Monthly Archives: September 2011
My Son’s God Homework
Below are a few fill-in questions (with answers) from tonight’s Social Studies homework assignment for my 6th-grade son. His class is reading about the Fertile Crescent and specifically Judaism. He was to read his text and fill in the blanks. … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Envisioning Nouns: Science
Elementary grammar teaches us that nouns fall into two groups: Concrete Nouns vs. Abstract Nouns. But the line between these categories is not as fixed as we are told. We divide up the world for practical reasons but our categories … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Depth Deception
Some adults are afraid to walk over sidewalk grates even though they know they are secure. This is understandable in children, but the brain hangs on to a fear of depth no matter what your rational mind thinks. Likewise, for … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Country Music: God vs. Jesus
Christianity is the default religion of Country Music. But I was wondering if a survey of Country lyrics would illustrate something interesting about American Christianity. For as I listen to Country, I often hear “God” used, whereas I don’t hear … Continue reading
Filed under Religion
Nice Buddhist Ethics
Well, Jewish ethics can be pretty harsh (see my post). But Buddhist Ethics are much more nice. “Right livelihood, Right Speech, Right conduct” — who can beat the sila? (also see my diagram) In the light of that Jewish stuff, … Continue reading
Harsh Jewish Ethics
Let’s admit it — people can be real bad. So it is important to have rules to contain badness. All religions have moral rules to constrain their people. Jews have a very restrictive 613 commandments (Mitzvot). And Yahweh (the horrible … Continue reading
Medical Skepticism
UnOrthodox Skepticism I thought I’d share an interesting web site I just found called “What’s the Harm?” which has a subtitle saying, “368,379 people killed, 306,096 injured and over $2,815,931,000 in economic damages”. The site has fantastic examples of the … Continue reading
Filed under Medicine
Stop Comment Hierarchy !
Comment hierarchy is a favorite of blogging newbies and even a few experienced bloggers. Look at a comment thread with hierarchy and try to read it — does it make sense? Probably not. If no one comments on your blog, … Continue reading
Filed under Blogging
Homeopathy as a Science
Hundreds of millions of people are followers of homeopathy — practitioners and patients alike. Are they all complete idiots? I don’t think so. They may be wrong in most things, but classifying them as idiots invites huge misunderstandings. This is … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Discussing Science
I love Science and feel it is one of humankind’s paramount accomplishments. Yet, like every thing touched by people, it can be hijacked, perverted, and manipulated to thus become a word associated with the worst of humanity. So when the … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Religion, Science
A Nebulous Way-of-Knowing
Motivated by a recent debate, I decided to try to sketch what I value in my mental life. All four colored circles in my model represent important mental skills which I highly value: Epistemological Humility (EH): Deep doubting of … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
