by Carl Howard | May 4, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Atrocities and Oppression, Blog Topics, Interesting Stuff, Philosophy, Society
Anatoly Wasserman is one of the most famous public intellectuals in Russia today. He is essentially a genius with some astronomical IQ who largely taught himself entire fields of knowledge. He first came to fame in 1989 for being an unbeatable contestant on Soviet...
by Carl Howard | Apr 29, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Science and Skepticism
Atomic theory is pseudoscience. It is completely unproven: nobody has ever observed an “atom” under laboratory conditions. Rationalisations like track marks in “particle” colliders are little more than ad hoc excuses. Atomic theory is inconsistent with physics, that...
by Carl Howard | Apr 27, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Philosophy
There seems to be an interesting relationship between a key puzzle in metaethics and a key puzzle about consciousness. In the field of metaethics, the main aim is generally to propose a theory of what it means for something to be moral, with justification. (It is the...
by Carl Howard | Apr 19, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Science and Skepticism
Video Link By now you’re probably familiar with the tide-goes-in-tide-goes-out memes. If so, skip to “What you might not know”. If you’ve been under a rock, here’s a quick description. So, David Silverman (the president of the American Atheists) is appearing on...
by Carl Howard | Apr 6, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Resources, Food and Environment
One of my Facebook friends recently posted this status: “if there was as much enthusiasm for curing cancer or ending child poverty as there is for the latest gadgets the world would be a better place”. My gut reaction was to agree. I mean, it’s probably a feeling most...
by Carl Howard | Mar 22, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Race, Society
Yesterday I posted about how compassion can be problematic in philanthropy. The “don’t donate to Japan” clusterfuck is a great example. It started with Good Intentions Are Not Enough suggesting that people wait to donate to Japan, to see if and how much is needed and...
