OK, I found the joke above on the blog Ellie Asks Why. However, many people do not realize that there were several competing proposals for a periodic table chart in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Not all of them were in the shape that we imagine above. For instance, there were proposals to picture […]
Archives for 2012
The Republican Party at prayer
Back in the 1950’s, The Episcopal Church was known as the Republican Party at prayer. This lasted until 1960. After that, as a result of the civil rights struggles, the Episcopal Church has slowly moved away from its identification as the party of the well-off and supporter of the status quo. Nowadays, The Episcopal Church […]
I’m back
Hey all! I should have said something earlier, but I took a one month break from blogging. I realized that my blogs were becoming less frequent, which was a mark of needing a break and a rest. So, as 2013 is about to start, I am about to return. I will begin posting again real […]
The loss of homophobia
From an article on the Politico website that was published on 26 November 2012: The Associated Press has nixed “homophobia,” “ethnic cleansing,” and a number of other terms from its Style Book in recent months. The online Style Book now says that “-phobia,” “an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness” should not […]
Does good need evil to exist?
“Nothing can exist without its opposite,” goes a popular refrain. The characters above are posing the problem of the definition of evil. What is evil? Is evil something or is it the lack of something? All too many people hold a dualist view of the universe, what would have been considered a Manichean view centuries […]
Thanksgiving – 2012
He who made us and fashioned us, having prepared His bountiful gifts for us before we were born, introduced us into His world. Since, therefore, we receive all these things from Him, we ought for everything to give Him thanks; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. — 1 Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians […]
A tongue-in-cheek proof of the existence of God
The post above struck my funny bone. Yes, I know that it is a bit of an exaggeration of quantum theory (okay maybe more than a bit of an exaggeration). It is somewhat of a variation on the teleological argument for God, which has a long long history. In Judeo-Christian thought, one can find verses […]
Occam’s Razor and opposing anti-razors
I have been talking about Occam’s Razor, the philosophical principle that helps people choose what is the right explanation for a series of events or a series of experiments. Yesterday I commented that the basic principle is that, “simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.” Many conspiracy theories can generally […]
Occam’s Razor and dispensationalism
The day before yesterday I commented on Occam’s razor. The basic principle is that, “simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.” I also commented that many conspiracy theories fail that test. I should comment that there is usually no easy way to disprove a conspiracy theory, most of the […]
Occam’s razor and conspiracy theories
What is Occam’s Razor? It is probably the single most accepted piece of guidance on how to decide what is the best explanation for something, which proof is the most accurate. There are various ways to explain the principle. Perhaps one of the most common non-philosopher ways to say it is that, “other things being […]
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