Robert Adamson was a Scottish philosopher.He was born in Edinburgh. His father was a solicitor, and his mother was the daughter of Matthew Buist, factor to Lord Haddington. In 1855 Mrs. Adamson was left a widow with small means, and devoted herself entirely to the education of her six children. Read on…
There is a tiny area at the back of my head where I run mental jobs that are the human equivalent of background tasks. I can poke them back there to run on their own, and they pop out with a “DING!” when they have something to say. Some of them have been there for years; they keep dinging but still need more work, so I put them back. Read on…
“I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe.”
“Christianity gave eroticism its savor of sin and legend when it endowed the human female with a soul.”
— Simone de Beauvoir Read on…
Scientists feel that they have located the Higgs boson, or something very much like it, finally culminating a forty-year search for the elusive particle. It has great importance because it is one of the postulated underpinnings of particle physics. With the Higgs boson in sight, much else about particle physics become clearer. Read on…
AMERICAN ATHEISTS: Mr. Adams, you have been described as a “radical Atheist.” Is this accurate? DOUGLAS ADAMS: I think I use the term radical rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “Atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘Agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean Atheist.”…I really do mean Atheist. I really do not believe that there is a god – in fact I am convinced that there is not a god (a … Read on…
Thomas Aikenhead was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed on a charge of blasphemy. Aikenhead was indicted in December 1696. The indictment read: “That … the prisoner had repeatedly maintained, in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the moral doctrines of philosophers, and partly of poetical fictions and extravagant chimeras: That he ridiculed the holy scriptures, calling the Old Testament Ezra’s fables, in profane allusion to Esop’s Fables; That … Read on…
Our reader survey regarding preferred content drew relatively few responses, but those which we received had something to say. First, the basic genre question had some surprises. The folks that answered the survey had five choices in the basic Genre category. The genres and the number of votes each got are as follows: Read on…
Those of you who have read my posts here and elsewhere will know that I miss the Freethinking Unitarian church that I joined in the 60s and which the parent organization has tried to turn into just another christian denomination over the past twenty or so years. I have other Web sites that are dedicated, in part, to reversing that catastrophe. Now, along with a few others who feel the same way, a new think tank has been formed to … Read on…
A child of twelve in a wonderful Black Baptist church can be captured by the activity, no matter the boy’s personal color. The preacher perched up high, talking about heaven or hell, saying we’ll all be saved by jeee-sus. All those people shouting and singing, happy and good people. Box lunches full of homemade fried chicken. It was a dream come true for an adolescent boy. Read on…
Our readers and authors have once again sent me in the direction of unifying two seemingly disparate thoughts: many thanks to Timothy Travis for the link to a Steven Pinker essay on Group Selection and to Afzal Moolla for his recent poetry submission. You should read Mr. Pinker’s essay and Mr. Moolla’s poem. Both will help you to be a better world citizen and probably also cause you to reconsider a position or two. I will not belabor either the … Read on…