Bill Moyers thoughtfully analyzed this distinction in tompaine.com. He describes the access our legislators give to special moneyed interests: The total spent per month by special interests wining, dining, and seducing federal officials is now nearly $200 million. Per month. Moyers writes that this huge legalized bribe is "a small investment on the return,"…
A logical argument, known as a syllogism, looks like this: PREMISE 1: All dogs have wet noses. PREMISE 2: Max is a dog. CONCLUSION: Max has a wet nose. Easy, right? Now, let's see what happens when we remove one of the premises: PREMISE 1: All…
I love that there are people like Erich Vieth in the world, people who take the time to refute dangerous “fact” spouters like the Creationists who got themselves powered up to the top of the Google listings for vestigial organs. I love that he researches so thoroughly and carefully points out the enormous flaws in what passes for logic in the world of the fanatical faithful. They need to be pointed out, those flaws. Because in recent years, their voices have become very, very loud. And often, unfortunately, loud wins. Especially when loud is accompanied by legislation, or worse, explosives.
Seems fanatics, whether they be Christian, Muslim or otherwise, are dead-set on yelling the loudest and therefore claiming victory. It pains me. It obviously pains lots of people; even most flocks of the faithful can see that anything carried too far becomes dangerous. People like Erich, or Al Franken, say, do good work. I applaud them.
I, on the other hand, might be more likely to just cover my ears and say “la-la-la-la-LA-I-CAN’T-HEAR-YOU!”
Yeah, yeah, I know, not particularly effective in the battle against ignorance. It’s just that I get soooo tired of it. Of the fighting, of the rhetoric, of the nonsense that parades as so much religion and the often arrogant verbosity working to knock down the many points of faith, one at a time, but not being heard because, after all, if you believe, you don’t need proof. Or un-proof, as it were.
I happen …
Here’s a partial list: Wings on flightless birds. Small Leg bones on modern whales. Eyes that are found in blind animals such as Astyanax fasciatus (a species of fish) and moles. Because I wanted to know more about these useless animal parts, I checked some popular creationist web sites: Investigating…
As part of his Easter homily, Pope Benedict XVI invoked evolution in describing Christ’s resurrection: If we may borrow the language of the theory of evolution, it is the greatest ‘mutation,’ absolutely the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history…