Skeptical yet optimistic { } Jaded but excited { } Intuitive while rational { } Reality is not what you want it to be. It simply is...
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The Nazis weren’t atheists.
Conspiracy or Coincidence? If looked at close the five dollar bill represents the twin towers, the ten is after the planes collided, the twenty shows a building colapsing, the fifty is the dust and smoke, and the hundred is a new beginning.
what oh
that’s crazy
lol I saw this when it was at like 90 notes aw.
A wee bit freaky…
…Man, I haven’t seen anyone bring this up since I was in middle school (pre-Tumblr).
Conspiracy theorists keeping belief in the Illuminati strong and stuff, I guess.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This appears to be your/my brain seeing patterns where there aren’t really any.
The new age movement to which thousands of gurus and their mindless adjuncts belong looks something like postmodernism as sold to children in pop-up book form. This is not a spurious allegation—there is a common thread running between the two philosophies, although in peculiarly different senses. The new age seems to be an extension of the fascination with linking cultural relativism to spiritual and religious matters. This may not have been a negative attribute by itself—at its worst it would have inspired criticism of the monolithic religions of the day and their ethnocentric claims. What happened instead was that the new age, much like many postmodern philosophies, decided that to do away with petty constraints of the past: that is, logic and a desire for truth. Those would be cast aside as manifestations of what the new age was against: inhibitions on spiritual freedom. It is too bad that tossing away those two things also leaves one in the camps of the cheapest charlatans—and it did not take long for charlatans to find a pen. The fall of the new age from genuine search to mere sophism was so quick, given the nature of those who thought themselves liberated, that it now seems that there was never anything there to begin with. What we have today is Deepak Chopra with his misuse of physics and slurring of science, Sathya Sai Baba the Indian guru who claims to be born of a virgin and who woos audiences with parlor tricks, and of course, the now ubiquitous telepsychics, palm readers, fortune tellers, astrologers and other celebrities in contemporary pop culture. Equally comical, although in a more ironic and subtle sense, is the traditionalist religious response to this type of new age phenomenon. Dogmatic religions and the new age pseudophilosophies that they decry are but a step away from each other. They are brothers, one of which was bred in a time when many people stopped caring about the stricter rules but still craved their weekly soma doses. Is there really a difference between saying that prayer can affect the universe and saying that positive thinking can? Advertising miracle water blessed by a televangelist is no less deceitful than selling people magic crystals. We should feel ashamed to cast aside all that we have gained so easily, to forget the many men and women who were honest thinkers and who labored away, often without recognition, for our human legacy. I would like to think that we are leaving something worthwhile for the future, that we have not become so nihilistic that we now worship obscurantism.
Arturo Muñoz
Smite!!! I smote that mother fucker!!!
Religion promises the bliss of the next world while demanding total power in this one. No surprise. It is, after all, man-made.
Anonymous
This infuriates me to no end…
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Common sense never tasted so good!
The MMA/Skepticism Connection
Very interesting article on the connection between fantasy martial arts compared to functional martial arts, critical thinking, and skepticism by Matt Thornton.
The best thing about science – and its mulitpurpose toolkit, skepticism – is that they show you how the Universe really is. Yes, it can be scary, dark, and impersonal. But that’s OK because it’s also complex, deep, marvelous, profound, wondrous, magnificent… and above all, beautiful.
That beauty is out there. All you have to do is stop believing in it, and start understanding it.
Phil Plait / Bad Astronomer (via ramblingsfromthefish)
(Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com)
Matt Thornton Interview
From the Strange Frequencies Archive:
“Matt is a mixed martial artist and coach whose concept of “aliveness training” changed the way many thought about tradition martial arts training in the United States. We started off discussing with him the intersection of skepticism with MMA and why so many skeptics and atheists speak highly of the discipline. From there, we got into why faith is an unreliable means of aligning one’s beliefs wih the truth. We also talked about his own background and how he shed his faith and why. But why is it so difficult for many people to do the same? All in all a very interesting and engaging discussion on why “having faith” is not a good thing at all.”
The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.
Michael Shermer
Joel Nickell
Daniel Dennett!!!!
