Tag Archives: religion

The Grand Inquistor

mary_wroth got tickets to the The Grand Inquisitor, a one-act play at the New York Theater Workshop based on the only chapter of The Brothers Karamazov that I liked (Part II, Book 5, Chapter 5), in which Christ returns to … Continue reading

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The scientist versus the creationists

’55 ‘Origin of Life’ Paper Is Retracted Homer Jacobson taught my first-semester progamming course at Brooklyn College in 1983 — for which I wrote PL/I on punch cards and waited as long as 45 minutes for my jobs to run … Continue reading

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The God Delusion — Richard Dawkins

This is not the book to read if you want an overview of the philosophical underpinnings of atheism. Dawkins reviews them superficially, without adding anything new and without acknowledging the subtleties of the various positions. But part of his point … Continue reading

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With God On Our Side

bobhowe pointed me to an article in the Times of London that says a study shows, Religous belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today. It’s … Continue reading

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Popes, Infallible and Otherwise

As a recovering Catholic (for better or for worse, one is never an “ex” Catholic any more than one is an “ex” alcoholic), I can’t let the Pope’s passing go without some comment. Let me start with one point. People … Continue reading

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Left, Right and Wrong

Mother Jones this month had a surprisingly refreshing article (use code MJJ9AK to view the whole thing) on the failures of the left, which spoke to me more than almost anything else I’d read on the subject. The central thesis … Continue reading

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Evolution Helps Creationists

Evolutionary historian Edward Larson says that natural selection favors evangelicals and other religious extremists, who tend to have large families, over the rest of us, who don’t: But among white, middle-class Americans, religious people are having children at a much … Continue reading

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Meanwhile, in other alternate realities…

My attempts to have a rational conversation with my right-wing acquaintance the other night failed utterly, of course, running inevitably into the glazed stare of the True Believer. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a new book, Debunked, which is a … Continue reading

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