Monthly Archives: March 2010

Liberalism Claims the Transcendent

Of the great mid-2000s tranche of “celebrity atheists,” each has his own distinctive style: the professorial Dennett, the street-fighter Hitchens, the smartypants Dawkins, and so on. For me at least, Sam Harris is the least distinctive of the crowd, the … Continue reading

Posted in culture, philosophy, Science & Faith | 29 Comments

The unchurched president

Should Obama Attend Church?: Tonight NBC Nightly News aired a clip from Matt Lauer’s interview with President Obama, in which he asked the President why he has not chosen a church to attend. He was told that so doing would … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged | 3 Comments

Apocalypse Postponed

The reason that stories of apocalypse run through so many religions is partly due, I suspect, to the persistent and widespread belief that this wicked old planet needs a sharp sheep-and-goats moment and, also, to the fact that the end of the world is … Continue reading

Posted in Science & Faith | Tagged , | 3 Comments

More Healthcare/Taxpayer Money Down The Drain

One of the dangers of extending the reach of the federal government still further into healthcare is the way that it will enhance the ability of politicians to pursue their own particular hobby horses at taxpayer expense. We were given early warning … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

No More New Moore

Here’s how a contributor to the Skeptic’s Dictionary defines confirmation bias: Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one’s beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or … Continue reading

Posted in Science & Faith | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Spreading the Poison

This story (from the London Times) comes as no great surprise: SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Won’t Be A Minute

This made me smile. H/t: Massie

Posted in Odds & Ends | Tagged | 7 Comments

Obamacare & Religious Privilege

I don’t know what eventually happened to the curious  proposal  (via Senators Hatch and Kerry) that Obamacare should cover Christian Science prayer ‘treatments’, but it does appear that the notion of religious privilege is alive and well elsewhere in the new healthcare legislation: … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

David Frum’s unstable equilibrium

It looks like David Frum has been purged from the conservative mainstream. I can’t but help find this ironic insofar as Frum was the drawer of bright lines himself in years past. Additionally, though Frum is moderate on social issues, … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged | 19 Comments

Defending Ann Coulter as an American peculiarity

At ScienceBlogs I defend free speech as an American cultural peculiarity which should be defended, not a human universal right (it simply isn’t empirically): … Though seriously, I’m expressing a very cultural biased viewpoint here, an American one, and I’m … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , | 19 Comments