Apparently, Anne Frank’s diary contains “homosexual themes”
January 31, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under religion
Also, sexually explicit material.
This story caught my eye, because I haven’t gotten around to reading the book, and I’ve long wondered if, when asked why their theology says Anne Frank is in Hell right now, they would have to mumble something vague about “we’re all sinners,” or would be able to cite things from her [...]
Crappy sex-phobic arguments
January 30, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under ethics, philosophy, religion, stupidity
One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers wrote in to lecture him on the evils of masturbation, saying, “The main sin is that masturbation (with minuscule exception) involves fantasy which is a distortion or absence of reality. In other words, it is a lie.”
Can you say give me a fucking break? The idea that fantasy is so [...]
Luke on reformed epistemology and moral realism
January 26, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under epistemology, ethics, philosophy, religion
In his blogging, Luke of Common Sense Atheism has made some fairly harsh, and largely unexplained, swipes at reformed epistemology (Alvin Plantinga’s project of trying to show we can accept Christian doctrine without any argument or evidence for doing so), saying things like “reformed epistemology is neither” and that it is a “Candidate for ‘Dumbest [...]
Continue Reading »Playing games with “truth”
January 26, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under language, metaphysics, philosophy, stupidity
PZ Myers highlights a quote from Irving Kristol, a big fan of Leo Strauss’ political philosophy:
“There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people,” he says in an interview. “There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate [...]
The fragility of free speech
January 25, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under politics, stupidity
So: a non-profit puts out a documentary critical of a presidential candidate. The government tries to stop it. It’s a no-brainer that what the government is doing is wrong, right? Well, that’s what the Supreme Court thought, but I’m dismayed to see a couple of my favorite bloggers disagreeing: Vjack said that this decision makes [...]
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