Homosexuality Among Mammals, and Human Families

Posted on Sunday 15 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Several pieces about a recent study that suggests homosexuality evolved among mammalian species to reduce conflict “intrasexual violence”;
  • A review of a book about the nuclear family, which the reviewer suggests doesn’t take alternatives into account.
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There have been reports in various media of a new study of same-sex behavior among mammals, with some entailing speculation about how and why homosexuality would have evolved.

The Conversation, Jenny Graves, 12 Oct 2023: How – and why – did homosexual behaviour evolve in humans and other animals?

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Heather Cox Richardson, Book Bans, and Libraries

Posted on Saturday 14 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Profile of Heather Cox Richardson, and a review of her new book;
  • Several items on book bans in the US;
  • And an item about all the threats to US libraries, not just book bans.
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Profile of Heather Cox Richardson, and a review of her new book.

NY Times, Elisabeth Egan, 12 Oct 2023: Heather Cox Richardson Wants You to Study History, subtitled “The author of “Democracy Awakening” and a popular politics newsletter makes a powerful case for studying the past.”

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Posted in Conservative Resistance, History | Comments Off on Heather Cox Richardson, Book Bans, and Libraries

Human Extinction and Climate Change

Posted on Friday 13 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Émile P. Torres at Salon on the history of ideas about human extinction;
  • The latest data on climate change is scary; September was the hottest month ever.
  • Peter Gabriel’s “I Grieve”.
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The scary thing is that a certain branch of Christians are *looking forward* to this. (See Hemant Mehta item in yesterday’s post.)

Salon, Émile P. Torres, 8 Oct 2023: We’re all gonna die! How the idea of human extinction has reshaped our world, subtitled “For most of human history, we didn’t think the end could possibly happen. These days, we can hardly count the ways.”

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Current Events and Religion

Posted on Thursday 12 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Adam Lee on Israel vs. Hamas, with a series of “yes, but”s, and how religion makes peace impossible;
  • Phil Zuckerman calls for the end of Zionism;
  • With my careful comments about the reasons Americans support Israel;
  • Hemant Mehta on how evangelicals reject climate change;
  • And a visit to a “far-right roadshow,” at which Trump is “God’s anointed one”; these people are part of the same problem as those driving the war in the Middle East.
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Adam Lee presents a good back-and-forth of the talking points surrounding Israel and Hamas and the Palestinians in general.

Adam Lee, OnlySky, 12 Oct 2023: An ouroboros of hate: How religion makes peace impossible

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Planets, Scientific Certainty and Placebos, and Peter Gabriel

Posted on Wednesday 11 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Phil Plait on the history of planetary discovery, since 1992;
  • Flossing and the quest for scientific certainty;
  • How placebos sometimes work;
  • Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street”.
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Good summary of the past thirty years’ discoveries of new planets.

Phil Plait, Scientific American, 6 Oct 2023: The Sky Is Full of Stars—and Exoplanets, Too, subtitled “Of the thousands of stars visible to the eye, only a few hundred are known to have planets. But that number may be far higher in reality”

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Posted in Astronomy, Music, Science | Comments Off on Planets, Scientific Certainty and Placebos, and Peter Gabriel

More Items from Recent Weeks…

Posted on Tuesday 10 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Hemant Mehta’s summary of the “Project 2025” plan by conservatives to turn the nation into a Christian theocracy;
  • The trend in the US of the nonreligious;
  • How drug use doesn’t cause homeless; it’s usually the other way around; and conservative cynicism;
  • Revisiting U2 and Peter Gabriel. Today: “San Jacinto”

I’ve mentioned “Project 2025,” the Heritage Foundation’s plans for dismantling the US government as soon as a Republican gets into the White House again, several times. Here’s a one-stop-shopping summary by Hemant Mehta. (Including a link to the 920-page plan!)

Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, 3 Oct 2023: Project 2025: A Christian Nationalist fever dream that would destroy American democracy, subtitled “The 920-page document details how a future Republican president could turn the nation into a Christian theocracy”

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Numerous Items From Recent Weeks

Posted on Monday 9 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How the worldwide migration crisis is about civil wars and climate change, but also about the internet and smartphones;
  • How the Luddites were not what we think, and why it might be appropriate to be one now;
  • About the new book The Tyranny of the Minority and how Republicans have become an anti-democratic institution;
  • How the Christian panic over “sex trafficking” is misplaced and hypocritical;
  • Heather Cox Richardson about gerrymandering, and how it has led to our current dysfunctional Congress;
  • How disinformation works even in China against Taiwan;
  • Another item about how residents of San Francisco reject the characterization of their city by the right-wing media;
  • An essay by Matthew Walther about book banning and the how to value literature.

NY Times, Ross Douthat, 23 Sep 2023: The Permanent Migration Crisis

Does Douthat really understand why it’s permanent? Well, he identifies what I think are the two obvious factors, but also a couple I hadn’t considered.

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Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Numerous Items From Recent Weeks

The Shifting Sands of Religious Dogma

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Ross Douthat on the swings of dogma within the Catholic Church;
  • Politicians who “textjack” the Bible;
  • Valerie Tarico on 10 thought processes that trip up Christians.

The pieces today echo other recent items: the Veritasium piece (posted on the 5th) on cognitive ease (say something over and over…); Adam Lee’s item about book bans (posted on the 6th) from conservative parents so absolutely certain of their dogma they insist on imposing it upon everyone else; and the item about that obscure Christian text (posted about on the 1st) once popular, now forgotten.

This is from one of NY Times’ conservative columnists.

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NY Times, opinion by Ross Douthat, How the Extraordinary Became Normal in Catholicism

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Deep Questions and Tribal Answers

Posted on Friday 6 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Science fiction and philosophy;
  • The next frontier of book bans;
  • Ken Ham rues the difficulty of indoctrinating children;
  • Paul Krugman on voters, and why conservatives still think the economy is bad.

Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 3 Oct 2023: Apocalypse philosophy: What science fiction teaches us about existence, subtitled “There’s nothing like the end of the world to make you a philosopher.”

Key Takeaways

• The best science fiction presents philosophical thought experiments that make us ask deep questions. • Here, we look at a broad range of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios and isolate four themes common to them. • As it turns out, science fiction has a lot to teach us about existence.

Whenever you see an article like this in a general publication (whether website, newspaper, or magazine), it’s invariably mostly about SF movies and TV. And that’s true here. The few titles that are books are here because they were later made into movies or TV series. Let me see if I can find any exception…? Nope. It’s not that long an article.

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Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Deep Questions and Tribal Answers

Evens and Beginnings

Posted on Thursday 5 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Veritasium on cognitive ease;
  • How the world views the US’s disarray (due invariably to Republicans);
  • How a century ago in France, smelling bad was a good thing; how standards about hygiene have changed;
  • Two WaPo pieces about the decline of life expectancy in the US… due to Republican policies;
  • And an NPR station manager in North Carolina who won’t allow broadcasts of Met operas that she deems non-Biblical.

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Veritasium on Facebook: Cognitive Ease and the Illusion of Truth

Just mention something a few times, and claims you make about it will more likely be believed. Authoritarians and pastors count on this. Here’s the end of the video:

Cognitive ease is useful for being creative and intuitive, but it also makes you more gullible. So, for the written part of your driving test, going with your gut is probably a good strategy. But it areas like physics, where the answers are counter-intuitive and there are many common misconceptions, it’s important to be more skeptical.

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Posted in Music, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Evens and Beginnings