The Rational Druid

How does an atheist and skeptic deal with the idea of the immortality of the soul? That should be a major stopper right there. Again, semantics comes to the rescue. It all depends on what you actually mean by the words used. The biggest problem word is 'soul'. Most people really don't have a solid meaning for this word. They mostly have a handwaving description vaguely referring to some paranormal, non-physical material that the soul is made up of, and some of it's properties/characteristics. This is the real problem; no one really knows what the word means. Well, I know what it means. At least according to my observations and some rational thought. The soul is what makes me 'me'. It is all of my experiences, combined with my genetic pre-dispositions. I can hear it all already: "How can that survive? How is that immortal?" I am not alone in the world. The universe has a me shaped imprint on it, and all of the people I interact with are affected to som...

I just saw this site this morning. I found the link in Make magazine (awesome magazine, by the way). There is far too much info here for me to go into. All I can say is that you need to go check this out if you have any interest in physics or science.

This is the second part of the atrocious article that appears in the August 2011 issue of Touchstone. As before, my comments are shown below in red. ----------------------------------------------------- With the production of electromagnetic waves by radio masts etc., it has been shown that certain tree species such as pines suffered badly, while others have shown accelerated growth. Where's the proof? The only article I could find was a very shaky one from 1996 in Latvia (doi:10.1016/0048-9697(95)04921-5). If this is what you are talking about, then you need a lot more evidence before you can say anything conclusive. Electromagnetic 'contamination' has increased 100 times in the last thirty years. How do you define 'contamination'? You can't use loaded words like this without some kind of definition. What this shows is that not all electromagnetic energies are destructive; understanding their level or hertz is informative, especially for us humans. By le...

In the July 2011 issue of Touchstone, an article appeared that seems to be the culmination of woo and pseudo-science. It seems to touch on almost every bad idea. I finally had enough and decided to take this particular article and make an example of it. Below, I've added my comments in red deconstructing the enormous number of logical and factual errors. Feel free to leave comments or email me. Note: I think most of the "astronomical evidence" discussed below may have come from the web site at http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/peterr/annex/PhenomenaReported1/PR.html . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this age of scientific reductionism, those of us who talk to trees are deemed strange and alternative: when the trees talk back to us, then we're mad, and simple. Condescension and pity are the labels of the day. Things, however, are changing. No longer is magic seen as impossible, or as clever tricks organised and performed by...

Finally, I found instructions on how to make a light saber, and a TARDIS! Yeay!! Sci-Fi IKEA Manuals | Design Milk

Colin Mochrie, on Who's line is it anyway? , called himself "the lightening rod of hate". He said that when he allowed himself to be the butt of all the jokes in order to save someone else from being picked on. I see Brother Sam, here, doing the same thing. He's putting himself up as the "lightening rod of hate" to draw the Westboro church away from the grieving families. This is a true man.

Stephen Fry really is among the best of us.

Joey Bernard : "I connected Blogger to my http://flavors.me page - http://flavors.me/joeybernard "

Joey Bernard : "I connected Blogger to my http://flavors.me page - http://flavors.me/joeybernard "