Tom, Robin, and Chris discuss the controversy of Catholic transubstantiation, recent problems with Richard Dawkins, books, and the origins of the universe, and the curious bigoted dissonance of “hate-the-sin-not-the-sinner”-type thinking.
73: Transubstantiation, Origins of the Universe, Gay Dissonance [ 41 min 56 s ] Play in Popup | DownloadSimon Critchley, a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, recently had an interesting series published at the Times on the at-least-partially-insanity-driven philosophies of Philip K. Dick, the famous science fiction author who wrote many acclaimed novels (which turned into many acclaimed movies) and went a little wacko towards the end of his life.
Now, the general storyline here of Dick himself is not too important, largely because it is familiar – assisted with the use of some drugs (probably a combination of the drugs he was on at the time and had been experimenting with for a while) and probably not a little bit of mental health issues, Dick had a revelatory experience one day which led to years of occasional discussions with the bright unifying light of God/everything and an extensive journal in which he recorded all of the revelations he experienced about the nature of the universe.
Tom, Robin, and Colin go over the statistics regarding atheists giving to charity, the problems facing black atheists, Richard Dawkins and the idea of free Bibles being “okay”, recent comments by paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, and more.
If you ask an educated person to name prominent French figures of the Enlightenment, there is a pretty good chance he or she will name Voltaire and/or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Atheists will likely view these Enlightenment figures positively, especially Voltaire, for laying the foundations for modern secular thought. In this essay, I want to discuss just how right atheists are to think their foundations lay in the Enlightenment, but their views are more closely shared by forgotten figures that Voltaire actually opposed. There was a socially subversive group of intellectuals that were an important and influential component of the European Enlightenment, especially in France. Despite their influence at the time, we rarely hear their names in popular forums today. This subversive movement is commonly called the Radical Enlightenment. Continue reading…
For those not fully informed, there is some dialogue between some high profile atheists (Sam Harris and PZ Myers) regarding profiling Muslims at the airport. Sam Harris recently wrote an article on his blog suggesting, in no uncertain terms, that we should be profiling Muslims for screening before boarding an airplane. This post stirred up some controversy and PZ Myers weighed in on his blog, repudiating Harris for his stance. There has been some back-and-forth, and it can be easy to lose track of who said what, especially since many of the blog posts are buried under newer content. For those unaware of this ongoing discussion, or those who haven’t been keeping up, please refer to the ordered links below. I will update this page as the discourse develops.
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