21 APR 2014 by ideonexus

 Lies Propagate

Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and any double-blind experimental study will confirm that it doesn't work. So if someone wants to go on defending the lie, th...
Folksonomies: science pseudoscience truth
Folksonomies: science pseudoscience truth
  1  notes

They require more lies to support them and the questioning of science.

24 OCT 2013 by ideonexus

 Better to Believe and Be Wrong Than Not Believe Anything

He who says “Better to go without belief forever than believe a lie!” merely shows his own preponderant private horror of becoming a dupe. . . . It is like a general informing his soldiers that it is better to keep out of battle forever than to risk a single wound. Not so are victories either over enemies or over nature gained. Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart se...
Folksonomies: debate belief
Folksonomies: debate belief
  1  notes

If you believe a thing and are wrong, you can improve your beliefs in light of new evidence.

28 AUG 2011 by ideonexus

 Common Spelling/Grammar Mistakes

To lay is to place something or put something down, and it must be followed by a noun or pronoun, a thing; to lie is to recline. A lie is an untruth, and to lie also means "to tell an untruth." Examples: Lay that package on the mantel, will you please? Bridgette would like to lie in the hammock near the pool. Sometimes it's tempting to lie when you're in trouble, but a lie only makes things worse. (Hint:Lay sounds like place; lie sounds like recline. But be careful: lay ...
  1  notes

These examples are not on pedantic, but further demonstrate the nonsensical nature of English spelling, so convoluted as to turn people away from the lexicon.

10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus

 A Deceptive God

Balthamos said quietly, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty, those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves, the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dus...
Folksonomies: atheism god deities deception
Folksonomies: atheism god deities deception
  1  notes

Usually a fake god is described as someone with special powers, but Pullman's god is merely an angel that preceded other angels into existence and lied to them about their origins, when, in fact, we are all products of the natural world.