by Carl Howard | Sep 8, 2008 | Atrocities and Oppression, Blog Topics, Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Skepticism
You’re driving 6km over the limit, get pulled over and receive a ticket for $2,500,000,000,000. You go to court. “I plead guilty, but what’s with the typo?” “Typo?” asks the judge. “It says I’ve been fined $2.5 trillion.” “You have.” You start swearing & are...
by Carl Howard | Aug 24, 2008 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy, Science and Skepticism
Since evolution is taught badly in schools (and few go on to learn it at uni), we have misconceptions. One is that evolution is “for the good of the species”, with each species becoming refined as a whole. Not true: evolution doesn’t necessarily cause a whole species...
by Carl Howard | Aug 12, 2008 | Atheism and Religion, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Science and Skepticism
Heard a very good point on a Mindcore episode: Biblical literalists require a stronger belief in evolution than the most “radical atheist scientist”. If Noah’s ark had only 1 pair of each kind, the speed of evolution required to get some of the variation that exists...
by Carl Howard | Jul 29, 2008 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, Sex
Not bisexuals who are agnostic; the agnosticism (or rather denialism) about the existence of bisexuals. I’m constantly amazed people still deny this. To me it’s not different to denialism of Copernicanism, evolution, global warming, relativity, AIDS etc. Except unlike...
by Carl Howard | Jun 5, 2008 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Philosophy, Race, Science and Skepticism
It’s common to think of the idea that babies are caused by sex as sort of the ultimate Obvious Idea. When someone wants to make fun of another’s naivety or ignorance they will sometimes quip “he/she thinks babies come from storks”. This concept even gets the grandiose...
by Carl Howard | Apr 27, 2008 | Atrocities and Oppression, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Society
It’s very common for people to think the world is getting more violent. See some online examples here. Nothing could be more wrong: The best talk about this Pinker’s: violence has been steadily decreasing for the last few hundred years Surges like the the USA 60s...