Category Archives: PHIL 500

Burial ground as a human right?

Christians in predominantly Hindu Nepal demand land to bury their dead: Christians have been protesting since a ban was imposed earlier this year on a traditional burial area next to a revered Hindu temple in Katmandu. The Supreme Court has … Continue reading

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The battle of the billboards

Whiplash indeed! A public bus rolls by with an atheist message on its side: “Millions of people are good without God.” Seconds later, a van follows bearing a riposte: “I still love you. — God,” with another line that says, … Continue reading

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Learning to hate God

Add this to the “learn something new every day” category: Misotheism doesn’t accord with binary thinking about religious belief. We are accustomed to view people as either believers, who worship a divinity, or nonbelievers (atheists) or doubters (agnostics), for whom … Continue reading

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Blogging your death

This didn’t make it on to the blog while I was co-teaching the Death and Immortality course. I realize the word is bandied about a lot, blessedly not as much as it was during the Bush administration, but this takes … Continue reading

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Don’t pray for me Argentina

Well, I only stuck with the title because I think Hitchens would see the humor and agree.

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Doesn’t Louisiana have enough on its plate?

I’m not sure this school board in Louisiana has thought this through. Benton said that under provisions of the Science Education Act enacted last year by the Louisiana Legislature, schools can present what she termed “critical thinking and creationism” in … Continue reading

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Social costs of being an athesist

Very good blog post on outing oneself as an atheist by Lauri Lebo.  This wasn’t surprising: 57 percent of U.S. respondents said they felt they would suffer at least minor social repercussions in the workplace if they came out as … Continue reading

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Do transplants transfer moral qualities?

Will getting a transplant from a murderer make you evil? More people willing to refuse transplant from a criminal.

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Continued rise in suicides among middle aged

Not a great statistic among Boomers.

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Franklin, Aristotle, and immortality

A reminder about the connection between notions of immortality, obituaries and Aristotle’s view about assessing a whole life. Franklin’s view offers us shades (pun intended) of Plato, too. When Socrates says that philosophers especially should be in training for death … Continue reading

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