True Majority asks activists to sign a letter to the governors that calls for marriage equality. The call is framed as marriage equality being bigger than all other issues: “Marriage equality comes down to human rights.” I took issue with that and wrote them the following: Thank you for your actions regarding marriage equality. As a single by choice, I take issue, though, with your framing marriage equality as a human rights issue: what human rights are we exactly defending by asking for marriage equality? The right to discriminate against other forms of relationships? Marriage is an institution; not a … Continue reading »
May 302008
May 292008
It seems a bit strange to blog about an article about what blogging does to our brains. It feels like attending a BA – Blogger’s Anonymous – meeting: “Hello, my name is Rachel and I blog.” Scientific American recently wrote about writing in blogs. As Timothy Wilson in Strangers to Ourselves observed, writing about our experience can have therapeutic effects. Blogging, of course, is a form of writing, a way to express our thoughts and emotions about what is going on in our lives (some of us try to tie this all in with the world at large but it’s … Continue reading »
May 262008
Richard Eckersley presents in his book Well & Good “two scientific descriptions of the world, which represent the extremes of the modern scientific worldview” (220). At least that is his claim. He first presents a description by Richard Dawkins from his article God’s Utility Function in Scientific American: In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should … Continue reading »
May 262008
In her infinite wisdom, God has enabled the gay scientists at Pink Tiger to discover the gene that causes Christianity. Yes, really. Well, okay, not really but do check out the news report. It’s very funny and does have an important message: some things have genetic predispositions. Of course, an important ethical consideration is to decide if we would want to do something about a gay gene or Christian gene, if we were to isolate it, or an evil gene for that matter. Barbara Oakley’s warning regarding evil genes probably holds true for most other genes. The interaction of genes … Continue reading »
Ken at Open Parachute pointed out a post on Uncommon Descent that tried to show the absurdity of the claim that Darwin was necessary for the Holocaust. DaveScot pretended to call for papers that could be published in a science journal. As DaveScot stated in a comment to Ken’s post, even though the blog is promoting intelligent design, he intended to show “that the theoretical connection between Darwin and holocaust is not science, no legit science journal would ever publish it, and every rejection would be valid.”
Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting my pet dragons. It was a mixed pleasure, of course. Realizing what thoughts perpetuate my internalized singlism was somewhat frustrating (I thought I was over these!) but it was also good to see them clearly. After all, unidentified dragons are difficult to tame. “Dragons” are self-defeating thoughts that come up over and over again as repeating themes, sometimes with variations but usually easily identifiable on close inspection. Calling these thoughts dragons helps create enough distance to analyze them more carefully (although as Timothy Wilson points out that might be an uphill battle).
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