Jan 21
I saw this posted on Facebook: “Homeless Servicemen Should Come Before Any Refugee”. This is an example of a The False Dilemma Fallacy. A False Dilemma Fallacy is defined as: This common fallacy misleads by presenting complex issues in terms of two inherently opposed sides. Instead of acknowledging that most (if not all) issues can …
Oct 22
The King James version of the Bible has a fair amount to say about Hell. A single case in point: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the …
Feb 26
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? ~Marcus Aurelius
Jun 01
“Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature.” ~Marcus Aurelius
May 19
“I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long …
Mar 28
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those …
Sep 13
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into …
Jul 11
“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.” ~ Thomas Szasz
Jun 28
Facebook, like most social media, has been a disappointment to me and I’ve taken to staying clear of it. But recently, after more than a half year’s absence, I did have an occasion to login and wish a friend well on a project. Naturally, I got sucked in… It wasn’t long before I came across …
Jan 29
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” ~Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireJ.K. Rowling
Aug 09
“Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people …
Jan 09
“National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.” ~ Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Dec 03
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” ~ Voltaire
Aug 18
Since Dear Leader Trump’s recent comments regarding the Charlottesville demonstrations and related violence, I’ve seen many people on my social media channels offering a defense of the Confederate monuments. (Supplemented with bogus stories about the Confederate flag.) First, an overview of where I stand on some related matters: I’m heartfelt advocate of freedom of speech, and …
Apr 07
I spotted this on a Facebook “wall” and found it nauseating. It made me angry. The post is exploitative and cynical on such a scale that it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t purposefully, carefully, engineered to be as misanthropic as possible. I did a little searching to see if I could uncover the story …
Jan 29
Trump has made cowards of us all. No immigrants from any of the seven countries on the list — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia — have killed Americans in terrorist attacks in the US. Not one. What immigrants and refugees from most of those countries are doing, however, is fleeing repression, violence, …
Oct 12
“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
Aug 03
“My attitude to peace is rather based on the Burmese definition of peace – it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not mean just putting an end to violence or to war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as …
Jul 08
“While we are under the tyranny of Priests, it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith.” ~Ethan Allen
Jan 07
“The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.” ~Thomas Paine
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