Archive for the 'social issues' Category

Page 3 of 4

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
0 Comments

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
0 Comments

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
5 Comments

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
0 Comments

A message for college and university students regarding Clubs Days

Published by davinci on September 29, 2010 in politics, religion and social issues. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The following is an article I wrote for Clubs Days. I’m also going to condense it into a pamphlet on paper, which I’m going to hand out.

If you’re a college or university student, it’s the beginning of a new school year, which means that there will probably be some kind of event to introduce you and the various student organisations on campus to each other. This event is typically called “Clubs Days” (or “Clubs Week”). And whether there’s such a formal event or not, you will undoubtedly be approached by members of numerous religious, political, and other interest groups who will try to convert you to their points of view.

College or university is a time of exploration, and I strongly encourage you to consider and examine the ideas that you encounter… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

No related posts.

0 Comments

Alice Miller and Children of Trauma

Published by davinci on April 18, 2010 in social issues. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I’m currently reading several books by Alice Miller, an author and researcher whose focus is on child abuse and mistreatment.

When I was growing up, I’ve always felt that my parents were not like other people’s parents. I wish I had known about and had access to books like those written by Miller, who relate the stories of people like myself. I guess they must have always been available at the library, but I had never thought to look for such books until recent years.

It’s a tremendous relief to have someone explain what I have gone through… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Authoritarian parenting and its harmful effects on gifted children
  2. Miscellaneous articles about raising gifted children, from Scientific American
  3. Why children should be allowed to study whatever they want to study
4 Comments

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.

10 Comments

Persia is Iran, Iran is Persia, Iran is not Iraq, and Persia is not Bosnia

Published by davinci on September 13, 2009 in personal and social issues. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This post was inspired by the post from two days ago on the flags of the world.

I’ve always considered Reza Shah Pahlavi’s 1935 decree requesting that the country formerly known as Persia be referred to as “Iran” by foreign governments with which it had diplomatic relations to be a mistake. Naturally, once governments began to refer to the country as Iran, their citizens followed suit. This change at once led to a severing in the Western consciousness of Iran from the Persian culture of classical antiquity, and also created a situation in which the name of the country can easily become confounded with that of its neighbour and recurrent rival, Iraq, a name which entered the mainstream vocabulary of Western languages only in 1932 with the founding of the Kingdom of Iraq in that year.

Actually, in Arabic and Persian, the names Iraq and Iran sound quite different, and they are not very similar to each other when written in the Perso-Arabic script… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

No related posts.

6 Comments

Little known facts about Hong Kong’s sovereignty

Published by davinci on September 12, 2009 in personal and social issues. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This post was inspired by the paragraph about the former flag of Hong Kong in yesterday’s post on the flags of the world.

Hong Kong island was actually ceded in perpetuity by the government of Qing China to the British crown in 1842 in the Treaty of Nanking… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Childhood in Hong Kong and Whitby
  2. Quotations from Lily Wong
  3. 162 Flags of the World
1 Comment

Names and careers, or nominative determinism

Published by davinci on August 6, 2009 in social issues and something new every day. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Two random events inspired me to write this post. The first is that Toby Cubitt gave a talk at IQC recently. (I didn’t attend the talk, but I did receive the announcement.) The second is that I chanced upon the book Quirkology by psychologist Richard Wiseman. (Another influence for this post is the fact that job hunting is clearly still on my mind.)

In high school, a friend and I had noticed that several of the people we had to learn about in class had names which were oddly apropos of the accomplishments for which they were famous, and so we started to compile a list. At the head of the list was Robert Boyle, who studied the inverse relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of an ideal gas at a fixed temperature. Another name on the list was Alexander Graham Bell. (“You rang?”)… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

No related posts.

1 Comment