religion

The Quote Mining of Sam Harris

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If you have ever debated a Creationist then the concept of Quote Mining will be familiar. This is where a specific quote is lifted out of its original context and then presented in isolation in order to verify the quote miner’s view. For example, Darwin wrote the following in the Origin of the species … To suppose … Read more

How do you feel about “Them” and how do “they” view us? – will it ever change?

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Our larger national culture is something that is actually composed of rather a lot of smaller micro-cultures and there are many different types of these micro-cultures within this larger national unit. As an example, this can manifest as distinct geographical variations (North vs South) where each is a distinctly different micro-culture even though in a larger more global context it can … Read more

Bill Maher doing Stand-Up About Religion

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Now here is a nice little collection of Bill Maher doing Stand-Up About Religion … Like bees to the scent of nectar, the clip has attracted the usual collection of believers within the comments frantically trying to make a coherent rebuttal … and totally failing to do so. Number of comments – 7,230 Number of thumbs down for … Read more

Jonathan Sacks makes many utterly absurd religious claims in a Salon article

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Salon rang up Jonathan Sacks, interviewed him, and managed to spin some truly absurd religious claims into an article they have published. How much of what comes up is actually the thinking of Mr Sacks, and how much is actually the Salon author’s agenda via a bit of quote mining, I honestly don’t know, but either way it … Read more

Fallacy of the week: “They” (ISIS) are not “True” Muslims

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The “No true Scotsman” ploy is an informal fallacy that is commonly deployed in order to maintain a specific position. For example … Person A – Islam is a religion of peace Person B – But what about ISIS? Person A – Ah but they are not “true” Muslims. Who first pointed out that “no true scotsman” was … Read more

Too stupid to be educated

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If you attend a University lecture there is an expectation that you are both willing and able to learn. You may of course encounter ideas that are challenging and perhaps find difficult to grasp, so when that happens the right thing to do is to simply get up and walk out because ignorance and stupidity … Read more