Reading Time: 5 minutes The recent Olympic Games, the ensuing NCAA March Madness Tournaments, and all other competitions produce an exorbitant amount of one category of athlete: losers. All told, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games alone sent home more than 2,000 losers. Sports and competition itself is a uniquely unforgiving institution. It’s designed so a large majority of participants lose […]
philosophy
Posted inHuman Story
The apple and the river | Jonathan MS Pearce
People are different. That’s a good thing. But in recent years, it feels like some differences have deepened to the point that we look at friends and family on social media, or even across the dinner table, saying and believing things that are just baffling to us. And we wonder: how did you get that […]
Posted inCulture
Hey curling, it’s not you, it’s us: The silliness and seriousness of sports
Reading Time: 4 minutes OnlySky · Hey curling, it’s not you, it’s us | Jack Bowen One of my favorite diversions during the Winter Olympics involves tracking the popular opinion of curling…in the United States. The overriding conception seems to be that it’s just plain silly. A New York Post article deems curling the “weirdest” Olympic sport and a Google […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Atheology is intellectual, respectful, and apolitical, but not perfect
Reading Time: 5 minutes A new generation is taking over the online discussion of god and faith, and mostly it’s a welcome change—improving the quality of atheist arguments. Many atheists, of course, have no interest in apologetics (aka the use of reasoned arguments to justify a religious view). To them, the non-existence of God is simply a given—an assumption […]
Posted inPhilosophy
The rational fanatic: Is there such a thing?
Reading Time: 4 minutes As I watched the baseball playoffs this past season and then pivoted to the NFL, it turns out I’d unknowingly entered a laboratory exploring the human condition. Sports serve as a great catalyst for such explorations and the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cowboys all provided such a spark: in this case, exploring the ongoing battle between […]
Posted inReligion
A brief prehistory of Hell
Reading Time: 7 minutes Today, let’s talk about the prehistory of the Christian notion of Hell.
Posted inGeneral
Hurrah for Liberals: How Modern Liberalism Was Born
Reading Time: 4 minutes By James A. Haught Many atheists also are progressive “social justice warriors” striving to make life better and more equal for everyone. They include Daylight Atheism contributor James Haught. Here’s a chapter from his 2016 book, Hurrah for Liberals. The values that later grew into liberalism began stirring in the epoch now known as the […]
Posted inHistory, Religion
The Themes of Seneca the Younger (1st-Century Fridays #6)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! It’s Friday, and that means it’s time to meet another writer on our 1st-century list. Today, our lucky winner is Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, aka Seneca. This illustrious Roman lived between 4 BCE and 65 CE and spent his life as a philosopher, statesman, writer, and satirist. People regard him […]
Posted inHistory, Religion
The Silence of Philo of Alexandria (1st-Century Fridays #4)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! For today’s 1st-Century Friday, we have a treat in store: Philo of Alexandria, also called Philo Judaeus. He lived smack in the middle of that critically-important period we’ve identified as the 30s, roughly. Not only that, but he was also Jewish and highly-placed in court circles. Out of everybody on our […]
Posted inReligion
A Brief Prehistory of Hell (Journey Into Hell #6)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Today, let’s talk about the prehistory of the Christian notion of Hell.