Reading Time: 3 minutes By James A. Haught Ancient Greece, birthplace of Western civilization, was contradictory. It produced the first known thinkers who tried to understand the world through logic and observation, instead of through supernatural explanations. Yet Greeks also sacrificed thousands of animals to imaginary gods on Mount Olympus, and gave gold to mystical “oracles” who babbled in […]
philosophy
Posted inReligion, Science, The Secular
If you ‘feel’ you have a ‘soul,’ that’s a clue you’re not thinking
Reading Time: 5 minutes Meditators, long-distance runners, young people in love and potheads all feel divine connections from time to time. They’re always mistaken.
Posted inGeneral
2000 Years of Disbelief: Bertrand Russell
Reading Time: 9 minutes By James A. Haught This is the twentieth segment of a series on renowned skeptics throughout history. These profiles are drawn from 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt, Prometheus Books, 1996. One of the twentieth century’s most brilliant thinkers and writers, the iconoclastic Bertrand Russell wrought changes in many fields, […]
Posted inPhilosophy
From The West Wing to Devs
Reading Time: 3 minutes I came to The West Wing twenty years too late. I say too late, but the show doesn’t age. Yes, it’s set in the late 90s and early 00s, with all that entails. But as a political drama, displaying the machinations of the White House and political campaigning, it is timeless. And as a drama […]
Posted inCartoons, General
All is for Naught
Reading Time: < 1 minute I weirdly take great comfort in absurdism. If you enjoy my comics, consider checking out my other series, Barb, and/or supporting on Patreon.
Posted inPhilosophy
Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #11 – Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever survey of philosophers conducted in 2009, several readers were not aware of it (the reason for re-communicating it) and were unsure as to what some of the questions meant. I offered to do a series on them, so here it is – Philosophy 101 (Philpapers induced). I will […]
Posted inGeneral
Living With Absurdity
Reading Time: 3 minutes Some existentialists feel despair over the dearth of meaning, but life can be fun even without transcendental purpose.
Posted inGeneral
The Birth of Freethought
Reading Time: 3 minutes The philosophers of ancient Greece fought against theocracies of their day to pioneer the Western freethought tradition.
Posted inGeneral
Proofs That Don’t Prove
Reading Time: 3 minutes Theologians’ arguments for the existence of God all fall short.