Atomic Choice
I know an update is long overdue, I’m sure the random person or two who occasionally check this site are wondering how my epic vacation went. I promise I’ll spill the beans soon. Right now however, I am thinking about this article and how it reminds me of the human free-will and God’s predestination/foreknowledge/omniscience conundrum. Incidently, some time ago Dan Price, jimi, Luke and I had a discussion that had Dan, jimi and I coming to a conclusion strikingly similar, albeit phrased in three distinctly different ways. Read from the article for yourself: Last week a conference at Oxford University explored the idea that every time a subatomic system reaches a decision point—to undergo radioactive decay or not, say—it chooses both...
Metanarratives and “External” Verification
R. Sherman has spent some time lately pointing out the unfortunate frequency that logical fallacies find their abhorrent way into common discourse. The two particular fallacies he notes as being especially common are the appeal to authority and more recently the dreaded ad hominem. Of course he’s right about how often these are employed; think back to the latest argument you heard and it’s quite likely that someone or something was insulted in the argument (i.e. only stupid people like country music) or that a claim was backed up by the rock solid reasoning of claiming that “so and so” said so, therefore it must be so (i.e. my friend is an English professor and said. ). Fallacies are fun to examine and important to understand if you value...
RE: Sports, religion strange bedfellows
This post is a letter I sent Rick Telander, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist in regard to his article Sports, religion strange bedfellows. Please read the article here. —————————– Dear Rick, I was frustrated after reading your article and have been sorely tempted to fling an ad-hominem laden vindictive your way. Of course you might assume that my desire to do such springs from my supposed inherent intolerance that is (naturally) inextricably bound to my religious beliefs. But then again, you probably know that such assumptions are dangerous because they are often wrong, and are a form of intolerance that unfairly binds others to a preconceived idea. No, I’m not frustrated by the fact that...