An organization dedicated to infusing logical reasoning and science into political discussions
A court appointed officiant refused to officate a wedding between a couple because they did not believe in god. Is this a violation of the 14th amendment? The answer, at first, seems to be yes. However, the real answer is not as obvious.« Continue »
While this is not true in all cases, I have found that atheists often have a sense of pride in the idea that they have managed to eschew religion. Worse yet, sometimes people exhibit sheer hatred for religions in general. A quick search for “atheism religion” on Amazon.com shows how much vitriol surrounds the discussion of religion in regards to views by atheists. Yet, in many cases, atheists are indeed religious. While this seems like a contradiction, this seeming contradiction is the result of a weak understanding of religion and the concept of atheism.« Continue »
Shortly after the May 23rd shooting, at the University of California Santa Barbara people started blaming it on misogyny. However, the cause was far more complicated and misogyny, while involved, was not the root cause, but rather was a result of other circumstances. Some may ask why it matters whether or not misogyny was the root cause; indeed people have asked me this when confronting the oversimplified view of the shooting.
There are two answers to this question. The first is that, unless we know the root cause, we cannot know how to best prevent a similar event from occurring again. The second is that, in understanding that misogyny was not the root cause, but was a product of other conditions, we can see that misogyny is going to be far more difficult to combat than other societal ills.
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There are often attempts to legislate the morality of a group of people. These attempts almost always fail and usually result in an even worse situation.
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