Dumb for God

Creationism

Creationism is without a doubt the most common pseudoscience in the world today and the one that has had and continues to have the most pernicious influence on public education worldwide.

The Falklands War
A Note

Map of the Falklands

Sometimes nations go to war over the most trivial matters. Perhaps one of the most telling indications of a war over trivialities is the Falklands war of 1982.

Going to Hell

Some Notes on Dante’s Hell / Inferno

Dante

Perhaps the figure that best typifies the transition of the Middle Ages to the European Renaissance is the Italian poet, and all round man of letters Dante Alighieri (1265?-1321)1. Dante’s life even covers the period in which the high Middle Ages in Europe gave way to the Italian Renaissance Dante’s great work The Divine Comedy, captures that transition almost perfectly for it is a work that is suffused with the other worldly spirit of the Middle Ages, in other words it is thoroughly Christian yet the “new” learning is beginning to affect the perceptions of men and their relationships with each other and the world.

The Big one

And Silliness

Mt. Denali / McKinley

There are of course lies in the history of every nation, comfortable myths that are simply not true. And half-truths that are frequently even worst than out and out lies. Here are a few lies as commemorated at American historic sites across the USA.

300

This is my 300^th posting since I started this blog in 2005. I can’t say that I’ve kept up a steady rate of postings since then. After all some years I’ve only made two postings a year and in 2009 I managed to do 97. In 2012 I was down to 25 over the course of the year. Still I am finding it an educational experience. So here I would like to talk about the whys about my postings.

Criminal Minds

Police Work as Magic

Criminal Minds - Logo

In the 1990’s we had the various Law and Order shows touting the myth that the various rules governing admissible evidence were nothing more than technicalities that enabled the guilty to go free. Further that they were terrible and useless obstacles in the way of the police protecting us from the demonic other, the criminal.1

A Byzantine

Misquote

Edward Gibbon

The Byzantine Empire remains one of the great historical mysteries. We can go over it’s long and conflicted history some other time. Generally until recently most historians either ignored it or re-acted to it’s history and culture with distaste and amazement.

Spring Fever

I just spent the day, (March 29, 2013) outside doing garden work. It was today a rather nice bright spring day. There was virtually no snow left and plants were beginning to peep out from the ground. All in all a pleasant day to do out door work.