23 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Pastafarianism
Most of us do not believe a religion – Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm – requires literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. That is, we can be part of a community without becoming indoctrinated. There are many levels of belief.
By design, the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma. That is, there are no strict rules and regulations, there are no rote rituals and prayers and other nonsense. Every member has a say i...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
1 16 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Religious Children Less Capable of Distinguishing Fantasy...
In two studies, 5- and 6-year-old children were questioned about the status of the protagonist
embedded in three different types of stories. In realistic stories that only included ordinary events,
all children, irrespective of family background and schooling, claimed that the protagonist was a
real person. In religious stories that included ordinarily impossible events brought about by divine
intervention, claims about the status of the protagonist varied sharply with exposure to religion.
C... 1 
notes
notes21 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Internet Archive is Inspired by the Library of Alexan...
“We bought it because it matched our logo,” Brewster Kahle told me when I met him there, and he wasn’t kidding. Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive and the inventor of the Wayback Machine. The logo of the Internet Archive is a white, pedimented Greek temple. When Kahle started the Internet Archive, in 1996, in his attic, he gave everyone working with him a book called “The Vanished Library,” about the burning of the Library of Alexandria. “The idea is to build the Library... 1 notes
notes07 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Invention of Printing Threatens the Church
This new invention of printing has produced various effects of which Your Holiness caimot be ignorant. If it has restored books and learning, it has also been the occasion of those sects and schisms which daily appear. Men begin to call in question the present faith and tenets of the Church; the laity read the scriptures and pray in their vulgar tongue. Were this suffered the common people might come to believe that there was not so much use of the clergy. If men were persuaded that they coul...
3 [Cardinal] Thomas Wolsey.
29 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Distinguishing Personal Religion from Institutionalized R...
In critically judging of the value of religious phenomena, it is
very important to insist on the distinction between religion as an
individual personal function, and religion as an institutional, corporate,
or tribal product. I drew this distinction, you may remember,
in my second lecture. The word “religion,” as ordinarily used, is
equivocal. A survey of history shows us that, as a rule, religious
geniuses attract disciples, and produce groups of sympathizers. When
these groups get stron...Folksonomies: religion
Folksonomies: religion
1 notes
notesTwo very different things of different merits.
24 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Political Arguments Cannot be Religious
Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including tho... 1 notes
notesBecause revelatory knowledge is not universal in a pluralistic, democratic country.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Earth is Not the Center of the Universe
To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither center nor boundary ... Just as we regard ourselves as at the center of that universally equidistant circle, which is the great horizon and the limit of our own encircling ethereal region, so doubtless the inhabitants of the moon believe themselves to be at the center (of a great horizon) that embraces this earth, the sun, and the stars, and is the boundary of the radii of their own horizon. Thus the earth no more than any other world i... 1 notes
notesGiordano Bruno's logical argument that the earth cannot be the center of the Universe, because the universe is infinite in size and something infinite has not center. He would be executed by the church for this heresy.
25 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
"I Refute It Thus"
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, 'I refute it thus.' Folksonomies: solipsism
Folksonomies: solipsism
1 notes
notesAn amusing anecdote about disproving solipsism and the idea that nothing really exists.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
William Lawrence on the Need for Free Science
Lawrence eventually went on to broaden his attack. Science, he argued, had an autonomous right to express its views fearlessly and objectively, without interference from Church or state. It must avoid ‘clouds of fears and hopes, desires and aversions’. It must ‘discern objects clearly’ and shun ‘intellectual mist’. It must dispel myth and dissipate ‘absurd fables’.19 The world of scientific research was wholly independent. ‘The theological doctrine of the soul, and its separ...Folksonomies: freedom scientific integrity
Folksonomies: freedom scientific integrity
1 notes
notesScience must operate without fear of oppression or reaction from authorities.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
The Church is the Antithesis of Nature
Ruta Skadi stood. Her white arms gleamed in the firelight; her eyes glittered so brightly that even the farthest witch could see the play of expression on her vivid face.
“Sisters,” she began, “let me tell you what is happening, and who it is that we must fight. For there is a war coming. I don’t know who will join with us, but I know whom we must fight. It is the Magisterium, the Church. For all its history- and that’s not long by our lives, but it’s many, many of theirsit’s t... 1 notes
notesA witch rallies an army of witches by explaining how the church subverts natural understanding.
