Category Archives: Religion and philosophy

Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last couple of weeks you know that portions of the Islamic world seem to have taken leave of their senses. To explain (just in case you in fact haven’t been following … Continue reading →

There’s another component to developing critical thinking skills: the awareness of our own biases. We tend to find “truth” in things that line up with our preconceived notions. I’m not saying this is a bad thing; in fact, I’d suggest … Continue reading →

In my last post I talked about how to evaluate scientific claims. That’s relatively easy compared to critical evaluation of what most of us are come across on a daily basis. Questions like “should a modern society allow capital punishment?” … Continue reading →

So what exactly does it mean, to “think critically?” It might be tempting to say that, since a lack of critical thinking more or less means accepting whatever you hear without question, then critical thinking would mean automatically rejecting everything … Continue reading →

So back to the question. Leaving aside for now whether or not such a thing even exists, could the presence of free will explain our struggle to achieve a God-given morality? I think it doesn’t, because it circles around the … Continue reading →

I’ve written a number of posts here about the source of morality; mostly because I no longer believe that our sense of morality is given to us by God (or to put it another way, I don’t believe that without … Continue reading →

Amid all these thoughts about where morality comes from, it strikes me that I haven’t written anything about why I think it even matters. As long as we have a sense of right and wrong, it keeps us out of … Continue reading →

OK, let’s take another run at this. Do we get our morality from God, and then corrupt it because of our inherent imperfection? In earlier posts I argued that morality doesn’t come from religion or God. I reasoned that if … Continue reading →

I have a question that’s been bumping around in my head for a while. Over the past 20 years or so, there’s been a resurgence of support for fundamentalist Christian theology in the United States, especially in politics. I believe … Continue reading →

OK, Morality: Part Three. So we all have a sense of right and wrong. Or most of us anyway, and those who lack that sense are considered abnormal (sociopaths, or at the farthest end of that aberration, psychopaths). In any … Continue reading →