Secular, Social, Scientific
Olaf Simons: Rumours have it that you are planning a temporary Facebook abstinence – can it be? Hashem Al-Ghaili: Yes, that’s right. Due to work pressure, I have to quit Facebook temporarily for a couple of months. I think that’s what... Read More | Share it now!
With the Crimean Referendum to be held tomorrow this might be the day for a second political bet on this site. There is a beautiful Wikepdia article on it. Where I stand? – geographically here. Our village was surrounded by borders, they have... Read More | Share it now!
I do not remember for how long we had been avid readers of the newspapers. Of course, we would discuss them (more or less openly), yet basically most of us had been nothing but recipients for centuries. 17th- and 18th-century papers had been fed with... Read More | Share it now!
The following lines will exploit the interview Tom Phillips gave to people from Infants on Thrones – The Philosophies of Men, Mingled with Humor (a website whose very title betrays a complex interest Mormon creeds). The interview appeared only... Read More | Share it now!
I jump (from here) to another religion which will allow us to focus on one of the side aspects we have been discussing thus far rather indirectly. The British Telegraph has been reporting on the legal procedures against Thomas S. Monson, president of... Read More | Share it now!
The debate was – as could be expected (see my posting before the debate) – neither apt to widen our knowledge about evolution nor, and that is far more precarious, nor did it shed much more light on Ken Ham’s creationism. Nye gave his view on why... Read More | Share it now!
Watch it as long as it is available – and give us your opinions! ... Read More | Share it now!
Your posting, Sören, raises two fundamental questions for someone interested in the theories of knowledge at stake here. Is there a democratic way to decide what is right and wrong in the field of knowledge? And if there is not: Do democracies still... Read More | Share it now!
Whoever claims that he is giving the Bible a literal reading is either a modern historian who is interested in concepts quite different from his own, or intellectually insincere. The text of Genesis 1 is straight. God created the earth, he separated... Read More | Share it now!
Modern creationists tend to insinuate that they do basically share the beliefs with medieval and early modern authors. That is easier said than done. The very word creationism would not have crossed a Newton’s or a Locke’s mind – though Newton... Read More | Share it now!
US statistics 2012: 46% support creationism. Source Gallup http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx Discussing creationism with pupils and students is usually difficult. US teachers are, as far as I can see, all too... Read More | Share it now!
The fact that someone from richarddawkins.net should speak against such interviews has of course an ironic twist. The titular saint of that site Dawkins himself has, as far as I can see, never resisted the temptation to venture such a... Read More | Share it now!
Probably our picture of the year: Chinese eco-positivism: Beijing, January 23, 2013, An LED screen shows the blue sky on the Tiananmen Square at dangerous levels of air pollution. Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images and they have variants as the truth is... Read More | Share it now!
Lets not pretend positivists of the “Republic of the West” can avoid Christmas. They can’t and they love it just as they love all the traditions they overcome by assimilating them. Here are my tips how to delight your beloved (or how... Read More | Share it now!
On special request. In case you have an atheist, rationalist or otherwise innovative website you can get the positivist calendar’s date with a bit of code you will have to insert. Here is the script. Paste into the header: <script... Read More | Share it now!
Quote from the page: This website aspires to be a beautiful and interactive resource for skeptics and believers alike to explore some of the more negative aspects of holy books. It was heavily inspired by the Reason Project’s poster of biblical... Read More | Share it now!
This strange website reminds me of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was a pupil back then and could spend afternoons at a local lake near Munich, close my eyes and almost sense the imminent blast. What would happen? How many would die in an instant?... Read More | Share it now!
…Some more thoughts referring back to my last post and to the new Oxford Union Society’s video of Mehdi Hasan’s defense of Islam as a religion that does not allow the general defamation of all Moslems. What I would do if I were a... Read More | Share it now!
Posted yesterday by Al Jazeera English on YouTube: Mehdi Hasan talking with Canadian author Irshad Manji in Head to Head at the Oxford Union. Irshad Manji published The Trouble with Islam Today and Allah, Liberty and Love on the need to reform... Read More | Share it now!
This short tweet surprised me in its sharpness @paperstargirl True only, right? People apply the normative argument when it does not concern them. Positivist when it does. @mahekoholic — Aashish C (@c_aashish) April 1, 2013 I opened a twitter... Read More | Share it now!