bowl, making slurping noises. Suddenly from deep in Gowser’s throat came a […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Parenting & Family, Raising Freethinkers
I looove me a good correlation
Reading Time: 2 minutes A member of the PBB Forum recently recommended The Kids’ Book of World Religions. Try though I do to keep up with these things, I hadn’t heard of this one, so I clicked over to Amazon for a look. I scrolled down the page to the “Frequently Bought Together” feature (wherein Amazon tries to convince […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Nice label. What else ya got?
Reading Time: 2 minutes I found myself behind a home repairman’s van the other day. I don’t remember the company name, but I remember what was under it: an ichthys, or Jesus fish, followed by a tagline, like so: The FISH says it all! It’s not uncommon to see the Jesus fish on business cards, vehicles, signs and shop […]