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The Death Penalty as Retribution
The next argument that is put forward in favour of the death penalty is that it’s required as part of retributive justice. The major problem with this position is that it has no basis in any sound ethical theories, and appears to be nothing more than a holdover from various religions.
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Mr. Deity and His Epic Skeptifail
I don’t typically watch Mr. Deity videos, as they’re a little contrived for my tastes, but they’re generally well-received in the Skeptic/Atheist community. They’re light, usually well-informed, and poking fun at believers is bound to raise a few chuckles. Low-hanging fruit. But clearly I was mistaken as to the quality of the skepticism at play.…
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The Death Penalty, Deterrence in Practice
In Part 1 of this series, I dealt with the plausibility of the model in favour of Deterrence. But let’s forget all about that for a moment. Let’s put aside all the science behind our decision processes, how the human brain works, and all of that stuff. Like Deterrence-advocates, let’s pretend that science hasn’t moved…
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Translink: ‘screwing the poor is our business model going forward’
Here in Vancouver, we’re serviced by a combination of light rail and buses. Both of which are fairly regular, and cheap. I’ve lived in a couple of different countries, visited many cities, and I have to say that the transit system here is easily one of the best in the world. (Do I need the…
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The Death Penalty, Deterrence in Principle
This is going to be the first part of a four-part series on the death penalty, There are two main arguments trotted out in favour, both of which I feel fail to be convincing. I’ll get to them, but first I need to sketch out some philosophical/ethical commitments. It helps to get these out of…
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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…
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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!
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Single people don’t have a right to have sex
A good default position to hold is that ‘whatever the Family Research Council says is wrong’. You’ll get a fair bit of mileage out of that, and you’ll generally be on the right side of history as things shake out. However, in this particular case, I’m going to agree with Pat Fagan, senior member of…
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Honour Killings
This isn’t quite topical anymore, but I thought post this dialogue to go to with the reboot of this site. I really liked Xtranormal.com, and I’m disappointed that it’s been shut down, as I was intending to make a few more of these. If anyone happens to know of any similar websites/software out there, I’d…
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Mr. Murphy, and a Sudden Outbreak of Facepalms
I have read Mr. Murphy’s recent article on the national Post, and I have to admit that he has convinced me that my previous pro-atheist stance was foolish and misguided. Atheists are nothing but angry petulant people, with nothing to complain about.
