'Critical Thought' Archive
“Everyone Believes in Something”
Three simple words. "No, they don't." A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a former CUT member who I hadn't ...
Comments: Life is Short and Christianity is Logically Impossible
Two brilliant comments will have to fill in for me today since I'm having an incredibly busy week. And really, I couldn't have said it better. ...
Oxford Theologian Giles Fraser Folds Intellectual Tent
Giles Fraser, a lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford, has decided that theism is not a premise that can be defended intellectually. In an article on Ekklesia ...
Morality: Neither Scripture Nor Nihilism
Atheists are often accused of being moral nihilists. It's one of the leading smear tactics believers and bigots use against us. Russian Chief Rabbi Berel ...
Why Science “Sucks” (Is Damned Inconvenient)
Why Science "Sucks" (Is Damned Inconvenient)
Nice piece from Wired on the sad state of the public perception of science. Though I disagree with the idea that science can't handle ...
The Sadomasochism of “Hard As Nails”
There's only one word for what unordained Catholic minister Justin Fatica does, and that's sadomasochism. Not in a sexual sense, of course, but in the sense ...
John Haught’s Cliche-Ridden Caricature of Atheism
It's another groaner over at Salon. After their inexplicable dalliance with the confused ramblings of Camille Paglia, it's hard to pretend anymore that the webzine ...
New Comment Guidelines: Exhibit A
I hate having to ban commenters. It's a last resort. But the alternatives are:
Spending precious minutes addressing bad arguments that have been rebutted countless times.
Leaving unrebutted fallacies at the end ...
A Freshman Summary of Every Naive Faith Argument
I ran across this gem by freshman Sharon Neely this morning at the Tufts Daily. It would be nice to think such a person would go through college and ...
The Home Schooling Question
[UPDATE 11.01.07: From some of the comments, it's clear this should have been two separate stories. There are really two separate problems with home schooling. The ...
Al-Kafir Akbar: A Denialist Digs Himself In Deeper
It's on. As a staunch defender of the mainstream scientific consensus on AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming), which has recently been reaffirmed by the decisions of the ...
The Tyranny of Belief: Part 2
Continued from Part 1.
Beliefs fall into four main categories: opinions, predictions, superstitions, and strategies. In the first post of this series, we made the distinction ...
The Tyranny of Belief: Part 1
"Of course you have beliefs," said my friend as we sat having breakfast, "everyone does." He made a graph on the table with a ...
The Mind Shuts When There’s No Evidence
In a commentary in USA Today called "Secularists, What Happened to the Open Mind?," Tom Krattenmaker takes secularists to task for "leaving their critical thinking at the door" regarding ...
Look Ma, No Ego!
After my initial recent correspondence with an Eckhart Tolle fan (previous post), I began a dialog with some of my close associates. We were wondering ...
Eckhart Tolle In My Mail
I received the following email from a former CUT member recommending I read the latest (2005) Eckhart Tolle book A New Earth. I think the ...
Margaret Somerville’s Other Ways of Knowing
Margaret Somerville's Other Ways of Knowing from ottawacitizen.com
Reason is the primary "way of knowing" in science and it is fundamental to the scientific method that produces scientific knowledge. ...
The Kingdom of Reason
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of reason. Everyone who lived there understood the principles of logic and only based their conclusions on the ...
IOT Part 4: The Misanthropy of Religion
Independence of Thought series Part 4: The Misanthropy of Religion
In The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker, there's an appendix called Donald E. Brown’s List of Human ...
Atheist ‘Metaphysics’ and Religious Equivocation
The diagram represents the "Knowledge Paradigm" of science. It says simply and visually:
We have a very limited scope of knowledge. Everything we do know about ...
IOT: Pain, Fear, and Awe: The Human Motivations Toward Religion
Independence of Thought series: Part 3: Pain, Fear, and Awe: The Human Motivations Toward Religion
Now lets examine what factors form the primary human motivations toward religion: ...
IOT: Approaches to Interpreting Religious Behavior
Independence of Thought series: Part 2: Approaches to Interpreting Religious Behavior
Religion has been one of the primary sources of questions asked in the human search for ...
Independence of Thought
Since it's July 4th, I'd like to begin by wishing everyone an enjoyable holiday. It's going to be a hot one at 103F (39.4C) here in ...
US juries get verdict wrong in one of six cases
US juries get verdict wrong in one of six cases
So much for US justice: juries get the verdict wrong in one out of six criminal cases and judges ...
Answering Ian Boyne on Atheism
Jamaican journalist Ian Boyne threw down the gauntlet to atheists in this article. His arguments have been made and refuted so many times, it's a ...