- On Presuppositions
The Observatory • February 27, 2006
Malcolm Gladwell. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2005.
D.L. Rosenhan. "On Being Sane in Insane Places." Science, vol.179, no.4070, p.250-258 (19 January 1973).
In 1973, the peer-reviewed journal Science published a now-classic study in psychology. In its introduction, the study's author, D.L. Rosenhan, pointed out that the criteria for [...]
- A Personal Journey to Atheism
The Loft • February 26, 2006
One of the questions I am frequently asked is how I came to be an atheist. Personally, I do not place a high emphasis on the details of deconversion - whether it happens gradually or in a Damascus Road-like flash is not relevant to me - and since I did not have an intense religious [...]
- Greetings from the Losers' Club
The Rotunda • February 25, 2006
John Loftus of the blog Debunking Christianity has very kindly linked to my recent post, "An Inspiring Story", with a post of his own, "Ex-minister Walks Atheist Path".
However, it seems that his much-appreciated courtesy has attracted attention from a different direction. Specifically, the Christian site Triablogue responded with a post titled "The 'Inspiring Story' [...]
- Cracking the Fortune Cookie
The Library • February 24, 2006
A Response to John Searle's Chinese Room Analogy
John Searle. "Minds, Brains, and Programs." Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3, p. 417-424 (1980).
In a famous 1980 paper titled "Minds, Brains and Programs", the philosopher John Searle proposed a notorious thought experiment, now known as the Chinese Room, relating to the possibility of artificial intelligence. Searle has [...]
- An Inspiring Story
The Garden • February 23, 2006
Sheryl Kay. "Ex-minister walks atheist path." The St. Petersburg Times, February 17, 2006.
His message is clear: Jesus is not coming. Not today. Not ever.
At 59, James Young has spent almost a decade sharing his atheist beliefs with the public, driving every Wednesday morning from his home in Lithia to set up a tent at the [...]
- Christian? Jewish? Who Cares?
The Rotunda • February 21, 2006
Michael Luo. "Reform Jews Hope to Unmix Mixed Marriages." The New York Times, February 12, 2006.
In this age of potpourri spirituality, Anique Olivier-Mason, 25, classifies herself generally as a Christian: she grew up Catholic and often attends a Presbyterian church near her home. But on a recent Friday night, she was attending Sabbath services at [...]
- Living Up to the Renaissance Ideal
The Observatory • February 18, 2006
In my previous post in this category, Know Everything, I expressed my desire to know every fact there is about the universe, to know how to solve every problem that has been solved. This goal is, of course, impossible. We cannot do that, so what can we do?
I have always admired the Renaissance ideal - [...]
- Life Without Superstition
The Garden • February 16, 2006
It is a common misperception, promoted and sustained by religious leaders, that atheism has nothing good or positive to offer the seeker. Nothing could be further from the truth. It will be one of the major purposes of this weblog, and more specifically of this category, the Garden, to explode that myth, and there is [...]
- The Fallacy of Free Speech
The Rotunda • February 15, 2006
In August 2005, according to a December article in the San Francisco Examiner, the private Calvary Chapel Christian School sued the University of California. The UC's offense, according to Calvary Chapel's lawsuit, was in not granting college credit for several courses taught from an explicitly Christian viewpoint; doing so, they claim, constitutes discrimination against the [...]
- Administrivia
The Foyer • February 15, 2006
Daylight Atheism has now been up and running for several days, and I'm extremely pleased with the response so far. Already the site logs show over 1500 hits, representing over 250 unique visitors, and there have been some excellent comments and discussion. My humble thanks to everyone who's read and contributed so far - I'm [...]
- Better Left Unsaid
The Loft • February 14, 2006
Mahatma Gandhi said, "All religions are true." If you think about it, they all serve the same purpose: comfort the afflicted, explain the unexplainable, provide moral guidelines for living a good life. The differences are primarily cultural — language, place of origin, traditional elements — not spiritual.
What does it matter if one person prays to [...]
- Are Evolved Minds Reliable Truth-Finders?
The Library • February 13, 2006
In recent years, Christian apologists such as Alvin Plantinga have advanced arguments purporting to prove that evolutionary naturalism is a self-refuting worldview. According to these people, if evolution is true and there is no intelligent creator-god, then humans' sensory and rational faculties were created by a blind process that is not concerned with truth or [...]
- Know Everything
The Observatory • February 12, 2006
Richard Feynman's blackboard at Caltech at the time of his death in 1988. The text in the lower left reads, "Know how to solve every problem that has been solved." From Stephen Hawking, The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 83.
Since I was very young, I have been fascinated by the findings of science. It really [...]
- An Atheist's Creed
The Foyer • February 11, 2006
Before launching into the weightier topics which this blog will cover, I thought it would be helpful to first establish who I am, what I believe and where I am coming from. This, then, is an atheist's creed - not in the sense of a dogmatically imposed set of standards, but rather a set of [...]
- A Guided Tour
The Foyer • February 11, 2006
Since this weblog is, in a sense, my home on the Internet, it seemed a useful metaphor to divide it into categories symbolized by the rooms of a house, with each room encompassing a specific set of topics. At least to begin with, there will be six categories, which will be as follows:
The Foyer is [...]
- Comment Policy
The Foyer • February 11, 2006
Anyone who knows me, either in real life or through e-mail correspondence, should be well aware that I am a steadfast defender of freedom of speech. I consider it to be the most important right any democratic society can have; it is, in a sense, the right upon which all other rights depend. That is [...]
- Welcome to Daylight Atheism
The Foyer • February 10, 2006
Welcome, one and all, to Daylight Atheism! This will be the official weblog and annex of my other website, Ebon Musings, and will contain discussion threads for the articles posted there as well as original essays and writings.
In this inaugural post, it seems fitting to explain what led to the creation of this site. [...]
