Since the trial in Dover, PA over Intelligent Design, it must be obvious hat nothing was really settled other than a specific legal question. I think it would be a good idea for every one interested in this issue to find and read the decision handed down by the judge. …
The Missouri legislature is entertaining a bill that would require a signed permission from a student's parent(s) before the student may receive sex education. A few weeks ago, while listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR, I learned that, according to recent polls, Americans exhibit NO MAJORITY CONSENSUS on the…
Erich’s post about George Washington and not prejudging the opposition reminded me of a superb essay written by Benjamin Franklin about Native Americans, titled: “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” (1784). The essay is reproduced below and I think it illustrates why Mr. Franklin is considered one of America’s most important individuals.
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Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.
Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness.
The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors, when old, counselors; for all their government is by counsel of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and base; and the learning, on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of this occurred at …
I just finished reading Michael Shermer's book, "Why People Believe Weird Things." It's very long-winded -- the book could easily be 1/10th its size and still make the same points -- but it did make me realize one thing. The book discusses alien abduction as an example of a weird…
Many people think that they are motivated to act morally by reference to a set of external rules. Not me. Although rules direct our attention to various problem-solving strategies, there are so many rules (and so many interpretations of rules) that people can easily "justify" almost any behavior by reference to…