Category Archives: Morality

Links and Comments: Politics and Ideology; About Changing One’s Mind

Posted on Monday 4 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Politics and Ideology: This theme has been around for some time: Republican economic policies rely on ideologies (ideas about government non-interference, about individual freedom, about the moral turpitude of the poor, etc.), while the actual evidence shows that the country’s … Continue reading →

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A Month’s Worth of Links and Comments

Posted on Friday 1 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

New York Times, March 20: In the Age of Information, Specializing to Survive The Internet makes it easy to learn almost anything. And yet And yet, even as the highbrow holy grail — the acquisition of complete knowledge — seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Culture, Economics, Evolution, MInd, Morality, Narrative, Psychology, Religion, Science, The Gays | Comments Off on A Month’s Worth of Links and Comments

Links and Comments: Still Climbing

Posted on Friday 13 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik, Obama and the Cruaders. Parsing faith, fanaticsm , liberalism, pluralism. Bad acts may rise from good causes: faith may never be the enemy; fanaticism is always the enemy. But faith has always been the first … Continue reading →

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Links and Quotes: Science and Humanities; Babies; American Exceptionalism

Posted on Wednesday 4 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Science and the Humanities For decades, ever since C.P. Snow characterized the Two Cultures of science and humanities, debates have raged about the divisions between the two. Recently writer Leon Wieseltier posted a screed in the New York Times Book … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Michael Shermer, Science and God, Religion vs Education, Your soul

Posted on Monday 2 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Evolution, Morality, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Michael Shermer, Science and God, Religion vs Education, Your soul

10 Provisional Conclusions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence

Posted on Sunday 25 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Inspired by my post last night about A Secular Ten Non-Commandments, and the book’s invitation to generate one’s own set of beliefs, I sat down today to write out my own response… not of *commandments* (who am I, or anyone, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Ten Commandments | Comments Off on 10 Provisional Conclusions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence

A Secular Ten Non-Commandments

Posted on Saturday 24 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I started this book before the holidays, but what with the holidays and since then attention to the buying of one house and the selling of another, only just finished it a couple days ago, though it’s rather short. This … Continue reading →

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Links and Quotes: Michael Shermer, Ian McEwan

Posted on Monday 19 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon has an excerpt from Michael Shermer’s forthcoming book, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom (Henry Holt, January 20th). Today, of course, most Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe that moral principles are … Continue reading →

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