Today I had a peculiar experience. I was discussing religion with a coworker and, for the first time in recorded history, he backed down from an argument. This gentlemen, in addition to being my coworker, is also quite a bit smarter than I. Why would a man who could ordinarily debate circles around me […]

Several weeks ago at the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado, a guest speaker suggested to his audience of high school students that they “have sex and use drugs” (article). Joel Becker, a professor of psychology at the University of California, was quoted as saying,

“I am going to encourage you to have sex and encourage you to use drugs appropriately. Why I am going to take that position is because you are going to do it anyway,” he continued. “I think as a psychologist and health educator, it is more important to educate you in a direction that you might actually stick to. So, I am going to stay mostly on with the sex side because that is the area I know more about. I want to encourage you to all have healthy, sexual behavior.”

As I read yet another refutation of Pascal’s Wager, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with my father yesterday.  For those of you not familiar with Pascal’s Wager, it goes something like this:

If you believe in God and God exists, you will be rewarded with an eternity in Heaven.
If you believe in God and […]

It was only a matter of time until I decided the world needed to hear my thoughts about Michael Richards. My time has finally come; and yet here I am, not entirely sure of what I want to say about it. Right now I’m torn between which side of the argument frustrates me more: the […]

Back when I was being brought up on Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, nobody told me there was a more adult side to Mark Twain. I was introduced to some of the philosophical issues regarding morality in Huck Finn during a college philosophy course but even then, quite surprisingly, the fact that Mark Twain was […]