“Solid female characters, not just superheroes, are essential for the Arab world at this time of unprecedented violence against women.” — Joumana Merhej, creator of female Muslim superhero “Malaak” (quoted by Salon editor/writer Prachi Gupta) A Facebook friend of mine posted an article announcing Marvel Comics’ new “Muslim Girl Superhero”, which will debut in January […]
“Statecraft is soulcraft.” — Aristotle I usually read during my “lunch hour”. Whether working at a job or taking care of stuff at home (or just hangin’ out), that’s a time I usually set aside to get through at least a few pages in one of the books I have in progress. Lately, I’ve been […]
“But examine everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” — I Thessalonians 5:21 (NASB) I’m not really into Halloween. Haven’t been for years. Sure, in my early years, I did the whole trick-or-treating thing. I remember, when I was around 5 or 6, I went out dressed […]
Part 7: Causes and Comparisons “Correlation does not equal causation.” — many people, including me (‘cuz it makes me sound smart) We’re baaaaaaack, and we have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started! Clear thinking & reasoning require at least a basic understanding of causal relationships. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to make […]
I’m not the first to try something like this, so some of these may sound a little familiar. Others, not so much. I limited myself to ten for the obvious biblical parallel, but obviously more could be devised. Hope you like it! The 10 Liberal/Progressive Commandments 1. Do not have any other gods before… Nah, […]
Hey, folks! In Part 1 of “Calculating God” earlier this month, I began by talking a little about my reading habits, including science-fiction, and introduced the reader (assuming you/they weren’t already familiar with him) to the Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer. His novel Calculating God (2000) is the source for the title of these two […]
If you have followed this blog for very long, you know that it’s not uncommon for me to cite from, or at least refer to, various books on the topics of science, politics, and religion. Non-fiction stuff. But, I also read, watch, and listen to a lot of fiction, as well. As it turns out, […]
“Use soft words and hard arguments.” — English proverb “Soft words are hard arguments.” — Thomas Fuller (emphasis mine) Among the various books I have in progress, lately I’ve been reading Arguing with Friends: Keeping your friends and your convictions by Paul Buller. It’s a relatively thin book, but I only read 2 or 3 […]
Part 6: Avoiding Presumptions “A presumption becomes a self-refuting assertion.” — R. Alan Woods Following hot on the heels of “Part 5: Facts Over Feelings”, today’s logical fallacies involve inappropriate presumptions that confuse and invalidate one’s argument. (Of course, I would never do this! … OK, OK, maybe.) Sometimes when making a case or […]
Part 5: Facts Over Feelings “Feelings should never supersede rational thought… so, if you feel that you’ve got the answer, you should think some more.” — Julie Ann Elliott-Morton Up to this point in the series, we have dealt with the basics. We learned about the fundamental laws of logic, categorical propositions and logical relationships. […]
