The Course of Reason

A Fifth Grader’s Response to the CFI Board’s Statement

June 17, 2013 Seth Kurtenbach

Olivia, 5th graderThe first thing you notice is that there are words. The words are strung together according to grammatical rules of English, and they form sentences. These sentences express complete thoughts. The thoughts are what you see in your head when you read and understand the sentences.

Read more... 44 comment
 

You’re In College: Now What About Your Parents?

June 14, 2013 Olivia James

FamilyYoung adulthood can be an incredibly awkward time for a whole host of reasons, but one of the most difficult is navigating the transition of your relationship with your parents from an hierarchical to an equal one. So how do you do it? Particularly when you’re a skeptically minded, independent thinking young adult, how do you recognize that your parents may still see you as their little kid? There is, of course, no right answer to this question. Everyone has a slightly different relationship with their parents, but there are some main themes that emerge no matter who you are and how you relate to your parents. Here are some things you might want to consider as you move into adulthood, and some considerations about how to navigate them.

Read more... 0 comment
 

Support Your Local Ex-Muslims

June 11, 2013 Monica Harmsen

Sam Harris's Twitter feed is an interesting place. Here is a recent tweet of his that stuck out in my mind:

Read more... 0 comment
 

Safety and Liveness: Applying Information Assurance Policies to Belief and Mental Health

June 11, 2013 Seth Kurtenbach

My current research applies formal logic to the analysis of information assurance. Blah Blah Blah, right? Well I'll be damned if I didn't just have a conversation with my therapist about the application of information assurance policies to fighting my depression. And what's more, they also apply to the skeptic's dilemma of trying to minimize one's false beliefs or maximizing one's true beliefs. This might be obvious to you, but my brain works funny, so I am just discovering it.

Read more... 0 comment
 

Music Monday: Arcade Fire - “Abraham’s Daughter”

June 10, 2013 Cody Hashman

Arcade Fire - Abraham's DaughterYeah, I read The Hunger Games. Yeah, I was excited for the movie. Yes, I'm excited for the next installment of the trilogy (November 11, 2013). However, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the soundtrack for the motion picture. The first track from The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond was by none other than the Montreal-based indie group responsible for the heretical 2007 album Neon Bible. For the indie hipsters out there, I am of course talking about Arcade Fire. The rest of the album is quite good too, but the first track "Abraham's Daughter" is an ode to the forgotten and/or nameless warriors out there who fight oppression and religious fanaticism simply because it is the right thing to do. 

Read more... 0 comment
 

 1 2 3 >  Last »