Monthly Archives: April 2009

Romania to decriminalize incest

Romania weighs decriminalizing consensual incest: Three European Union nations — France, Spain and Portugal — do not prosecute consenting adults for incest, and Romania is considering following suit. … Laws exempting parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters from prosecution for incestuous … Continue reading

Posted in culture, philosophy, politics | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

The decline of American Catholicism?

I have a post up at ScienceBlogs noting the erosion in numbers among American Catholics part of a general shift away from institutional religion.

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One Against Five

I can’t believe I sat through this whole thing — it’s two hours, and not really my cup of tea. Hitch is always entertaining, but there’s really nothing new here if you’ve read his books. Must have been a slow afternoon. I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 40 Comments

Which is more scientific, economics or sociology?

Depends on your politics apparently.

Posted in data | Tagged | 3 Comments

Godless liberals & religious conservatives, the numbers recapped

I’ve presented this data before, but I thought a review would be nice to get into the record. AllahPundit and Ace have both linked to Heather’s post on David Brooks & the New Atheist. Ace notes: This gets at something … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged | 6 Comments

One Cheer for David Brooks

Heather:  Thus spurred, I took another look at Brooks’ column. The dubious stuff is down towards the end. The rise and now dominance of this emotional approach to morality … challenges the new atheists, who see themselves involved in a war of … Continue reading

Posted in science | 10 Comments

Two Cheers for David Brooks

Heather: I must say, I think you were a bit unkind to David Brooks there. I speak as someone with mixed feelings about Brooks, who, when he departs from what he’s really good at — observational sociology — usually fails to impress. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Brooks bashes the “new atheists”

David Brooks argues that the view that moral decision-making results from an intuitive, pre-rational engagement with the world, rather than from logical deduction from a set of moral principles, is a  challenge to “the new atheists, who see themselves involved … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 85 Comments

Biblical literalism correlates with thinking extramarital sex is wrong

The Audacious Epigone has a post up where the title says it all, Extramarital sex wrong? Gays and supporters of same sex marriage less likely to think so. But I was curious how MARHOMO, attitudes toward gay marriage, stacked up … Continue reading

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

UN-free Speech

The resolution recently passed by the UN’s entertaingly mis-labeled Human Rights Council on the topic of “religious defamation” is, of course, nonsense and dangerous nonsense at that. The Economist does a good job here  of explaining why, but one particular … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments