Category: psychology

  • An Open Letter to Mark Mercer and Saint Mary’s University

    Dr. Mercer, I recently read your article in the UBC’s Ubyssey, and I have to admit: it raised some serious questions for me. I’ve spent some time thinking on them, so I hope that you’re not immediately dismissive. These questions pertain to your being a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, and yet you fail to act…

  • Religion is the Cause of Terrible Behaviour

    A fairly common theme in many atheist blogs is that religion is a causal factor in the various atrocities committed by people who are religious. JT Eberhard makes that point at the bottom of this post when he says (sarcastically): But Islam can’t be the cause of this barbaric behavior because the Koran has some…

  • Taking Advantage of Seeking a Better Life

    There’s no limit to the number of ‘self-help’ gurus out there, who lay claim to all sorts of nonsense. At best, these people are deeply misguided about what it is they are doing. At worst, they are intentionally running scams and swindling people out of money. I want to focus on a particular example: Psychology…

  • Language as prejudice

    So let’s start with: I am neither a linguist, nor a sociologist, but I’d love to hear from anyone with experience in those fields. I did a quick search on Google Scholar and didn’t find anything related. I think a large part of racism is borne implicitly, a collection of attitudes and behaviour adjustments that, in…

  • Discussing Religious Beliefs

    This is the second of two dialogues I put together using xtranormal.com. If anyone happens to know of any similar websites/software out there, I’d love to heard about it. Like this article? Follow Brian on Twitter!

  • Memories, Emotions, and Brains

    One of the things I noticed when taking my Philosophy undergrad was how 17th century Philosophers (and Philosophers of other periods too) often made grandiose claims about how people thought about the world. Often their 100% certain proclamations were refuted by other Philosophers who were also 100% certain about how the world worked. A particular example…

  • Shame is not a lever lightly pulled

    Occasionally, I see people invoking ‘shame’* as a strategy to some end. That people ‘should be ashamed for doing shameful things’ and that ‘shaming people for doing shameful things is good’. I have to admit that I find this mindset somewhat baffling, for a number of reasons. Without getting into the ins and outs of…

  • The Essentials of our movement

    DJ Grothe and his ambivalent stance regarding sexual harrassment. Dawkins and his ‘Dear Muslima’ letter. Penn and… well, frankly, everything. All of these freethinkers and atheists and skeptics taking a wrong turn here… They must be bad freethinkers and atheists and skeptics. Right…? [See links at the end of post for background info] I am…