The Unforeseen Consequences of the ‘War on Christmas’

A few days ago, as I was checking-out at a grocery store, the employee who had just rung me up said ‘Happy Holidays’.  The statement was sincere, it was not meant in mockery, and I could tell that the employee was having a good day.  But before I could thank him, someone standing behind me [...]

Rest in Peace Christopher Hitchens

In the world of myths, there are gods and there are men, and by myth here, I mean beings that far exceed the standards of normalcy.  Of course, on the former Christopher Hitchens had strong opinions which, I’m sure, are not lost on any of my readers.  But rest assured, if a man could achieve [...]

(A)Theism: A Brief Autobiography with a Word of Caution

The Self-Concept is a fickle thing.  It starts to develop young, and as we get a little older, grow more aware of its influences, we try to wrangle it into submission.  At one point, just when we think we have it subdued, it gets loose and, it is in those brief moments of panic, we [...]

The Discovery of a Lifetime! (Satire)

Indiana Jones, take a back seat!  Look what we have here!  No, not a crystal skull or the lost city of Atlantis (again), but this! Giorgio Tsoukalos argued in his latest issue of the estimable, peer-reviewed academic journal Legendary Times that this is certainly evidence that David was working with ancient aliens to build the [...]

The Gospels Were Hardly Memes?

Joel and I have a love of mimetics, so we obviously will write on memes whenever we can.  But we sometimes have different views on how they play a role in ancient literature (specifically early Christian literature).  In response to my recent blog post on memes and the death of ‘history’ and ‘fiction’, Joel has [...]

Memes: Killers of ‘Fiction’ and ‘History’

The title of this post may be a little tongue-in-cheek.  But the truth is, memes can carry a fictional story to the point where people believe they are true.  The best example ever came over my Facebook wall not too long ago and I had to share it, if only to make a point I’ve [...]

Richard Carrier on Bayes’ Theorem (With Video)

Richard Carrier Blogs about Bayes’ Theorem (with all sorts of nifty source information) and directs his readers to this video on Bayes he gave at Skepticon IV: DO watch it!

Calvin and Hobbes on Death

Calvin, as usual, raises an interesting point about death.  Hobbes, in his own subtle manner, offers his own philosophical perspective–not on death–on life.    Some of us walk through life without a desire to engage it, to interact with it.  For those people, the point of living is as meaningless as Calvin’s understanding of death.  [...]