NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, math, science, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
2015-11-09
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How to think about the future (Part 3)

It's easy to predict the future. It'll be basically like the past. How could that be? Isn't everything changing all the time? Are we not living in an era of unprecedented growth and technological advancement? Isn't the world not only changing, but changing faster and faster? I mean, just look at the graph of the […]
2015-11-02
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How to think about the future (Part 2)

In the last post, I demonstrated that even if Marty McFly went back in time for just one second, just his gravitational influence would irrevocably change the future. I then claimed that this is actually overkill: that even small changes at interstellar distances will affect things on Earth. Let's see about that. (Most of this […]
2015-10-26
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How to think about the future (Part 1)

It turns out that the future is completely unpredictable. That may seem like a trivial statement. But most people have no idea just how true it is. A simple physics calculation may shed some light on this subject. In the film franchise "Back to the Future", the main characters Marty McFly and Doctor "Doc" Emmett […]
2015-10-19
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On martyrdom (Part 1)

We're going over the book of Acts in my Bible study group. We recently went over the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, and did a related study looking at the concept of martyrdom. Here are some relevant quotes on that topic, from various persons: If a man has not discovered something that he will […]
2015-10-12
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Religious freedom and religious accommodations

This post is a consolidation of a whole series into one post. It's fairly long. Click on the following entries in the table of contents below to jump directly there: Introductory case: A Muslim flight attendant who won't serve alcohol Enumerating the general principles at work A Muslim student's home-engineered clock is taken for a […]
2015-10-05
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Religious freedom and religious accommodations (Part 5)

In this post, I will tackle the story surrounding Kim Davis. She is the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, who was jailed for some time for refusing to issue marriage licenses. Her rationale was that issuing them to same-sex couples would violate her religious beliefs. The rules for this post are the same as […]
2015-09-28
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Religious freedom and religious accommodations (Part 4)

I will tackle the story surrounding Sweet Cakes by Melissa in this post. "Sweet Cakes by Melissa" is a cake shop that was heavily penalized for refusing to cater a same-sex wedding, which they felt was against the principles of their religion. The rules in this post are the same as in last week's post: […]
2015-09-21
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Religious freedom and religious accommodations (Part 3)

In the last post, I stated several principles which govern the interaction between the majority and a minority. We will now apply these principles to a real-world case, beyond the original story of the Muslim flight attendant. For reference, the principles are reproduced below: I believe that people have a right to the free exercise […]
2015-09-14
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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
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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 […]
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