Yet another American divide: 'crunk' vs 'bible studies'
How deep are America's cultural fault lines? Depends on which data you crunch.
20 August, 2019
Image courtesy of Boyd L Shearer Jr / OutrageGIS
- America is a divided nation, but perhaps its divisions are as much in the eye of the beholder.
- This map charts the geographic fault lines between 'crazy drunk' America and 'bible study' America.
- Strangely, Las Vegas falls in the latter category – and Salt Lake City in the former.
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Why Secular Humanism can do what Atheism can't.
Atheism doesn't offer much beyond non-belief, can Secular Humanism fill the gaps?
14 August, 2019
Photo by mauro mora on Unsplash
- Atheism is increasingly popular, but the lack of an organized community around it can be problematic.
- The decline in social capital once offered by religion can cause severe problems.
- Secular Humanism can offer both community and meaning, but it has also attracted controversy.
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5 philosophy jokes that will actually teach you something
Jokes so cheesy even French philosophers will love them.
03 July, 2019
Wikimedia Commons
- Philosophy can be difficult to understand, but humor can be a great way to approach it.
- Each of these jokes includes an explanation, so you can learn what they mean if you don't quite get them.
- Side effects of these jokes may include a sense of humor so dry it disproves Thales.
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There are 2 types of god. Only one is within the boundary of science.
Does God exist? The answer rests outside the "normal" boundaries of science.
01 July, 2019
- Science is about natural law, while religion is about ethics. As long as you keep these two separate, Kaku says, there's no problem at all. Problems arise, however, when the natural sciences begin to "pontificate upon ethics" and when religious people begin to pontificate about natural law.
- Albert Einstein believed in the "god of Spinoza" — not a personal god, but one who has set order and harmony in the fabric of the universe. "You can put the laws of physics as we know them on a simple sheet of paper — amazing! It didn't have to be that way," says Kaku.
- The existence of God is not testable because such a review is not reproducible or falsifiable, as most scientific investigations are. In this sense, Kaku says the question and answer whether God exists rests outside the "normal" boundaries of science.
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God is not a man with a beard on a throne in the clouds
Symbols are often used to help people get an idea of higher, often ineffable, truths.
30 June, 2019
- A good story has the ability to transform its readers — it speaks to our psyche, and, in doing so, has the ability to change how we perceive the world.
- When trying to understand the adherents of the world's major religions, Joseph Campbell advises to try to look at mystical experiences through the lens of the founders. In doing so, we can better understand the context of their messaging.
- When we talk about God as an old man on a throne in the clouds, when seen as a metaphor, the imagery helps us understand the divine — the beard expresses great age, the throne symbolizes its supremacy, and the clouds signify that it presides over all of us.
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