Monthly Archives: July 2010

Issues and Tactics to Keep in Mind When Debating – Part 3

Posted on July 31, 2010 by

In my two previous posts, I covered a number of “Issues and Tactics”, including Premises, Assumptions, Unstated Major Premise, “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”, Occam’s Razor, Anthropic Principal, Lateral Arguments, Confirmation Bias, Law of Truly Large Numbers, Burden of Proof, … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Skepticism | 8 Comments

Issues and Tactics to Keep in Mind When Debating – Part 2

Posted on July 30, 2010 by

When having any debate there are certain things that must be understood and agreed upon by both sides, at least assuming you want it to be productive and not just an excuse to talk to a wall. In my previous … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Skepticism | 5 Comments

Should religious beliefs trump secular law?

Posted on July 29, 2010 by

I recently saw a link on one of my Facebook friend’s wall, which had a disclaimer warning the reader the link provided, was to a “right wing” website. http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/27/“normal”-domestic-violence-in-morocco-is-a-crime-in-the-united-states/ The site was indeed “right wing” as evidenced by advertisements for … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion | 5 Comments

Prostitution: A proposition

Posted on July 28, 2010 by

We know prostitution as an illegal institution is wrought with corruption.  I’d like to suggest that legalized prostitution can remedy many of these evils, and thus worthy of serious consideration.  The focus is female prostitution because this is the most … Continue reading →

Posted in Debate, Politics | 11 Comments

Should we strive to put atheists, skeptics, free-thinkers into public office?

Posted on July 27, 2010 by

Recently I was listening to a back episode of some podcast and the guest and host both mentioned that they want to see more atheists win political office in the US. It was not a big part of their discussion, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Issues and Tactics to Keep in Mind When Debating

Posted on July 24, 2010 by

When having any debate there are certain things that must be understood and agreed upon by both sides, at least assuming you want it to be productive and not just an excuse to talk to a wall. Since at least … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Skepticism | 4 Comments

As good a way as any other to choose a religion?

Posted on July 23, 2010 by

In a post on my old blog, An open question to all believers, one of the comments, by mykeangelo, included a link to a video on YouTube that I felt was absolutely hilarious and actually seemed to “follow the advice” … Continue reading →

Posted in Debate, Humor, Psychology, Religion | 24 Comments

Alain Nu – Mentalism, Pendulums, and Earthquakes

Posted on July 22, 2010 by

While having dinner and drinks with a few friends late the other evening, a friend of mine mentioned to me about local performer that I’d never heard of named Alain Nu. Although the original context of the conversation had been … Continue reading →

Posted in Magic, Pseudoscience, Skepticism | 4 Comments

Center for Inquiry’s “Religion under Examination” conference: “GOOD WITHOUT GOD”

Posted on July 21, 2010 by

This past weekend, the Center for Inquiry’s Summer Institute 2010, “Religion under Examination,” brought some extremely interesting and intelligent talks by John Shook, Vic Stenger, Ron Lindsay, Edward Tabash, Derek Araujo, and Robert Price.  Topics included: The value of, and case for, secular objective … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 2 Comments

An Open Invitation to PZ Myers

Posted on July 20, 2010 by

For those not aware, PZ Myers is THE science blogger today. His blog, Pharyngula, gets more hits per day than most blogs get in a month, year, lifetime, etc… Recently his blog host, SEED, and more specifically their blogging platform, … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Science, Thinking Critically | 9 Comments

Door To Door Atheists Bother Mormons

Posted on July 18, 2010 by

I originally found this video courtesy of Jack Ash over at Halo of Pain back in March 2008. From what I understand, this clip is from an Australian television show, “John Safran vs God”, which is apparently a combination comedy/documentary … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Religion | 1 Comment

Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort And Bananas

Posted on July 17, 2010 by

—– Originally Posted on my old blog: 1/26/2008 —– This video has been around for a while, but it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on You Tube. In this video, which is an excerpt from their evangelical … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Religion, Science | 19 Comments

Marcus Brigstocke on religion

Posted on July 16, 2010 by

I originally found comedian Marcus Brigstocke two years ago when I first began my old blog, Rodibidably. At the time I had not heard of him, but since then I have listened to much more of his material, and found … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Religion | 1 Comment

A Conversation with Ray Hyman and D.J. Grothe

Posted on July 15, 2010 by

A few months ago National Capitol Area Skeptics (NCAS) presented an award to Ray Hyman. Now I already knew generally who Hyman is; I know the basics of his life and work, and his involvement in the “skeptical movement” (including … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Skepticism | Leave a comment

“Free to be you and me?” …not really – Part I of IV

Posted on July 14, 2010 by

Due to the large scope of this essay and the fact that this is a blog, not a graduate school term paper, I have broken it down into four parts.  For this post, I only include the first: Part I: … Continue reading →

Posted in Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology | 14 Comments

One Thing I Learned From 1980′s Television

Posted on July 13, 2010 by

A-Team, Airwolf, Fall Guy, Greatest American Hero, Hart To Hart, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Magnum P.I., Matlock, Quincy M.E., Remington Steele, Simon And Simon, Spencer For Hire What do all of these TV shows have in common? Well, I watched them … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor | 4 Comments

Are christians Bound By Mosaic Law?

Posted on July 12, 2010 by

Often times christians fundamentalists will quote some aspect of the old testament (such as homosexuality being an abomination, the ten commandments, etc) believing in essence that “if it’s in the bible, it must be true and applicable”. To bolster this … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion | 8 Comments

A Quick Disclaimer

Posted on July 11, 2010 by

This will come up in future posts by me (and possibly others here), so I’d like to get this out of the way early. I will from time to time refer to certain groups of people in a negative manner. … Continue reading →

Posted in Debate, Thinking Critically | Leave a comment

Defining Science

Posted on July 9, 2010 by

As with the previous post describing the differences between how a scientific theory is defined vs a layman’s concept of a theory, this post is designed to lay the groundwork for further discussions on various topics. This post is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 2 Comments

Theory (Scientific vs layman’s definition)

Posted on July 8, 2010 by

This post is not going to get into the specific controversy I have in mind; it will lay the groundwork, stating the differences between how a science theory is defined vs a layman’s concept of a theory. In laying this … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 12 Comments