Archive for the 'personal' Category

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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 3

Published by davinci on October 24, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

(Part 2 is here.)

There are a number of important differences between exotic animals and supernatural beings that make it reasonable to acknowledge the existence of the former without likewise accepting the existence of the latter. For one thing, we have direct evidence of tigers, which anyone can independently verify. We have photographs and video recordings of these animals, and like many people I have seen actual tigers with my own eyes. No one has ever produced an image of a deity or an angel, except through the medium of art as produced by human hands. Historically, sightings of tigers were recorded independently in different cultures, and yet the descriptions of these creatures were remarkably similar. The same cannot be said of any supernatural being… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 6
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 4
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2

Published by davinci on October 23, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 1 is here.)

This lack of corroborating evidence for an event for which there ought to have been plenty of evidence, within the very book (or rather, collection of books) in which it is recorded, is bad enough. But the problem only gets much, much worse, the further away one moves from the immediate geographic area of a religion’s influence. The religious expressions and observations of people in the border regions between two religions become fuzzy and blended, and can be molded to accommodate either side. In the heartland of one religion, however, no trace of any evidence supporting another can be found… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 12
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
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The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1

Published by davinci on October 22, 2010 in reflections on religion, religion and social issues. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I consider this argument to be one of the strongest for the thesis that religions are created by human beings. It’s also an argument that every person I have ever known who became an atheist as a result of an in-depth study of religion has come up with on his or her own. From this, I infer that this argument is ubiquitous amongst atheists who had once been theists, and yet scant attention has been paid to it in writing. This is probably because it is “too obvious”, but this is one of those observations which are really obvious only in retrospect. It is not obvious to religious believers who have never been seriously exposed to another religion nor to the study of the history of religion outside of a pious “Church history” or its equivalent… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, conclusion and overview
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 14
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
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Why I am Not a Non-Buddhist

Published by davinci on October 22, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

If I ever write a book explaining my religious views, that’s what it will (not) be called.

In the mean time, I am writing a series of posts about religion. This was prompted partly by a spate of recent popular books on atheism, which I think made the case rather poorly.

A number of people have asked me to specifically write about the relationship between the West and Islam, and what I think about how educated Westerners should discuss Islam with Muslims.

There are a number of other topics in religion I can write about, but I’ll start with those. It’s not as if they’re not challenging enough.

– davinci

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 9
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  5. Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 2
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Four famous self-help books

Published by davinci on September 6, 2010 in a life in books. 0 Comments Tags: , .

This picture shows four of the most famous self-help books of all time: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, and The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino.

I didn’t find these books particularly inspiring or helpful… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. A life in books
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Revenge as a Motivation for Abusive Parents

Published by davinci on June 21, 2010 in autobiography and personal. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

As I have alluded to in my previous post, I’m current reading Alice Miller‘s For Your Own Good[1].

(Coincidentally, she passed away just a few days before I wrote that post, although I didn’t know about this at the time.)

I’m only about half way through the book, but one particular idea really struck me, and I wanted to write something about it. It’s so obvious in retrospect, and explains so much about the behaviour of my biological parents towards me throughout my life, that I’m shocked that I hadn’t thought of it earlier myself… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Most advice given to people with abusive parents is wrong
  2. The causes of my depression, part 18: my parents blamed me for 9/11
  3. Thirteen Abusive Behaviours
  4. The causes of my depression, part 10: “the Machine”
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Albert Kwok-Wai Yeung 「楊國偉」 and Agnes Yuk-Lan Yu 「余玉蘭」 are child abusers

Published by davinci on March 8, 2010 in personal and social issues. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

This post will not mean very much to anyone other than myself.

Albert Kwok-Wai Yeung 「楊國偉」 and Agnes Yuk-Lan Yu 「余玉蘭」 are child abusers. I just wanted to post this fact on the Internet so that it can be recorded for posterity… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

No related posts.

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The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss

Published by davinci on December 7, 2009 in a life in books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The previous post advertising the Perimeter Institute‘s Master’s program reminded me of this book, which continues my series “a life in books”.

The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss is geared more towards Star Trek fans than towards physicists… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Theoretical Physics by Joos and Freeman
  2. Perimeter Scholars International — Master’s program in Theoretical Physics
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Horizons: Exploring the Universe, by Michael A. Seeds

Published by davinci on October 9, 2009 in a life in books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post in the series “a life in books”.

This textbook was a gift from Dr. John Percy, professor of astronomy at the University of Toronto. I did some research on Be stars with Dr. Percy while I was in high school, and I had expressed to him my interest in studying astronomy and astrophysics in university.… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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Programming exercises and comparison of programming languages

Published by davinci on September 26, 2009 in autobiography, personal and programming and technical issues. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

I started programming when I was eight years old. The first programming language I learned was Basic, followed very shortly by C and 8086 assembly language. During elementary school, I was also exposed to Pascal and Logo. I ignored Pascal because it seemed to me that anything I could do in it I could already do with C, and although I had some fun with Logo’s turtle graphics, I didn’t take it very seriously. At the time, I didn’t appreciate its connection with Lisp and other “serious” programming languages… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Lists of programming exercises
  2. Programming exercise: Hello, world!
  3. Programming exercise: maximum value in integer array, part 1
  4. Programming exercise: permutations of a string
  5. Programming exercise: combinations of a string
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