Category: Musing

  • What would it take?

    I saw this somewhere on the Internet a few days ago and have since forgotten the source.  But it’s so elegant that I want to spread the meme.  Plus, a post on Friendly Atheist reminded me again. “What would it take to convince you that you’re wrong?” That one sentence is all you need to…

  • Willing to be wrong

    From Skepchick: I love that most everyone here is willing to be wrong about everything. Through disagreements, we are able to see our views reflected back at us and change them if necessary. Or, even if they don’t change, we may gain insight into just why we hold a particular view. That’s how I try…

  • Turns out God doesn’t want dead animals

    Jesus died for our sins.  Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world.  As much as that was repeated to me growing up, and as innocently as I believed it, I never really comprehended how it could work.  Why should killing God produce any positive effect at all?  Wouldn’t that be rather a…

  • What Science is(n’t)

    Stolen from the blinkenlights box : Science is not–I repeat, not–a method for finding out the "truth" about anything. Without going into a great deal of detail, I would characterize science as a methodology that allows us to test our beliefs about how nature behaves with how nature actually behaves and to derive laws and…

  • Purpose

    Photo credit: Phil Moore Everyone writes their own story of life. A staggering number of people choose to create a story where meaning comes from an external governor, a deus ex machina. A common conclusion of these folk is that non-theists, lacking this (arbitrary) anchor, must be adrift in life without purpose, moral values, or…

  • No, really– why are we here

    The title of my first post was meant to sound profound and then be answered in a strictly literal sense about why we are “here” as in “on this web site”. Having slighted you so soon in our readership relationship, I feel I should at least give the profound subject some attention. Fortunately, I like…

  • Why are we here

    (Photo credit: the gordons) I spent rather a long time contemplating the creation of this site. There seem to be many good reasons not to bother, including but not limited to: What do I have to say that merits reading; hasn’t everything of value been expressed before, by my intellectual and literary superiors? Aren’t I…