The Philosophy of Rationalism

The purpose of this post is to summarize the basis of the philosophy of rationality–that is, our conception of knowledge and values which give birth to rationality–give two popular criticisms, and refute them.

Everyday life testifies to the fact that human activity is intentional or purposive.  We do x for the sake of y.  Life also shows us that we regard some intentions or purposes as better than others.  This is the basis of such distinctions as those between good and evil, noble and base, beautiful and ugly.  But the mere fact that I judge something to be good does not make it good.  Differently stated, if the goodness of a speech or deed depends upon my opinion of its merits, then I cannot appeal to the intrinsic goodness of the speech or deed in order to demonstrate that my assessment is correct, and thus better than the assessment of those who disagree with me.  Speaking very generally, we can verify whether a deed has occurred, just as we can understand the content of speeches if we know the language and are familiar with the topics discussed.  But there seems to be a discontinuity between our perception of the fact and our estimation of its goodness.  In contemporary language, there seems to be a disjunction of facts and values.

Happy Birthday Logical Science

Exactly one year ago, the first post on Logical Science was made.  It led to a year of ups and downs and lots of constructive debate.  Here’s to hoping that there’s another year of posting and disucussion that’s even better than the last.  Cheers!

Brief Introduction to Evolution

This is my very brief introduction to how evolution got started.

Same-Sex Marriage

Over the past few months, I’ve been excited to see that many people are standing up and supporting same-sex marriage.  With the addition of a few states finally legalizing it, it certainly helped the morale of those of us who are staunch supporters of the issue.  But with the constantly turning tables on Proposition 8 in California, rough patches in this quest for equality and acceptance are hard and troubling.

Internet Predators: Who’s really at fault?

Nowaday’s, there are so many issues revolving around online predators and solicitation, it’s hard not to hear about it when turning on the news or browsing the web, which is kind of an ironic statement given this is the subject of this post.  However, I don’t think the media truly sees who is at fault here.  I must first warn you that this post will probably be ranty, and if that turns you off, please do not click the read more link.

Why People Believe in Ridiculous Things

This is part one from a series by Micahel Shermer, editor of Skeptic Magazine, and regular columnist for Scientific American.  I thought it was worth sharing here.

Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news? A proximate cause is the priming effect, in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model. UFOlogists see a face on Mars. Religionists see the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. Paranormalists hear dead people speaking to them through a radio receiver. Conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush administration. Is there a deeper ultimate cause for why people believe such weird things? There is. I call it “patternicity,” or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.

The Confederate Flag – Why flying it as a representation of Southern Pride is hypocritical

I pass these things all the time.  Confederate flags hanging in store windows, plastered on people home windows, hanging from their porches, stickers on their pickups, displayed on their campers, car plates, and even cemeteries.  My town cometary has around half a dozen or so U.S. flags throughout.  However, you can easily triple that number in Confederate Flags.

This presentation annoys me to no end.  Not because I’m anti-southern pride, but because I’m anti-ignorance, and most all of these people flying these flags on their hats and whatnot, are ignorant of the meaning and hypocrisy it causes.

Daily Posting

I’ve decided to pick up daily posting again.  I’m not sure how long it will last, but I think I have enough material in my head to merit a good month at least.  I have a lot in the way of Biology, Physics, Philosophy, and of course, the Atheist/Theist debate.

The posting shall commence tomorrow.  I have to go draft a few things now.

Philosophy is Overrated

Let me first start off by saying I certainly consider philosophy to be a vital field for understanding anything at all.  It is best used alongside science to verify scientific data through logic.  Granted, science does this naturally, but it is still worth mentioning.  However, upon coming across people who emerse themselves in philosophy as the only way of interpreting the world, explaining things, or justifying/refuting arguments about given subjects, I tend to come to the conclusion that philosophy is overrated.

This post will be remniscient of my previous post about science OR philosophy being a false dichotomy, but I feel this post will take this idea to the next level, as well as explain my personal views about philosophy.

Talk about bad luck

The theist recommendation I made yesterday can now be ignored.  After taking the time to post that, his YouTube account is now closed (I certainly hope it wasn’t this blog that caused him to do so).  Talk about bad luck.  Well, hopefully he’ll be back, and I’m not sure why he left unannounced (as far as I know).  Perhaps the rapture has occurred without our knowledge?