The irrationality of rationalists(3)

When we use the language of purpose please understand we mean purposeless, tiny scraps of matter act  as if they were the most devious politicians (just a metaphor but a metaphor of what pray?), ideas that couldn't possibly have...

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The irrationality of rationalists(2)

Rationalists generally think that primitive people believed in religion because they didn't have science.  Offering sacrifice to the gods was the only way they could think of of getting their crops to grow.  This is a complete misconception. Primitive...

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The irrationality of rationalists

Most rationalist take their stand on the principle that science and only science tells us truth because only science follows a rigorously rational method of enquiry.  But science by definition only investigates material dismensions of reality.  If there were...

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Capitalism is not what we need now

Capitalism has been an immense boon to mankind.  Nothing else that has been invented so far has  been so good at creating wealth and making poor people rich.  But like everything else, it is not immune to change and...

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Sex in Shakespeare’s late plays (4)

We can understand more of the Greek concept of comedy too by considering its connection to the mysteries of Eleusis.  The rituals of Eleusis certainly went back to  a pre-patriarchal era  in neolithic Crete when religious experience seems to...

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The Tories are the enemies of children everywhere.

The evidence that global warming is man made and, later this century, will be by far the greatest peril humanity has ever faced if we don't quit fossil fuels a.s.a.p., is now overwhelming.  But the Tory Government is backing...

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Sex in Shakespeare’s late plays (3)

The inseparable relationship between comedy and tragedy goes back to the origins of drama itself.    Our word comedy comes from the Greek komos,  the joyful procession  that accompanied the rural god Dionysos at the festival of wine on his way...

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Sex in Shakespeare’s late plays (2)

 Adelman’s handling of the late plays is a triumph of  doctrinaire feminist dogma over Shakespeare’s art.  Her profound misunderstanding of them is rooted in  her failure to appreciate the comedies,  which she barely treats in her book.  The comedies...

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Sex in Shakespeare’s late plays (1)

Sex in Shakespeare’s Late Plays (1) Janet Adelman In her treatment of the late plays Janet Adelman,  the  Shakespearean feminist scholar, expands her thesis that Shakespeare only resolved the dilemmas of woman-hatred that he had exposed in the tragedies by ...

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Beyond the God Delusion

Introduction I am a great admirer of Richard Dawkins.  He is, of course, not without faults and blind spots, and I want to spend much of this book pointing out what I think those are as best I can...

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