I just read Dr. Stephen Novella‘s clear and thoughtful blog post on how Professor Richard Dawkins was invited to be a featured speaker at this year’s Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS). And shortly thereafter, uninvited. It’s an interesting–even if disappointing–look into the…
I just read The Economist’s book review of Dominic Johnson‘s God is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human. The review suggests “Belief in divine punishment may be inherent and a useful evolutionary adaptation, helping humans overcome selfishness.” But correctly assessing causation…
I realize I’ve been on a bit of a tear regarding Gov. Rick Snyder‘s role in the Flint water crisis. Over the past couple of days, I blogged about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders each criticizing the governor during the recent…
Now that the Flint water crisis genie is out of the bottle, political damage control is in full swing. And the elephant in the room is this: Is Gov. Rick Snyder culpable? The Snyder-appointed Flint Water Task Force sent a letter to…
The Flint water crisis genie is out of the bottle. And all of King Snyder’s horses and all of his men, cannot put the genie in the bottle again. At the end of Sunday night’s Democratic Debate, the moderators asked…
By now, you may have heard about the bad lottery advice dished out by “lottery expert”, Richard Lustig, this Monday morning on the FOX “News” channel. “Buy as many tickets as you can afford.” Business Insider calls this “literally the worst lottery…
Gov. Rick Snyder frequently claims how his administration is “transparent”, “open” and “honest”. But every time he does, I’m reminded of that wonderful quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.…
In politics–as in business or sports–there is more than one way to come out on top. If you’re a person of honor, solid moral character, and talent, then you work hard, compete vigorously and fairly, and succeed on your merits. But…
News of the loss of a good friend reached me today. Ryan B. Squires passed away three years ago on this date, but it has taken until today for this sad and surprising realization to hit me. And it knocked the…
Sam Harris has created a simple, but effective template for how to believe in God that he fit easily into six tweets, which are shown below. I’ve added brief commentary to each step. 1. First, you must want to believe in…