Athée Canadien
Critical Thinking
“Delusional Logic”
Jan 28th
Do you have trouble indentifying exactly which fallacious argument is being used? I do, and usually, I resort to Wikipedia to clear up my confusion. However, the website Something Surprising has posted a useful crib sheet entitled “Delusional Logic” as a guide to the most common fallacies:
Do you spot logical fallacies everywhere you go? Download this unique new pdf file free and start to enjoy the fun.
The religion that cried “wolf”
Jan 25th
Okay, this is just getting ridiculous now. Those of you that know me best from my work decrying racist attitudes and unraveling the code of “politely” racist statements know that I have a fairly well-developed radar for bigotry. I am not one to shrink from making the call, even in those circumstances where the room is against me and I am forced to explain myself in excruciating detail. Racism is a serious problem, and I think we should be devoting more time and attention to it, not less.
If you’ve been involved in discussions of race-based (or really, any other kind of) bigotry, it’s a good chance that you’ve been accused at some point of being “the real racist”. The argument goes something like this: if everyone just acted like race wasn’t important, it would all of a sudden cease to be a factor. I will not bother detailing the number of reasons why this position is stupid - it’s the Wile E. Coyote school of debate:
However, the ubiquity and regularity of this completely facetious line of “reasoning” has left folks like me, who deal in racism on a regular basis, with a particular sensitivity about bogus “racism” calls. There’s nothing that undermines your completely legitimate argument faster than someone saying “yeah but soandso said the same thing, and ze was full of crap!” Then you have to waste time and precious consonants explaining the many ways in which your situation is not the same as theirs.
Which is why stories like this make me mad: More >
Coincidence or Physics?
Jan 18th
This morning, before settling down to write this post on Jerry Coyne’s article, “Why you don’t really have free will,” I logged on to Why Evolution Is True and found Coyne’s follow up post on his article. I don’t know whether there is any connection between physics and coincidence, but I like the title, so I used it.
However, my initial reason for writing this post is to call your attention to the article, provide my comments and ask for yours.
In his USA Today article, Coyne clearly states his thesis:
The debate about free will, long the purview of philosophers alone, has been given new life by scientists, especially neuroscientists studying how the brain works. And what they’re finding supports the idea that free will is a complete illusion. (emphasis added)
Coyne goes on to define what he means by free will, and he supports his position with analogy:
Our brains are simply meat computers that, like real computers, are programmed by our genes and experiences to convert an array of inputs into a predetermined output. . . . The ineluctable scientific conclusion is that although we feel that we’re characters in the play of our lives, rewriting our parts as we go along, in reality we’re puppets performing scripted parts written by the laws of physics.
The second sentence is familiar and makes me suspect that Shakespeare preempted Coyne:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players (AYL 2.7.1-2)
Coyne presents a convincing argument for the absence of free will, and in his last paragraph, he assures us,
There’s not much downside to abandoning the notion of free will; . . . And there are two upsides.
The only sentence in the whole article that I question is the very last sentence:
With that under our belts, we can go about building a kinder world.
If we don’t have free will, how can we build a “kinder world”?
“Why you don’t really have free will,” deserves a close reading. After you read it, let’s discuss it.
Awww, how embarrassing for you.
Dec 26th
The following photo was posted by @LoveGod50. He’s been one of two people (the other is @GodsWordIsLaw) who have been openly harassing Ricky Gervais on twitter. More >
Help Make a List of Reasonable Goals!
Dec 21st
So, if you read my latest post, A Personal Story (or Ramble) to the end, I posed the question about making a list of goals.
Please respond here, More >
“Ex-bishop ‘a societal pariah’: Lawyer”
Dec 20th
An article from the Toronto Sun online, “Ex-bishop ‘a societal pariah’: Lawyer,” is similar, if not identical, to an article I read in the Peterborough Examiner today. I was furious, not so much by the headline but by the article itself. If ex-bishop Raymond Lahey “has, in effect, become a societal pariah,” he deserves to be. Lahey’s lawyer, Michael Edelson, wants a light sentence for the priest who pleaded guilty to importing child porn:
Lahey, who hammered out a multi-million dollar settlement for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, lived a “life of great deeds, good work and immense erudition, education and good character,” Edelson said.
Now, “he wears the scarlet letter,” Edelson said.
Raymond Lahey deserves to wear a scarlet letter even if forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Bradford says that Lahey is no worse, no different than any other man:
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Bradford testified Lahey is into sado-masochism — the submissive side.
Submissives, among other things, enjoy humiliation, he said, noting it “is relatively common.”
Bradford was unshaken on a number of critical issues while on the stand: Lahey is not a pedophile, he is not a risk to the community, and he doesn’t need treatment.
Bradford said the ex-bishop of Antigonish, N.S., did exhibit an interest in male youths aged about 14 to 18, as well as in men.
But Bradford warned a tendency towards this so-called “hebephilia” isn’t a formal diagnosis.
“A lot of normal people show (an interest in adolescents),” he said.
So hebephilic men are normal? Isn’t it a failure in logic to say because a lot of normal people show an interest in adolescents, hebephilic men are normal?
The definition for the word hebephilia is not in the Oxford Dictionary on-line; however, Wikipedia says, “Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty,” yet Dr. Bradford claims Raymond Lahey “is not a risk to the community, and he doesn’t need treatment.”
Lahey should receive the 18- to 22-month jail sentence and probation that the Crown prosecutor David Elhadad is seeking. This will send a message to Catholic priests, the Catholic Church and Catholic apologists that a sexual interest in children or adolescents is unacceptable.
God Loves Canada
Dec 15th
In an article about Canadian politics, Richard Gwyn says
But governing Canada, in the sense of steering it past reefs, is a snap. With oceans on three sides and the U.S. on the other, the country couldn’t be more secure. Affluence comes as easily to us, thanks to nature or God.
While “thanks to nature or God” may be a throw-away comment, it is symptomatic of the arrogance of winners. To say that Canada and Canadians are affluent relative to the rest of the world because God put the country and its people in one of most resource wealthy areas of the globe is arrogance.
Gwynn goes on to say,
As a last bit of luck, Scottish virtues — common sense, pragmatism, conservatism — entered early into our national DNA.
If Canadians have common sense, they know that Canada’s affluence comes from its geographical position on the map of the world, not from God. I’m getting increasing frustrated by people who give credit to God for their own or their country’s success rather than to chance or hard work.
How dare you let yourself get raped like that…
Dec 1st
As I think these words, even before my fingers strike the keys, I feel like I’ve said this before. I feel like I’ve felt this same frustration before. How is it possible that in 2011, nearly 2012, we have countries with laws that jail a woman for infidelity? To add the most reprehensible insult to injury I’ve ever heard of in my whole life, the “infidelity” is a result of being a rape victim. More >
A Moral Obligation
Nov 30th
Should medical professionals be able to pick and choose which procedures they perform? I’m not talking about specialization. Cardiologists don’t perform brain surgery because it is not their area of expertise. What about medical procedures that are part of the expertise? Should the specialist have the right to refuse them on moral or ethical grounds? More >
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