Note: This is part 4 of a five part series on how we can discover truth. Here are the other parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 5. The entire series makes up the third chapter of my book, The Triple Path, which can be downloaded for free here in PDF and eReader formats or purchased at all major book retailers (in print and eReader formats). 6) Feelings Feelings are also important parts of knowing truth and in…
1. Tools never die. Almost any technology from our past still exists, and is being used today somewhere in the world — even steam powered car engine parts. 2. Study shows that genes causing religiosity will dominate society. 3. The haves and have-nots. A very interesting chart showing income inequality in the United States, Brazil, China, and India as compared to the rest of the world. The poorest five percent of Brazilians are among the poorest people in the world,…
1. The academy is liberal, deal! A discussion of the possible reasons why the academy is dominated by political liberals. 2. France’s highest court rules that there is no right to same-sex marriage in France. The European Court of Human Rights has also held that there is no such right. 3. Weak Electrical Fields in the Brain Help Neurons Fire Together. Neurons in the brain may not just communicate by physical connections between them, but also through electrical fields. 4….
A lot of people have shared a recent article about “Chinese mothering” by Yale law professor Amy Chua. All I can say is: what a terrible way to raise your kids. These two blog posts (here and here) by economist Bryan Caplan are the best concise refutations I’ve seen of Chua’s parenting philosophy. Decades of research shows that parenting style doesn’t make much difference in how kids turn out. Beyond a minimum baseline (providing basic needs, not abusing them, etc.),…
I frequently hear people say that they think the world is getting more evil and more dangerous. But the statistics show that, in most ways, over the last few decades life has been getting better for most people, and violence and crime are decreasing in meaningful ways for most people. Let’s talk about some of the many ways in which the world is getting better. Let’s start with the most evil things in many religions: murder and abortion: Murder, violence,…
Note: This is part 3 of a five part series on how we can discover truth. Here are the other parts: part 1, part 2, part 4, and part 5. The entire series makes up the third chapter of my book, The Triple Path, which can be downloaded for free here in PDF and eReader formats or purchased at all major book retailers (in print and eReader formats). This is this post in this series on truth, we continue…
Note: This is part 2 of a five part series on how we can discover truth. Here are the other parts: part 1, part 3, part 4, and part 5. The entire series makes up the third chapter of my book, The Triple Path, which can be downloaded for free here in PDF and eReader formats or purchased at all major book retailers (in print and eReader formats). In this second part of the series on truth, we discuss…
Note: This is part 1 of a five part series on how we can discover truth. Here are the other parts: part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. The entire series makes up the third chapter of my book, The Triple Path, which can be downloaded for free here in PDF and eReader formats or purchased at all major book retailers (in print and eReader formats). Our desire for truth is one of the most fundamental human…
Welcome to The Amateur Thinker. In this first post. I’d like to discuss the blog’s purpose by discussing an interesting talk recently given at the Edge Conference by psychology professor Jonathan Haidt. Professor Haidt titled his talk “The New Science of Morality.” In part of his talk, Professor Haidt discussed an article by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber called “Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory.” Mercier and Sperber’s article discusses the question of “why are humans so…