Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 3

Posted on Saturday 15 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index)

(Post 1; Post 2)

One chapter for today. This is about where religion came from and what use it is.

*

Ch 5, The Roots of Religion, p161

There are various ideas about the usefulness of religion, but this chapter focuses on the Darwinian imperative—if something exists, it must be ‘good for something’. What is religion ‘good for’? It might be good directly; it might involve group selection; it might involve the ‘extended phenotype’ (e.g. a parasite directing an organism to do something); it might involve memes.

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Conservative Principles vs. Reality

Posted on Friday 14 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Paul Krugman on the decline and fall of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and how it’s always been a fraud;
  • Heather Cox Richardson on how the ideology of MAGA is smashing against reality;
  • Short items about Republicans destroying the safety net, Trump dropping tariffs on countries who give him gifts, how religious groups are safe havens for sexual predators, and conservative predictions that Mamdani will starve NYC;
  • James Greenberg on Facebook expresses salient truths about how modern civilization knows about the ways it’s being undone, but denies them, i.e. about climate change denial.
– – –

How principled conservatism has morphed into “conspiracy-mongering and blatant bigotry.”

Paul Krugman, 14 Nov 2025: The Decline and Fall of the Heritage Foundation, subtitled “Its descent into conspiracy-mongering and blatant bigotry was utterly predictable”
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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 2

Posted on Friday 14 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index)

(Post 1)

Here are the first four chapters (out of ten), which deal with the arguments for and against the existence of God, summarized in 3700 words. Note that Dawkins refers to many other authors and their books, and frequently quotes. I’ll only allude them in passing.

*

1, A Deeply Religious Non-Believer, p9

Einstein quote.

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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 1

Posted on Friday 14 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index)

Of the four books published in the mid-2000s by the so-called “new atheists,” this one by Richard Dawkins was the most blunt and least conciliatory; it was frank, straightforward, and matter of fact. It covers all the basics, such as the arguments for God’s existence and why they are weak or implausible, and the reasons why it’s very unlikely that any god exists; then looks at the history of religion, the source of morality, how the moral zeitgeist has changed over the millennia, and the problems with religion and religious belief.

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Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 1

Intentional Ignorance

Posted on Thursday 13 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Paul Krugman on Republican lies and misrepresentations about health care;
  • Short items about a drop in US religiosity; Trump lying about falling gas prices; David French on how Trump keeps pardoning criminals as long as they’re loyal to him.
– – –

Paul Krugman, 13 Nov 2025: The Republican Brain Doesn’t Want To Understand Health Care, subtitled “For 15 years we have heard the same lies and misrepresentations”
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Discipline, Lies, Ignorance, and Consensus Truth

Posted on Wednesday 12 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich on undisciplined Democrats and regimented Republicans;
  • Squaring that with Mike Johnson’s comments a year and a half ago;
  • Paul Krugman on how Trump successively lies, over and over;
  • How Trump doesn’t understand mortgages or health insurance;
  • Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and the right-wing attacks on consensus truth.
– – –

More catching up, with some longer pieces worth quoting from.

Robert Reich, 12 Nov 2025: Why are Democrats so undisciplined and Republicans so regimented?, subtitled “The asymmetry explained”
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Posted in conservatives, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Discipline, Lies, Ignorance, and Consensus Truth

Cruelty, Nonsense, and Reality-Checks

Posted on Wednesday 12 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Paul Krugman says Trump knew full well how his Great Gatsby-themed party looked just as millions of Americans were about to lose federal food assistance — the cruelty is the point;
  • Short items about church/state separation; how “God’s authority” is not a legal defense; Mar-A-Lago Face requests; firing investigators targeting your friends; what “great red cities”?; Trump pranked; Obergefell; Trump doesn’t know what a magnet is; Trump thinks people quit their jobs to get SNAP; Trump thinks Mamdani is a communist, with a helpful chart to distinguish various “isms”; Tucker Carlson thinks chemtrails are real, with a helpful response detailing the logistics needed for that to be true; and how Trump thinks talent in the US is lacking.
– – –

Catching up on items in the news from the past week. This sets the tone.

Paul Krugman, 4 Nov 2025: The Big Smirk, subtitled “The cruelty is the point, party edition”
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Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Cruelty, Nonsense, and Reality-Checks

Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 5 (conclusion)

Posted on Tuesday 11 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom”
With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think”

(Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.)

(Post 1, Post 2, post 3, post 4)

\

Now, a final review and some thumbnail summaries. What was this book about again? Happiness? Ancient wisdom? The meaning of life? All of the above? The themes and structure of the book are not crisp enough for me to boil them down without reading through my notes one more time… That’s what I’m doing today, to distill the book down as much as I can.

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Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Meaning, Morality, Philosophy, Psychology | Comments Off on Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 5 (conclusion)

Busy Weekend: Quick Summary

Posted on Monday 10 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Friday I had a PCP (primary healthcare physician) appointment; an annual checkup, though they don’t use that word anymore. Insurance difficulties. Just a 10-minute chat. D Frey had already seen all my blood work. No problems.

On Saturday we did a quick drive from Oakland down to LA, on the I5, to visit Y’s younger son Michael and his wife’s new daughter, Leila, for her 100-day party. A Chinese tradition.

And Sunday morning we drove home, up the I5.

Sunday afternoon we visited the Silverbergs, for a visit and take-out dinner. He had fallen and hurt his hip, and was house-bound. I had never been to their house before. This was a … thrill.

On Saturday, while we were in LA, my contributor copy of the Gary Westfahl anthology with an essay of mine arrived. I posted about this on Facebook, since my own essay is fully visible via Amazon’s “Read Sample” feature.

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The Absence of Empathy

Posted on Friday 7 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m still working this past week on summarizing and assessing the 2006 Jonathan Haidt book THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS. I can’t quite wrap it up today, or soon, because we’re doing a quick trip down and back to LA tomorrow and Sunday, and probably won’t do any posts over the weekend. For now, I’ll note the usual political items.

The story all over the news yesterday and today:

The New Republic, 6 Nov 2025: Trump Just Stands There After Man Collapses During Press Conference, subtitled “One of the guests at Donald Trump’s press conference on weight loss drugs passed out during the event.”

A man appeared to collapse Thursday during a press conference to debut a deal to make those drugs more affordable, while President Donald Trump simply looked on.

As if annoyed that his press conference had been interrupted. Concern? Of course not; that would betray compassion. Trump (and MAGA) is not compassionate, or empathetic.

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