A re-post of my Galileo and the Modern Compromise: IN HIS OPEN LETTER to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing heavy hand of religious orthodoxy: “But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has […]
Galileo, free speech & censorship, religion and science Read More »
In his open letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing heavy hand of religious orthodoxy: “But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other
Galileo’s modern compromise: Letting science work *with* religion Read More »
All from the twenty-first century: * Sorcerers stealing or shrinking men’s penises in Congo. * Black magic murders in Brazil. * Witches beaten and humiliated in in southern India. * God punishes Haiti for its witchcraft and other immoralities. * Though progress in Ghana: a call “for the immediate abolition of witches camps and witchcraft
What’s new in witchcraft Read More »
Enjoyed this one a lot: 15-minute overview of the free speech principles, historically and philosophically, and then a series of questions from the student members of the Dundee FSS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2hEDDPxlU
Dundee (Scotland) Students Free Speech Society Read More »
A contemporary of Galileo’s in reply to his 1610 discovery of Jupiter’s moons: “There are seven windows given to animals in the domicile of the head. From this and many other similarities in nature, such as the seven metals, etc., which were tedious to enumerate, we gather that the number of planets is necessarily seven.
Why there can be only seven planets Read More »
For my Introduction to Philosophy course, a question on the final exam [pdf] was: In your judgment, what is the most dangerous book we read this semester? First give a clear and sympathetic presentation of the book’s most important themes; second, state your criterion/criteria of dangerousness; finally, explain why you think the book is dangerous.
Most dangerous philosophy book? (Spring 2011 edition) Read More »
After the Galileo affair, many religious thinkers switched from a strategy of suppression to an embrace of natural theology. This is from Part 3 of Professor Hicks’s Philosophy of Education course. 1 clip: Previous: Phase One: Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo. Next: Phase Three: “I found it necessary to deny reason …” Return to the Philosophy
Phase Two: The rise of natural theology Read More »