Hypatia of Alexandria might have said……”If the soul’s visions admit of natural explanation, then let us investigate…[Read more]

Religion presents itself as ancient, armored, and metaphysically grand, but its vulnerability is embarrassingly biological. It depends on ordinary human cognition: agency detection, pattern hunger,…[Read more]

Now back to our regular programming, the Trump Show, Episode Fudging with Elections.

and….

“Please explain to me why children need to pray? Better they to go to a church where they can learn to fly”.

But I am a Zionist, I replied, and gave no more information. This bothered him greatly. His friend asked how was it possible for me to be a Zionist.

I replied “By using my right to…[Read more]

A crowded bar. REG is standing beside two women, CLAIRE and AOIFE. The conversation has reached the dangerous point where someone has asked what he is interested in.

**CLAIRE**

So what do you do when you’re not working?

**REG**

I think about why England survived Napoleon economically while Holland did…[Read more]

EG “Discuss the impact of the rapid economic development of the country af…[Read more]

Explain the idea in plain language.
Notice where the explanation becomes vague.
Return to the source and repair the gap.
Explain it again without hiding behind jargon.

AI could be built into that process rather…[Read more]

A somewhat curtailed post today.

How political identity once drove Americans out of Christianity—and why that’s no longer true.

The core function of religion has not primarily been moral instruction or existential comfort but managing relationships with supernatural agents.

World of Woo: When and why some p…[Read more]

‘member, we don’t talk foolishness we talk trut’

Nope….the ‘Wall of Separation’ is not an attack on religious freedom. Get your comments in today! You could even try to pray it away!

Most Australians have no religion, census could show if question was changed.

“Attempts to define British identity in religious terms are divis…[Read more]

As for the Irish Star, do not be fooled by the humble tabloid layout, the celebrity-adjacent headlines, or the general impression that the editorial meeting takes place inside a…[Read more]

1. Federal assumption of state debts
The federal government took on the Revolutionary War debts of the states. This was politically explosive, but brilliant. It made creditors loyal to the federal government rather than just to individual states. In plain English: Hamilton tied the moneyed…[Read more]

Here is another one I read recently. Taken directly from the Irish Times, July 4th. Written by David McWilliams, an Irish economist.

It’s impossible to imagine the world without the dollar.

The American republic is 250 years old today. On this auspicious anniversary, the s…[Read more]

Meanwhile, almost all of the all of the reactions I’ve seen have come in strongly loving it, including first time TW…[Read more]

Understanding protein chains is one of the greatest initial accomplishments of AI. Before AI we had a very small library of knowledge on the structure of protein chains. Some sci…[Read more]

Enco  –

The key line in the WHO article is “There is no form of alcohol consumption that is risk-free” and that even low levels carry some risk and can cause harm. I would contend that there is no safe amount of alcohol. There are only lower-risk amounts. For health, the optimal amount is none. That does not mean one drink will ruin…[Read more]

“You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or…[Read more]

“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

<…[Read more]

I have yet to hear a Christian Nationalist who is not a just a paltry liar for Jesus while I think Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia is an honorable man.

Do you count?

The phrase “or belief” is not pedantry. It is the legal firewall against turning human rights into rel…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
How about waiting for AI to be sophisticated enough that it can be divorced from ideological capture?

TheEncogitationer wrote:
So an AI free of illogic or ideological capture is fantasy […]

I think what AI “will become” will be more of an issue someday, but not before “what AI will be used for” is more apparent. AI evolution…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Never mind Pope. After reading your line again i think you are indicating that the meaning has been watered down so that ambiguity is read into it rather than questioning its plain meaning and efficacy.

I wasn’t implying that, although that may not be inaccurate. SCOTUS itself has been watering down and resetting precedents on…[Read more]

(Maybe mentioning “Mush Brains” [sic] came close to hype, but that’s just me thinking of Trump as a mentally defective, parentally abused victim, but which the world would have been better…[Read more]

I greatly disliked the book title “A Universe from Nothing”, and didn’t even consider until your piece that OK, maybe the publisher pushed that name, not Krauss. Ah, Gemini AI says Krauss kept that title after his youtube video of a 2009 lecture…[Read more]