08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus

 The Problem with the "Atheist"

As I've said, I've never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist (since the prefix "a" means "not" or "without"). But I have problems with the word "atheism." It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the band's singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for. That's my biggest objection to the wave of atheist book^ks and Web sites that have c...
Folksonomies: atheism atheist labels
Folksonomies: atheism atheist labels
  1  notes

Not only does it define someone by what they aren't, it also suffers from an incredible vagueness that tells people nothing about what a person thinks.

08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus

 Evolutionary Biology and the Punk Scene

Evolutionary biology historically has focused on a particular kind of change in heritable traits. Some traits enable an organism to have more offspring than other organisms in a population. In this way, a heritable trait can become more abundant in the next generation. It's a simiple numbers game. New traits appear first in a single organism (like the debut songs on a pioneering punk album). But they can appear in increasing numbers of organisms with each :h new generation if they help organi...
Folksonomies: evolution memetics
Folksonomies: evolution memetics
  1  notes

An interesting comparison, that demonstrates the natural selection of memes in culture works the same as genes in biological fitness.