Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Bob the Intelligent Designer creates the Universe
People who claim that the earth is younger than it is (4.54 ± 0.05 billion years) tend to do so for two reasons: either because they claim the evidence points to it or because it was created recently but made to look as it were old. Considering that all the evidence shows the universe to…
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Warning: relying on magic and anecdotes is bad for your health
In my post on evidence-based medicine, I said that “when valid scientific principles are not followed, no valid conclusion can be reached.” Why not? Why don’t anecdotal claims (such as personal experience) count as evidence? Here is an example of what I mean: A young woman who was a Christian Scientist told me that various relatives of hers…
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On modesty
The popular notion that sexual acts should be performed in the dark and under the sheets is derived from the Judeo-Christian dogma that human beings and thus human sexuality are fundamentally corrupt, shameful, and evil. Because this dogma is still widespread throughout secularized Western societies and in secularized equivalents of original sin, it is now…
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Parasitism and intentionality: lessons from the cuckoo
Many species of the cuckoo and cowbird reproduce exclusively by sneaking their eggs into other birds nests, where their chicks kill or starve their nest-mates and so steal resources from the host mother, who often has to raise chicks bigger than her. So why doesn’t the host kick out the foreign eggs? In many cases,…
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On Evolution
Evolution is not just a part of biology. It is the foundation which shapes our understanding of life. It is meaningless to speak of living things outside the context of evolution. It is like trying to learn about human civilization by iterating the appearance and sounds of individual people without any idea of history, leaders,…
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Life in the post-biological universe
Since I’m utterly unqualified to write on this topic, the following should be treated as fiction: Life expectancy in post-biological civilization is measured not in time, but in total calculations (ΣN). This is due to the gradual loss of informational coherency inherent to all entropy-generating processing systems. From a thermodynamic perspective, the parameters of the…
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Loving strange food or: how I learned to stop being picky and love food
Like most Americans, I used to hold some self-evident beliefs about food: The three dogmas of the food phobiac: There are foods I “like” and foods I “dislike” and I ought to stick to the things that I like. The better something tastes, the more unhealthy it must be and vice versa. You must choose…
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The Bill of Rights versus the "War on Terror"
The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to make a fundamental and clear statement about the rights of man. They are fundamental because all Congressional acts are subservient to them and clear because, unlike the complex legal code, the basic rights were intended to be known by all. Having lived through war, the Founders…
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On government-funded science
When tax dollars rather than private investment directs research, political ideology by scientific amateurs (politicians) determines which direction the research heads. The inevitable result is that political connections determines who gets research funds, while the unpopular and risky yet more ultimately world-changing prospects are ignored. For example, AIDS kills very few Americans versus heart disease…
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On "Special Interests"
It is truism today that “special interests” are to blame for economic problems and corruption. But “special interests” are only a symptom, not the cause of the disease. In a populist democracy with a mixed economy, every group that participates in the political system is a “special interest”, with the incentive and the power to…
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