Interesting things found on the Web
Because that's what blogs are all about, right?
1. The subprime crisis is explained in rudimentarily-drawn web comic form.
2. John Gray writes on "The Atheist Delusion" in The Guardian.
A great deal of modern thought consists of secular myths - hollowed-out religious narratives translated into pseudo-science. Dennett's notion that new communications technologies will fundamentally alter the way human beings think is just such a myth.3. Here is a big, comprehensive superdelegate tracker.
4. Wikipedia reports on Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope.
Diogenes scorned not only family and political social organization, but property rights and reputation. The most shocking feature of his philosophy is his rejection of normal ideas about human decency. Exhibitionist and philosopher, Diogenes is said to have eaten (and, once, masturbated) in the marketplace, urinated on some people who insulted him, defecated in the theatre, and pointed at people with his middle finger.Also, be sure to periodically check my list of links on the right; you never know when I'll have added something new that will strike your fancy.
posted by Adam Villani @ 3/20/2008 06:37:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This was my favorite paragraph of Gray's in showing just how facile the knowledge of ideology and intellectual history is among these evangelical atheists:
"Belief in progress is a relic of the Christian view of history as a universal narrative, and an intellectually rigorous atheism would start by questioning it. This is what Nietzsche did when he developed his critique of Christianity in the late 19th century, but almost none of today's secular missionaries have followed his example. One need not be a great fan of Nietzsche to wonder why this is so. The reason, no doubt, is that he did not assume any connection between atheism and liberal values - on the contrary, he viewed liberal values as an offspring of Christianity and condemned them partly for that reason. In contrast, evangelical atheists have positioned themselves as defenders of liberal freedoms - rarely inquiring where these freedoms have come from, and never allowing that religion may have had a part in creating them.
Give that man a cigar, and he goes on to note how embarrassed atheists are to acknowledge their great efforts in 20th century politics, mostly dealing with Nazi and Communist atheism by pretending it isn't. Nietzsche (along with his disciples Weber, Freud and Heidegger) was a serious thinker, worth reading today. Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens are not.
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