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Meta
Author Archives: David Hume
Beliefs as descriptions, and beliefs as identities
Stephen Prothero has a piece up, Hinduism’s caste problem, out in the open. Prothero points out that religionists often use logical constructs to play word games which reinforce their in-group. Caste is not a problem with Hinduism per se, but … Continue reading
The conservative tendency
A blog which some readers may find of interest, Conservative tendency. The most recent post is a bit of a pedantic muddle: I had a friend who was raised in China in the 1970s (the daughter of a general, in … Continue reading
Posted in culture, politics
10 Comments
Atheists may lack essence
Just listened o Paul Bloom, author of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, on a podcast (mp3). He notes that the chain of possession of items impacts how much pleasure we gain out … Continue reading
British multiculturalism in action
Family of ‘Harry Potter’ actress charged with threatening to kill her over boyfriend: The strict Muslim father and brother of “Harry Potter” actress Afshan Azad have been charged with threatening to kill her because she has a boyfriend. Azad, 22, … Continue reading
Must atheists also be liberals?
That’s the topic of this week’s Point of Inquiry, hosted by Chris Mooney. Obviously the answer is no from my perspective, though some Leftist atheists and Rightists religionists would disagree strongly. That being said, from poking around American social science … Continue reading
Worst War Since World War II?
Since the war in the Congo has come up before, Congo war-driven crisis kills 45,000 a month: study: War, disease and malnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every month in a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5.4 million victims in … Continue reading
Free will and morality
In light of recent comments, I thought readers might find this discussion between Joshua Knobe & Roy Baumeister of interest. Please keep in mind that broad swaths of humanity, such as Calvinists and most Sunni Muslims, have nominally rejected free … Continue reading
The value of obnoxious
From the comments: As to the question of obnoxiousness, of course it’s obnoxious, which is to say nothing more than ‘polite society considers it obnoxious’, and for quite the same reason as it’s considered obnoxious to point out that life … Continue reading
Posted in culture, debate
6 Comments
Why not Congo?
John in The Corner: While the horrors in the Congo were going on (i.e., from 1998 to the present) I was a busy worker bee, mixing with Americans of all classes, races, and stations in life, certainly including a good … Continue reading
Do no harm
Social engineering is ridiculous quite often, but this really reads as if it’s out of The Onion, A Best Friend? You Must Be Kidding: “I think it is kids’ preference to pair up and have that one best friend. As … Continue reading