General Science The World According to Genesis: The Flood 11 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 The Flood is perhaps the most scientifically interesting story in Genesis, and it has, in fact, been discussed by scientists for over 400 years. Now we are taking the text to tell us of a world, not taking the world to tell us what to think of the text, but… Continue Reading
Religion Scorecard for the Creationist Wars 11 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 In case you are getting all confused about which creationist organisation ot oppose and why, Duae Quartunciae has an excellent roundup of the present AiG/CMI dispute. Continue Reading
Humor Sunday sermon: part of the in-crowd 10 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 The world is divided, runs the old joke (which I heard when it wasn’t so old), into two kinds: those who divided the world into two kinds, and those who don’t. [There’s actually an interesting feature of the history of logic here that… never mind. Later.] We all, or very… Continue Reading
Logic and philosophy What is an Agnostic? by Bertrand Russell 10 Jun 2007 Bertrand Russell, a leading philosopher in his prime, was also a wonderful writer. And, it appears, many of my views were formed when I was but still Young in the Discipline of Philosophy by reading Russell. Here is an essay (stolen from here) from 1953, when I still was not,… Continue Reading
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Other peoples 8 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 This is the last section I will discuss in detail. It is, of course, the story of Cain and Abel. Cain is a farmer, and Abel is a herdsman. Both of these are agrarian pursuits, in the new agricultural period. But YHWH (just the single name now) seems to value… Continue Reading
Evolution Schadenfreude for AiG 7 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 Schadenfreude , n. Pleasure found in the misfortunes of Answers in Genesis, who employed a pornography actor to play Adam. Well, at least it makes sense – didn’t Adam and Eve fall because they had sex? I’m sure some Baptist told me that once… Continue Reading
Politics Pell causes Catholics stress 6 Jun 2007 Clerical Catholic Imam, George Pell, has done it again. Proven why secularism is a necessity, that is. He has threatened politicians who are Catholics with exclusion from communion, which is not quite excommunication but nevertheless still pretty drastic, if they vote in favour of a secular law permitting stem cell… Continue Reading
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Moral Knowledge 6 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 Like any middle eastern deity, YHWHW Elohim is a fairly petty individual. He doesn’t want competition from his creations, so he blocks access to the “Tree of Life”, which is a magical tree whose fruit can make you live forever. We have two magical trees, a corporeal deity of limited knowledge and good will, a snake that talks and has intentions like any trickster god to thwart the designs of the deity, and a justification for wearing clothes, which is not a matter just of shame, but of intended purpose. Continue Reading
Evolution Genesis 2 rewritten 5 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 It is also likely that if God re-issued Genesis 2, he’d do it as a comic strip like this. Oops I forgot to link it… fixed now. Continue Reading
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Humanity 2 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 So in chapter 2, we shift stories. Now we have a story that is far older than the first chapter, and is regarded by scholars as the “Yahwist” creation story, and it focuses primarily on humans. The story is far more familiar than the first chapter is (the first few… Continue Reading