Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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- The Anticipation of Unintended Consequences
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Meta
Category Archives: Atheism
Links and Comments: Derek Muller and the Beauty of Nihilism
Via, a lovely video by YouTube vlogger Derek Muller, who runs a channel called Veritasium — “a channel of science and engineering videos featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science”. “The first principle … Continue reading
James Morrow: We’re not tourists on this planet, we’re citizens
Many thoughts resonate with me in the James Morrow interview in the June issue of Locus, which I excerpted here. E.g., That’s the great gift of the 18th-century Enlightenment, that insistence on a conversation that must never stop, a conversation … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Culture, Evolution, Personal history, Quote at Length
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Links and Comments: Balancing the budget; the existential threat of atheists
Balancing the federal budget has a simple-minded, intuitive appeal, but it’s not actually necessary. The nation is not a family; and even families don’t balance their budgets from year to year. (E.g. mortgages.) Vox: Families don’t balance their budgets, and … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Audiences Cheering and Egging Them On; Christian persecution and criminalization; Why people doubt science
It’s been widely observed that the Internet has allowed like-minded people of all stripes to find each other, create online communities, and reinforce each others opinions and prejudices, in increasingly specific bubbles of interests and ideologies. But the visibility of … Continue reading
Links and Comments: The Secular Life; Anti-Vax conspiracy theories; demonizing political opponents; the hell of heaven
A couple days ago NYT op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote Building Better Secularists, in which he presumes to instruct those who do not share his religious beliefs how they are obliged to construct the social infrastructure that religion would otherwise … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Michael Shermer, Science and God, Religion vs Education, Your soul
Michael Shermer’s new book As mentioned a couple posts ago, Michael Shermer has a new book out this week (I got my copy yesterday), The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom, which addresses … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Mostly about the Evils of Religion, Not to Put Too Fine a Point on It
Tonight, many links and comments about religion, especially on this day when thin-skinned Muslim terrorists murdered French journalists who had dared to insult their omniscient, omnipotent god by drawing mocking cartoons about Muhammad. Some of the reaction has been to … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Good News about the state of the world; cultural concepts; science; religion and fantasy
Catching up on links and comments from the past three weeks or so, given the holiday lapse. * First some Good News: Slate: Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack: The World Is Not Falling Apart In the world is getting more … Continue reading
Phil Zuckerman, Living the Secular Life
Subtitled: New Answers to Old Questions. This is a book that addresses the growing trend of non-religious people especially in the US, and how they live their lives without the assumptions that the faithful think are necessary for living a … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Book Notes, Culture, Humanism, Quote at Length, Religion
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Arthur C. Clarke: Two Religious Explorations
Arthur C. Clarke is, of course, the British SF writer (who lived much of his life in Sri Lanka) most famous for the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as several other of the most popular and … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Atheism, Religion
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