Category Archives: Religion

Religious Zealotry in Science Fiction

Posted on Saturday 8 April 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

There has been a controversy within the SF field over the past few years about how groups called the “sad puppies” and the “rabid puppies”, for various reasons, have mounted campaigns to influence the Hugo Awards nominations. (They succeeded two … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Religion | Comments Off on Religious Zealotry in Science Fiction

Links and Comments: Religious Intellectuals; Lawrence Krauss; Daniel Dennett

Posted on Thursday 30 March 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne asks, Are religious people a bit thick?. He disagrees with someone who claims that many very smart people are also religious. Look at it this way: if someone spent much of their lives worshiping Santa, elves, fairies, or … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Physics, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Religious Intellectuals; Lawrence Krauss; Daniel Dennett

Science v Religion: New v Old

Posted on Tuesday 21 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s another way in which religion and science are unalike. (Aside from one being a deference to the supposed wisdom of the ancients and to primitive myths about the nature of the universe and the centrality of humanity within it; … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion, Science | Comments Off on Science v Religion: New v Old

Links and Comments: Trump’s Lies; Right Wing Media; Christian Education Agenda; Blowfish Fallacy

Posted on Saturday 18 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate’s Will Oremus compiled The Lies, Exaggerations, and Obfuscations That Came Out of Trump’s Mouth While He Called the Media “Dishonest”. Bottom line: When Trump or his advisers say things that aren’t true, it’s not their fault; the real villains … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Trump’s Lies; Right Wing Media; Christian Education Agenda; Blowfish Fallacy

Zuckerman on Evangelical Immorality

Posted on Thursday 16 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Phil Zuckerman on The Immorality Of Evangelical Christians In The Age Of Trump. Donald Trump has proven himself – by the hour – as a cold, heartless lover of lies and hater of humanity. And 81% of white Evangelicals voted … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Religion | Comments Off on Zuckerman on Evangelical Immorality

Link and Comments: science visions; the retrograde government; multiverse; faith; Wars v Trek; California as the future; Haidt on tribalism and the national rift

Posted on Wednesday 8 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

For today here are several links I’ve ‘saved’ on Facebook in recent weeks, with comments. First, Plate Tectonics Movement During the Last 540 Million Years, a cool video animation, from a Facebook group called Geology Wonders, that shows the continents … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Psychology, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Link and Comments: science visions; the retrograde government; multiverse; faith; Wars v Trek; California as the future; Haidt on tribalism and the national rift

Christianity and the Sunk Cost fallacy

Posted on Wednesday 4 January 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

In the Christmas Day issue of the New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof has a chat with the evangelist Christian pastor and author Timothy Keller, asking Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?. Kristof admires the teachings of Jesus but … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, MInd, Religion | Comments Off on Christianity and the Sunk Cost fallacy

Links and Comments: Academia, Creationists, Christians and Trump, Plait on the GOP, Evil, Victims

Posted on Tuesday 5 July 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

From Slate, more on the theme of Why Are There So Few Conservatives in Academia? There are three big reasons that conservatives are hard to find in university faculties: intellectual consistency, anti-science trends by conservatives, and social pressure. On the … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Morality, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Academia, Creationists, Christians and Trump, Plait on the GOP, Evil, Victims

The Orlando Shooter and the Evil of Religious Fundamentalism

Posted on Wednesday 15 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

To put this as concisely as possibly, my take on the Orlando mass-shooting is that it is rooted ultimately in the animus to sexual minorities — a portion of humanity that for whatever reason has *always existed* [see footnote] — … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Religion | Comments Off on The Orlando Shooter and the Evil of Religious Fundamentalism

Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths

Posted on Tuesday 7 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book I had forgotten I had, relatively speaking; I obviously bought it back in 2006 or so, but I didn’t read it right away and so it sat on my shelves among many other books (by Sagan and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths