When receiving an award, be it for this or for that, it’s now considered churlish not to acknowledge that, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” Only at one’s peril should this be confused with “We… Read More ›
moral
AN ANALYSIS OF MIRACLES IN THREE AWKWARD PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENTS
I. What is a Law of the Land? Thomas Hobbes thought that in a state of nature there’s “no government at all, except the government of small families, the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust,” I’m not sure the concord… Read More ›
WHY I’M AN ANTI-ANTI-RACIST
Look, people, it’s not rocket science. Just as we humans know that dogs come in different shapes and sizes and colours, dogs know that humans come in different shapes and sizes and colours. But they don’t think to sort us… Read More ›
SOME PUZZLES ABOUT RACISM
I’m not sure what racism is, but I am sure no one else does either. I know it’s a term of opprobrium, like ’sexism’ or ‘fascism’ or ‘colonialism’. But what exactly is the accuser accusing the accused of? A racist can’t… Read More ›
INDIGENOUS EXCEPTIONALISM
In early May of 1463, a full twenty-nine years before Columbus ‘discovered’ what was to the Europeans the ‘new world’, a boatload of Mi’kmaq from what is now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, set sail – actually they rowed… Read More ›
A DEFENCE OF BIGOTRY
If I were born blind, I’d have no idea what colour I am. Or even that people come in different colours. I’d only know about it if someone told me about it. As it happens I wasn’t born blind. But even then… Read More ›
THE NO-END-IN-SIGHT CLAUSE
All the epidemiologists and politicians are talking about flattening the curve, by which they don’t mean– at least not necessarily – reducing the total area under the curve, i.e. reducing the number of people who’ll eventually contract Covid 19. Even… Read More ›
ONLY BAD PEOPLE ASK BAD QUESTIONS
I guess this is a case of in for a penny, in for a pound. How so? Because once one’s asked – as I have in an earlier post – how many lives have actually been saved once we include… Read More ›
SOME UNSOLICITED THEOLOGY FROM A SELF-CONFESSED ATHEIST
A being that wants for nothing wants nothing. That’s why it makes no sense to talk about the self-sufficiency of God. If there was nothing He felt was wanting He wouldn’t have bothered creating anything. But apparently He did. In… Read More ›