- Doublethink means the power of holding contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any facts that become inconvenient. —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Author Archives: Dwight
Fallacies of the Naive Observer
Today I’m going to discuss a fallacy common to observers of the physical world (people like us), one which has significant practical importance. I call it the naive observer fallacy, and it goes something like this. (1) Observers bring biases … Continue reading
Posted in Atheology, Naturalism, Nature of Knowledge, Simulacrum, Supernaturalism
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Mind is the Brain Improving Itself
Intelligence is being able to see what is right in front of you. Ignorance is looking at the world before you and seeing what you were taught to see. For thousands of years people looked at the night sky and … Continue reading
Posted in Atheology, Naturalism, Nature of Knowledge, Simulacrum, Uncategorized
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Why Something Rather Than Nothing?
“Why is there something rather than nothing?” is an unanswerable question, but the reason it’s an unanswerable question turns out to be interesting. First, is it an unanswerable question? Yes. For example, “God” cannot be the answer because God is … Continue reading
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Rough Notes about Consciousness
I suspect that no topic has been obfuscated with more nonsense—religious, philosophical or scientific—than consciousness. First, the focus on what consciousness “is” usually starts at the wrong place, at what might be called “high up” complex consciousness, rather than beginning … Continue reading
Posted in Atheology, Naturalism, Nature of Knowledge, Simulacrum
1 Comment
Do We Live in a Simulation?
The human brain creates a simulation of the world around us from sensory inputs. This simulation is inside of us, and can be analyzed and known and expanded with supplemental knowledge. But some (actual) scientists are confused. They wonder if … Continue reading
Posted in Atheology, Naturalism, Nature of Knowledge, Simulacrum
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Atheism v Naturalism
A Pew Research Center option (“There is no God or higher power, other than the laws of nature/physics/mathematics”) made me realize that atheists with a natural worldview reject one additional false belief which unthoughtful atheists overlook. There is a progression … Continue reading
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Bill Nye, Ken Ham, and the Bible
[This is an old draft that I never completed. Oh well, here it is. As is.] There was a recent debate on the scientific merits of Creationism between Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) and Ken Ham (founder of Answers in … Continue reading
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When Biology Trumps Physics
[The following is a draft that I wrote a good decade ago, never completed. The title reveals that I had ambitious intentions for where my line of thought would go. But, being human, the 20th century morass of “information theory” and … Continue reading
Posted in Naturalism, Non-Existence Arguments
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Is Evolution a Fact?
It drives me crazy (not really, of course) when atheists (and lately even some scientists) assert that evolution is a “fact”. Now, the word “fact” can have various (conflicting) meanings. For example there is a sense in which calling something … Continue reading
Posted in Nature of Knowledge, Uncategorized
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Scepticism about Scientific Realism
What follows is in reference to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on scientific realism – http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/ The article explains what scientific realism is (no easy task, given that the position has been formulated in numerous and diverse ways), and discusses … Continue reading
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