20 JUL 2017 by ideonexus
The Need for Moral Universals in Democracy
Working societies — if they are to endure, grow, and cohere, if they are to prosper, hang together, and really mature — need moral universals. Moral universals are simply things that people believe everyone should have. In the UK, those things — those moral universals — are healthcare and media and welfare. In Germany, they are healthcare and media and welfare and higher education. And so on.
Moral universals anchor a society in a genuinely shared prosperity. Not just... 1 
notes
notes09 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
Cultural Homogenization Makes Travel Pointless
But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there, his visits to her-visits which stopped when the Machine had assigned him a room on the other side of the earth. "Parents, duties of," said the book of the Machine," cease at the moment of birth. P.422327483." True, but there was something special about Kuno - indeed there had been something special about all her children - and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it. ... 1 notes
notes23 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 02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Idealism and Metaphysics are Easy
Idealism and metaphysics are the easiest things in the world, because people can talk as much nonsense as they like without basing it on objective reality or having it tested against reality. Materialism and dialectics, on the other hand, need effort. They must be based on and tested by objective reality. Unless one makes the effort one is liable to slip into idealism and metaphysics.
Introductory note to "Material on the Hu Feng Counter-Revolutionary Clique" (May 1955).Folksonomies: pseudoscience metaphysics
Folksonomies: pseudoscience metaphysics
1 notes
notesBecause they require no alignment with reality before speaking of them.
17 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Science is Discovery, Not Creation
I do not think that G. H. Hardy was talking nonsense when he insisted that the mathematician was discovering rather than creating, nor was it wholly nonsense for Kepler to exult that he was thinking God's thoughts after him. The world for me is a necessary system, and in the degree to which the thinker can surrender his thought to that system and follow it, he is in a sense participating in that which is timeless or eternal. Folksonomies: discovery
Folksonomies: discovery
1 notes
notesThe scientist is simply following the path nature has provided, uncovering its mysteries along the way.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Admit When You Don't Know
There are things that not even the best scientists of today can explain. But that doesn't mean we should block off all investigation by resorting to phoney 'explanations' invoking magic or the supernatural, which don't actually explain at all. Just imagine how a medieval man - even the most educated man of his era - would have reacted if he had seen a jet plane, a laptop computer, a mobile telephone or a satnav device. He would probably have called them supernatural, miraculous. But these dev...It is more honest to admit ignorance, to admit that something is a puzzle, than to invoke the supernatural to explain it.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Arctic Tern's Migration
The difference between night and day is dramatic - so dramatic that most species of animal can thrive either in the day or in the night but not both. They usually sleep during their 'off' period. Humans and most birds sleep by night and work at the business of living during the day. Hedgehogs and jaguars and many other mammals work by night and sleep by day.
In the same way, animals have different ways f coping with the change between winter anc summer. Lots of mammals grow a thick, shaggy ... 1 notes
notesThe bird migrates back and forth from North and South poles so that it always enjoys the arctic and antarctic summers.
15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Focus When Being Inundated with BS
Langmuir is the most convincing lecturer that I have ever heard. I have heard him talk to an audience of chemists when I knew they did not understand more than one-third of what he was saying; but they thought they did. It's very easy to be swept off one's feet by Langmuir. You remember in [Kipling's novel] Kim that the water jar was broken and Lurgan Sahib was trying to hypnotise Kim into seeing it whole again. Kim saved himself by saying the multiplication table [so] I have heard Langmuir l... 1 notes
notesBancroft describes a Professor who he knew was wrong, but he had to stay focused through the lecture to not be hypnotized by the lecturer's nonsense.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Pride Turns Off a Scientific Audience
Pauling's talk was made with his usual dramatic flair. The words came out as if he had been in show business all his life. A curtain kept his model hidden until near the end of his lecture, when he proudly unveiled his latest creation. Then, with his eyes twinkling, Linus explained the specific characteristics that made his model the α-helix uniquely beautiful. This show, like all of his dazzling performances, delighted the younger students in attendance. There was no one like Linus in all t... 1 notes
notesWatson describes Pauling's lecture and his showmanship, which quietly infuriates his audience.
24 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Jefferson's Intention with “The Philosophy of Jesus of ...
In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurges, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of … or, shall ...Folksonomies: founding fathers separation of church and state
Folksonomies: founding fathers separation of church and state
1 A description of the problems Jefferson had with the gospels in their existing form, which were easily twisted for greedy purposes.
