Faithroots is a blog about theology and apologetics that posted “God in the dock: objections to his greatness and goodness (part 2)”. The post covers several arguments for and against the existence of God. It’s interesting to me for a couple reasons. For one, it appears to be a good faith effort to present the…
Medium-strength atheism
Atheism is sometimes divided into weak and strong forms. Weak atheism can be described as an absence of belief in any god, while strong atheism positively affirms a belief that there is no god. This is related to the distinction between agnostic and gnostic atheism, where agnostic atheism claims no knowledge about the existence of…
Why do sunsets look like that?
During the day, the sky is blue and the sun appears a bright yellow. As the sun sets, it dims and reddens while the sky turns pink and orange. What causes that? You may have heard before that the sky’s blue color is due to something called Rayleigh scattering. As it turns out, the way…
Stories of math notation (part 2): The worst notation in mathematics
Sometimes notation is confusing. One way this can happen is when the same notation is used for multiple different concepts. Usually, if the same notation is used for different things, they occur in different contexts which allows them to be distinguished. In at least one case, the same notation is used for different things in…
An analysis of the podcast Cashing In with T.J. Miller
Cashing In with T.J. Miller is a podcast by comedians Cash Levy and T.J. Miller started in 2012. The premise is that it’s Cash Levy’s talk show, but he can’t find any guests to come on except for T.J. Miller. Each episode is structured in segments, starting with the Triple Banger Lightning Round (a series…
Pokémon and the merits of vague aspirations
I recently defeated the Pokémon League in Brilliant Diamond and I was thinking about how the Pokémon franchise characterizes end goals for Pokémon trainers. Most obvious is the Pokémon League championship: this is essentially the “main quest” of the mainline games. It is upon becoming champion that the credits roll. There is also the secondary…
Video share: Evolutionary Biologist Reacts to Creationist Arguments
This is no ordinary debunk of creationism. Clint of Clint’s Reptiles is extremely generous to creationists and attempts to address their best arguments. He even rephrases each creationist point to make sure he’s understanding it correctly.
Stories of math notation (part 1): y should come before x
Or rather, perhaps both the symbols and positions for x and y should be switched. The convention of writing coordinates as (x, y) is so deeply ingrained that, in my opinion, it causes confusion in situations where x doesn’t naturally come first. Reasons for x first As I see it, the primary reason for writing…
Cluster definitions as an explanation for vague concepts
Vague concepts are fuzzy. They lack strict definitions and contain edge cases. One classical example is baldness: we would call a person bald even if they have three hairs on their head, so exactly how many hairs could someone have and still be bald? Another example is a heap of sand: a single grain of…
What it’s like to be a bat
Bats are a very ancient and diverse group of mammals, evolving over 50 million years ago and making up a fifth of all living mammal species (Simmons et al. 2008). They are notable for multiple distinctive adaptations, including being the only true flying mammals and using echolocation to “see” in the dark. Echolocation requires several…
thoughts on mind 