Class bias and cognitive short cuts
September 30, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under mind, social and literary criticism
It’s easy to be infuiated by stories of cops treating people differently based on their clothes. It smack of class bias. But this is really just one example of a general feature of human decision making: we make decisions based on usually-reliable cues that are open to manipulaton. The classic example is price: we tend [...]
Continue Reading »Stupidity or advertising?
September 30, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under whiskey tango foxtrot
The following comment just came up in the moderation queue for my review of :
I’m sure this horrible and troubling film will do well enough with the frat boy types it has been engineered to appeal to, and date-rape culture will continue to thrive on college campuses.
My first response was to approve the comment, and [...]
“God,” real meanings, and useful meanings
September 29, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under language, philosophy, social and literary criticism, stupidity
Yesterday, Jerry Coyne spotted yet another exampleof something that I see quite a bit: accusations that prominent atheists believe that literalism is the true form of religion. Though talk of literalism is misleading, there’s also an issue of whether leading atheists have made any claims at all about the “real” form of religion. Jerry Coyne [...]
Continue Reading »“People can no longer be easily controlled”
September 29, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under religion
This is a problem for religion. according to a Catholic Archbishop. HT: Styvyn Larson on Facebook.
Continue Reading »Carnivals
September 28, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under carnivalia
The 97th Philosopher’s Carnival and the 43rd Humanist Symposium are up.
Continue Reading »