NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, math, science, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
2015-09-14
Importance: 

Religious freedom and religious accommodations (Part 2)

The goal of this post is to clearly state the principles which informed my position in the last post. As a reminder: the last post discussed a Muslim flight attendant who was in danger of losing her job. She had refused to serve alcohol on flights, as such service would go against her faith. My […]
2015-09-07
Importance: 

Religious freedom and religious accommodations (Part 1)

There is a news article about a Muslim flight attendant who is in danger of losing her job. She refuses to serve alcohol on flights, as such service would go against her faith. This story seems to be a decent test case for evaluating our positions, without the usual political cheerleading getting in the way of […]
2015-08-31
Importance: 

Come visit my church

I attend a church called Tribe, in Berkeley, California. You can find our website at tribesites.org. I obviously think that my church is pretty great - I've been going there for about a decade now. I'd like to invite anyone who reads this post to come by for a Sunday service. Everyone is welcome, and […]
2015-07-27
Importance: 

The lifetime of evil (part 2)

In the last post, I introduced the idea that an act - an evil act in particular - has a characteristic time-scale over which its consequences become clear. This time-scale can be determined from the mechanics of the act in question. I was initially inclined to call this the "half-life of evil", but that phrasing […]
2015-07-20
Importance: 

The lifetime of evil (part 1)

The lifetime of an evil may be defined as: The time it takes for the negative consequences of an evil act to be made clearly manifest. Or, The time it takes for an evil practice, policy, or organization to be abolished. Or, The time it takes for the moral arc of the universe to bend, […]

History, moral progress, and moral perfection (part 2)

In the last post of this series, we examined the nature of social progress, and where that leaves us in the course of history. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. In the future, it will continue to bend towards perfection - and away from our current state. The […]
2015-07-06
Importance: 

Human laws, natural laws, and the Fourth of July

Have you heard about the time they tried to redefine pi(π) - the mathematical constant - by law? Yes, that really happened. The cherry on top is that the suggested value of pi was not anywhere near the correct value: the bill implied various different values like 3.2 and 4. Thankfully, the bill never became law, and […]

On same-sex marriage

Last Friday, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states. I had long intended to write something on this important and contentious issue - in fact, you can see that my last few posts have been laying the foundation in preparation for speaking on this topic. But, as many observers noted, the matter […]
2015-06-22
Importance: 

History, moral progress, and moral perfection (part 1)

Do you think that you live at the apex of moral history? That, after thousands of years bumbling and mistakes, your particular place (America, for instance) and time (June 2015) is when your society has finally gotten things right and achieved perfect virtue? Obviously you don't. I hope none of us are so foolish, provincial, […]
2015-04-06
Importance: 

"Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

I'm trying my hand at a Bible fanfic. This story is based on John 21. In that chapter, Jesus thrice asks Peter whether Peter loves him. The subtleties of this conversations are lost in translation, as the Greek words "agape" and "phileo" are both translated as "love". You can read more about the possible meaning of […]
1 … 5 6 7 8
Copyright