Category: Magical Thinking
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Know Who Loves The Unvaxxed? Pathogens!
Listening to an anti-vaxxer insist they can’t trust science because they know better can make your head explode. More often than not, these aren’t dumb people; many are highly educated and, really, very well meaning. But anti-vaxxism has gotten under their skin like a religion. Or a cult. They embrace this mania with every fiber […]
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We’re Making It All Up
I am a huge fan of the human imagination. I’m a huge fan of all imagination; I’m convinced plenty of other animals and creatures have imaginations, too. They use them – same as we humans do – to problem solve both small and big problems. Finding food, a safe place to sleep, our place in […]
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Certainty v Uncertainty
Want to know the real difference between atheists and theists? It all comes down to uncertainty. Atheists can handle it. Theists detest it. In fact, they’re “certain” uncertainty doesn’t exist. Or it can’t – or shouldn’t. Because, in their world, all questions are answered. By a deity. Mysteries remain of course, but they’re all part […]
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Rugged Individualists Are An American Myth
We Americans love tall tales. In a sense, our whole country IS a tall tale. It’s a story about dreams coming true. One tall tale we tell ourselves is the story of the rugged individualist. You know him – he’s the white guy with a big idea. Give him ample freedom? He’ll deliver! Who will […]
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Religionistas Don’t Believe IN God, They Believe They ARE God
I blame monotheism. Anything that puts the voice of the creator of everything into a person’s head is playing with fire. Take your average “religionista” (be they Christian fundamentalist, evangelical or other True Believer). They’ll tell you proudly: they have a personal relationship with God that you probably don’t. That means when God talks, they […]
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America A Christian Nation? God Forbid!
Fundamental religious faith and rule-of-law democracy are mutually exclusive propositions. Fundamental faith demands unthinking fealty. Rule of law democracy demands that we think. While the men who wrote America’s founding documents were all Christians of one stripe or another, Deism “subverted orthodox Christianity“. Many of America’s founders practiced a brand of Christianity modern American Christians […]
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Originalism = Bamboozlement
Cover your ears, kiddies. Originalism is bullshit on steroids. That’s probably why conservatives love it so. Originalism is conservatism’s stalking horse. It’s their Junior Frankenstein lab experiment – powered up and filling something very dead with artificial life. Originalists like Antonin Scalia insist that we must interpret the Constitution exclusively from the founders’ perspective. That […]