Reading Time: 12 minutes Over the past day or so, a lot of people have taken a stab at which belief I might be talking about today! And in truth, I could have chosen a lot of them. Seriously. But I wanted to share one that could apply to a whole lot of ideologies. Once I’d narrowed things down that far, one belief popped right into focus. So today, I want to show you how someone who really does want to base her entire worldview on little-f facts does exactly that. Here’s how I evaluated my own belief in an afterlife with the facts as humans now know them, and what I did with what I found.
belief
Posted inCulture, Education, General
You Cannot Teach Someone Who Feels Unsafe
Reading Time: 4 minutes I have a lot of thoughts on what happened yesterday, but I’m responding first in my capacity as an educator, to remind us that even when people’s positions are at best misinformed, we don’t stand much of a chance of correcting them when they feel unsafe.
Posted inPolitics, The Secular
Why many sex-abused women religiously voted for Trump — fear
Reading Time: 4 minutes Paradoxically, sexually mistreated women voted for a sex-abusing president. Didn’t work this time.
Posted inCulture, History
Guest Post: A Satanist Explains Why QAnon Is Happening
Reading Time: 10 minutes Conspiracy theories like QAnon are smothering American culture with bizarre and obsessive ideas about “Satanism,” devil worship, and ritual murder–and this is the most normal thing in the world.
Posted inCulture, General, Myth & Folklore
It’s Not Free Speech Oppression If Your Idea Is Too Crappy to Entertain
Reading Time: 5 minutes I keep seeing COVID-19 deniers and fans of toxic medicines claiming that their free speech is being violated when they’re denied platforms, and… no. Read a history book, or look to folklore studies for illumination. I delved into the free speech topic a few years ago while I was teaching at UC Berkeley. I made […]
Posted inCulture, General
You Without a Mask Are Like a Dog Off a Leash
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’ve seen varying opinions about whether to wear a mask during a pandemic, and I think some of these opinions are more valid than others (usually those with hefty research backing them). And I just came up with a metaphor to explain why the whole topic has me somewhat upset.
Posted inCulture, Education, General
Thoughts on Vocation, Privilege, and Specialization
Reading Time: 12 minutes Finding my way to a new career involves examining my thoughts on vocation or calling, as well as what to do with my existing specialization and privilege.
Posted inReligion
Check Out Jesus’ Tomb in Japan This Easter!
Reading Time: 9 minutes For this Easter holiday, we check out one those sorts of beliefs. Today, let me show you a wackadoodle claim about the end of Jesus’ life — and why it’s not really wackadoodle at all in the grand scheme of things.
Posted inCulture, General, Myth & Folklore
Folklore, Pandemic, and You
Reading Time: 4 minutes Being a folklorist in a time of global pandemic is interesting, and our discipline’s insights aren’t as useless as one might think. Here, I go into some of what we bring to the (socially isolated) party.
Posted inEthics
Pearced Off! #2 – Doxastic Voluntarism
Reading Time: < 1 minute I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to keep you company outside of Netflix and the news… […]