Life, the Universe and Everything
Politics
Politicians and how they politic.
Social Commentary in Games: Bioshock Infinite
011 years
[Warning: This article discusses the video game Bioshock Infinite and contains spoilers.] Video games, like science fiction are bounded only by the creator’s imagination. They both provide alternate realities that can provide a culture or world, as a canvas, to make social commentary. In the 1960’s, Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek series had scripts that […]
The Republican Party Has Left Me
011 years
Contemporary conservatism and its influence on the Republican Party was, until recently, a mystery to me. The practitioners’ bludgeoning style of politics, their self-serving manipulation of the political processes, and their policies that focus narrowly on perceived self-interest — none of this struck me as based on anything related to traditional conservatism. Rather, truth be […]
Darby, Dispensationalism, the Rapture and Understanding Conservative Christians
012 years
[Author’s note: part of this article is an excerpt from my book Jefferson’s Razor.] I have heard people use the United States motto, “In God we trust,” and its placement on U.S. money, as supportive evidence that the Founding Fathers established a Christian nation. Hopefully, most now know that the adoption of “In God we […]
Response to Mike Huckabee’s “Where Was God?”
012 years
[Author’s note: Originally, this was a response to Mike Huckabee’s “Where was God?” video he posted on Facebook, but since then many others—James Dobson and Newt Gingrich, for two—have voiced the same remarks, directly or indirectly blaming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on our secular society. Although, it is a response to Mr. Huckabee, […]
No Simple Answers to Shootings
112 years
In the wake of the recent shooting tragedies, there have been a rash of statements by pundits, stating that such-and-such is the cause of the shootings; it is the media’s fault, it is video games, there are too many guns, there are too few guns, it is crazy people that kill and not guns, and […]
If Everyone Was Like That, the Human Race Would Die
012 years
In order to justify their stance of discrimination, I have heard it said, “If all people were born gay, the human race would die out. It goes against nature.” Nature and humankind is about wonderful diversity. I will let that sink in for a moment; humankind is full of diversity. There are denizens of conditions […]
In-Group/Out-Group Bias, Obama’s Father and World War II
012 years
I posed this question to a co-worker, “If you heard a well-known person say that his father served in World War II, when there was no way he would have been old enough, would you lambaste that person as a liar or would you say, ‘Hey, that makes no sense for him to say that. […]
Where Will It End?
013 years
While discussing marriage equality, one person argued that you couldn’t allow same-sex marriage because “where would it end?” If same-sex marriage was allowed, it wouldn’t end there with two consenting adults; People would want to marry their dog or some other strange nonsense. Nevermind that it is demeaning to equate a human to an animal. […]