Hanlon’s razor

Hanlon’s razor is a precautionary little principle. It’s useful in keeping discussions productive, in fending off paranoia and in reminding us not to assume too much about another person’s motives.

Hanlon’s razor is a precautionary little principle. It’s useful in keeping discussions productive, in fending off paranoia and in reminding us not to assume too much about another person’s motives. It’s often impossible for us really to know.

Hitchens’ razor

Hitchens’ razor encapsulates that incisive, no-nonsense, almost scholastic dialectic

Christopher Hitchens had an incisive mind and a reputation for the unceremonial dismissal of foolish opponents. If you were planning to take on Hitch you definitely would have needed to bring your best arguments. Hitchens’ razor encapsulates that incisive, no-nonsense, almost scholastic dialectic in a critical thinking principle that could hardly have been named after anyone else.

Carl Sagan’s razor

Carl Sagan, astronomer and science populiser was no fool. He was the one behind the incredibly successful history of science series, Cosmos. Not only was it a hit in the 1970s when Sagan presented it himself but it was equally popular when Neil de Grasse-Tyson remade it decades later. Such was the ability of Sagan. His razor is as straightforward as it is important. Find out more in under four minutes by clicking the video below.

The argument from popularity

Pastor Tom Brown seems to enjoy lying about atheism. He does it such a lot.

Pastor Tom Brown seems to enjoy lying about atheism. He does it such a lot. This time he’s surpassed himself by devoting his whole video to a logical fallacy called the argument from popularity (argumentum ad populum).

God’s genocide

many on the right support Zionist apartheid – because the Christian right insist that God gave that land to Israel and they command an awful lot of votes and even more money around the world.

Now then. How do you feel about genocide? How do you think the God of Abraham, the Bronze age God of war feels about genocide? More importantly, how do you imagine those Christians who think the Bible is the infallible word of God feel about the abuses committed by the state of Israel today toward Palestinians in the West Bank?

This is why so many on the right support Zionist apartheid – because the Christian right insist that God gave that land to Israel and they command an awful lot of votes and even more money around the world. This is not to say that all Israelis or even all Jews are Zionists but those that are seem to be calling the shots with devastating effect upon the Palestinians.

This isn’t defence, it’s invasion and it’s genocide. This is the unchanging God of Abraham commanding the outright destruction of entire populations, including, presumably innocent children and pregnant women.

So don’t give me any pro-life crap about the value of unborn babies before the Lord. Your God is a war criminal, a brutal, capricious, sadistic and genocidal torturer. And the Christians who follow him into defending the abuses of the Zionists are no better.

The end is not nigh

There’s no second coming. There wasn’t even a first. And there will be no stars falling to earth. That’s impossible.

The world isn’t ending – really, it’s not. Bible literalists like to claim that we’re in the end times. They claim to have prophecies to prove it. You know like Jesus’ prophecy that says “There shall be wars and rumours of wars”. Yeah, well show me a time – show me a single day since the New Testament was written down when that hasn’t been true.

That was Mark 13 verse 7. But the real reason not to take Jesus seriously here is found in Mark 13:25…

The end really isn’t nigh – at least not by any ‘second coming’