Facts change, people don’t. Alan Kay, a pioneering computer scientist, defined technology as “anything that was invented after you were born.”
For many of us, this definition of technology captures the whiz-bang innovations of the Web browser and the iPad: anything that appeared recently and is different from what we are used to. Science Meets Religion. Anaïs Nin on Why Understanding the Individual is the Key to Understanding Mass Movements. Are You Being Honest With Yourself? : Starts With A Bang. The Power of Admitting "I'm Wrong" : Starts With A Bang. “Truth is mighty and will prevail.
There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.” -Mark Twain “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” How to Dispel Your Illusions by Freeman Dyson. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 499 pp., $30.00 In 1955, when Daniel Kahneman was twenty-one years old, he was a lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces.
He was given the job of setting up a new interview system for the entire army. The purpose was to evaluate each freshly drafted recruit and put him or her into the appropriate slot in the war machine. Unified theory of the crank : denialism blog. A crank is defined as a man who cannot be turned. - Nature, 8 Nov 1906 Here at denialism blog, we’re very interested in what makes people cranks.
Not only how one defines crankish behavior, but literally how people develop unreasonable attitudes about the world in the face of evidence to the contrary. Our definition of a crank, loosely, is a person who has unreasonable ideas about established science or facts that will not relent in defending their own, often laughable, version of the truth. Central to the crank is the “overvalued idea”. Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot.
Jared Soares for The New York Times At a Roanoke County, Va., meeting, dozens opposed the county's paying $1,200 to a nonprofit.
They are showing up at planning meetings to denounce bike lanes on public streets and smart meters on home appliances — efforts they equate to a big-government blueprint against individual rights. “Down the road, this data will be used against you,” warned one speaker at a recent Roanoke County, Va., Board of Supervisors meeting who turned out with dozens of people opposed to the county’s paying $1,200 in dues to a nonprofit that consults on sustainability issues. Local officials say they would dismiss such notions except that the growing and often heated protests are having an effect. In Maine, the Tea Party-backed Republican governor canceled a project to ease congestion along the Route 1 corridor after protesters complained it was part of the United Nations plot.
Tom DeWeese, the founder of the American Policy Center, a Warrenton, Va. Membership is rising, Mr. List of conspiracy theories. Illuminati. History.
The sanctimonious bombast of George Gilder : Pharyngula. Yesterday, I was reading a good article in the October 2004 issue of Wired: “The crusade against evolution”, by Evan Ratliff.
It gives far more column space to the voices of the Discovery Institute than they deserve, but the article consistently comes to the right conclusions, that the Discovery Institute is “using scientific rhetoric to bypass scientific scrutiny.” Gilder: still wailing over his spanking : Pharyngula. Oh, come on, Boston Globe.
They tip-toed around, avoiding naming me or the weblog, but I think everyone here can figure out what they’re talking about. Yet even Gilder, seemingly a lightning rod for the socioeconomic controversy of the moment, was blistered by the comments posted on a University of Minnesota biologist’s weblog last fall, language so heated Gilder’s daughter felt obliged to rush to his defense.
Awww. Poor baby. Jason Lisle is a dipstick, therefore I can use him to check my oil levels. Aw, poopy…there I go again, getting my words all mixed up.
Where did this (extremely understandable) error come from? Let’s check the dictionary: dipstick. Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0. How To Be Emotionally Stable: A Cosmic Melody. Donating = loving Brain Pickings remains ad-free and takes hundreds of hours a month to research and write, and thousands of dollars to sustain.
If you find any joy and value in it, please consider becoming a Member and supporting with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner: (If you don't have a PayPal account, no need to sign up for one – you can just use any credit or debit card.) You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount: Prattyasamutpda. Pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद; Pali: पटिच्चसमुप्पाद paṭiccasamuppāda) is commonly translated as dependent origination or dependent arising.
The term is used in the Buddhist teachings in two senses: On a general level, it refers to one of the central concepts in the Buddhist tradition—that all things arise in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions.On a specific level, the term is also used to refer to a specific application of this general principle—namely the twelve links of dependent origination. Etymology[edit] Are Liberals really more likely to accept science than conservatives Part II? : denialism blog. About a month ago I asked if denialism is truly more frequent on the right or is it that the issues of the day are ones that are more likely to be targets of right wing denialism?
After all, one can think of slightly more left wing sources of denialism like GMO paranoia, 9/11 conspiracies, altie-meds, and toxin fear-mongering. The mental heuristics that cause people to believe, and then entrench themselves, in nonsense seem generalizable to humanity rather than just those attracted to conservative politics. Why should those who identify as liberal be any different?
Wouldn’t they just believe in nonsense with a liberal bias? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say. About Us A Skeptical Manifesto. Skepfeeds-The Best Skeptical blogs of the day. Robert Green Ingersoll Official Website. What is Philosophy? An Omnibus of Definitions from Prominent Philosophers.
By Maria Popova “Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care to be interested in.” Last week, we explored how some of history’s greatest minds, including Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Isaac Asimov, defined science. Kant famously considered philosophy the “queen of the sciences” — whether or not that is true, philosophy seems even more elusive than science to define. Omniism. New-Age Religious Use[edit] Omniism is a religious view that adopts the idea of Quantum superposition into an actively questioning agnosticism in a way that results in a philosophy similar to Quakers and the Society of Friends, but with no affiliation, real or stated, to any branch of any existing religion (as Quakers are with Christianity and Protestantism) beyond Its follower's personal decisions.
Its core philosophy is that all religions may be correct and incorrect in their views of the structure of the universe concurrently. It allows and encourages the Omniist to explore all possible religious systems of belief and practice as though they were true, but asks that they be approached with skepticism. People who subscribe to Omniism as their religious view practice their personal religious beliefs as they see fit based on their observation and adaptation of their explorations into religious systems. The Zeitgeist Movement. Religious pluralism. Religious pluralism is an attitude or policy regarding the diversity of religious belief systems co-existing in society. What is Pluralism? Buddhism. Religion founded by the Buddha Buddhism (, ) is an Indian religion based on a series of original teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha.
It originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. It is the world's fourth-largest religion[3] with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists.[6] Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on the Buddha's teachings (born Siddhārtha Gautama in the 5th or 4th century BCE) and resulting interpreted philosophies.
The Clergy Project - Home Page.