Exercise great caution when peeling back the skin of life.

As human animals, we are condemned to live with great ignorance in an unpredictably violent world.  To compensate, most of us work hard to develop an extraordinary expertise to protect ourselves from considering our precarious existence.  We work hard to pre-screen toxic thoughts.  We rarely contemplate our own inevitable deaths, for example.  We are often successful at protecting ourselves from real-life things that would terrify us if we dared to squarely consider them.

Once in a while, though, we get a terrifying glimpse of unvarnished reality.  For instance, we sometimes suddenly realize that we are affixed to that Conveyor Belt of Life, a “belt” that inexorably moves us toward a time when we will be old if we’re lucky, then lifeless.  Whenever this terrible thought brings shivers, we quickly change channels to consider something less macabre.  Yet we are all strapped onto that Conveyor Belt, even our precious young children.  In 150 years, everyone currently living on Earth will be dead.  It is difficult to conjure up more disturbing thoughts.

What other toxic thoughts occur when our mental guard is down?  How about the thought that we are not meaningfully different from each other.  Or that the world is full of mobile intestinal tracts–walking talking intestinal tracts.  Or that our bodies are rife with parasites. And that we are animals. Or that we are breathing, thinking meat, a point directly yet elegantly made by a touring entourage of corpses known as BodyWorlds.  And here’s another toxic truth most of …

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James Dobson: God would be justified destroying entire cities

Why would God be justified destroying an entire city right now?  Because we're bad.  How do you know we're bad?  Because of lesbian sex. How do we learn all of this?  Because when minister John MacArthur says so, James Dobson nods in approval.  For more, see Crooks and Liars.  Here…

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What turns children into science-resistant adults?

In the May 18, 2007 edition of Science (available only to subscribers online), Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg consider why so many adults resist science.  They cite a 2005 Pew Trust poll finding that 42% of people believe that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning…

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New journal for aspiring creationists: International Journal of Creation Research

It’s called the International Journal for Creation Research.  I would call it The-Draw-The-Curve-Then-Plot-The-Data-Journal.   After all, the end result is already guaranteed.  It’s just a matter of getting out into the field to drum up evidence to support this foregone conclusion, no matter how tenuous.  The Journal is sponsored by the Institute…

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Nakedness For A Better World

Have you ever noticed that certain people who drive Very Large Vehicles tend to drive slower than everyone else?  I followed a 4X4 pick-up truck of epic proportions this morning and the driver crawled along at just under 25 miles an hour on a 35 mph street.  He--there's only one…

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