tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1862762054998241512024-02-07T13:22:48.256-05:00Letters to TolstoyA blog on pacifism, anarchy, and spirituality.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-84582479749929835112011-02-20T12:55:00.005-05:002011-02-24T08:17:05.419-05:00Why I Believe in GodIntroduction
I don’t know that it is possible to adequately define religion or differentiate it from philosophy. Does religion require belief in God(s)? Must there be a received practice? Is it primarily a solitary pursuit or a communal pursuit? What are the requirements of religion with respect to moral teachings?
I am not going to attempt to resolve these questions but instead argue on behalfUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-3066379288168442562011-02-09T08:13:00.000-05:002011-02-09T08:13:11.806-05:00Progress as Essential to ReligionThis popular quote from Stephen F. Roberts in support of atheism delights me:
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
I smile at how so much arrogance, condescension, and pseudo-intellect can be managed into such a short remark. If there really isUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-63267658422456706862011-02-08T09:18:00.002-05:002011-02-08T09:20:00.295-05:00Ancient Cults and The SecretIn ancient cults, gods were primarily conceived as impersonal forces that are unconcerned with people at a personal level but would condescend to bestow material abundance upon those who perform the correct ritual acts (and surely bestow ills upon those who do not). Judaism introduced the idea that there is just one God (or at least only one really powerful god), but more importantly, that God Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-83762739929720172502011-01-17T09:27:00.000-05:002011-01-17T09:27:47.444-05:00Is Christianity Worth Saving?I suspect that if we had the opportunity to view the real life and teachings of Jesus, we'd all be pretty disappointed.
The Gospels that record his life and teachings were written a few generations after his death, likely based largely on oral tradition. The Gospel of Mark was written first, and it appears likely that at least Matthew and Luke were written after Mark and used it as a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-35591932443891486182010-11-23T08:54:00.000-05:002010-11-23T08:54:39.031-05:00Ordinances and OrdnungsThe theory of government is that individuals surrender some of their natural rights in order to establish a social order for their mutual welfare and protection of liberty. The purpose of local government is to transmute the will of a community of people, through the political process, into an enforceable legal system for the community. This set of rules I will call the Ordinance.
Amish Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-51366016552352159882010-11-19T13:39:00.001-05:002010-11-19T13:40:19.217-05:00Letter to a Town LawyerThe little town we moved to has a local newspaper, and recently two letters appears that complained of the town government's enforcement of land use laws against them. One townsperson wrote a letter in support of the government against these individuals. I posted the following in response:
Hi Charles,
I disagree with your premise: “That is, whether or not one agrees with the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-37205474249900338122010-10-31T19:55:00.000-04:002010-10-31T19:55:27.707-04:00A Few Thoughts on VotingI was once an enthusiastic voter. I thought that I ought to use any tool I could to help promote liberty and that even given the worst view of government as a gang of thieves and warmongers, voting could be seen as a form of defense. And even if my vote was insignificant, I saw my ballot as a signal to others of support for liberty.
But after a couple of elections, I did not feel so Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-49115773836713780442010-10-11T20:01:00.000-04:002010-10-11T20:01:22.654-04:00Moving to the (A Little Bit More) Free StateThere are still all of the regular institutions of American state government: prisons, schools (or do I repeat myself?), law enforcers, and bureaucracies. But the people pay a little less in taxes than other states, and they put "Live Free Or Die" on the license plates.
We've moved from a condo in Massachusetts to a log home in a small "border town" in the state chosen by the Free State Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-80824815595021615642010-08-07T13:24:00.000-04:002010-08-07T13:24:05.667-04:00A Political Prisoner on the ConstitutionKevin Innes is a political prisoner who is sitting in a cage over his support of the Liberty Dollar. The Liberty Dollar was a silver barter system architected by Bernard von NotHaus, who was also arrested. Kevin is apparently considered a flight risk because he is not a U.S. citizen and has been in jail for over a year, awaiting trial.
The Liberty Dollar was an attempt to have a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-81036009331128892692010-07-21T19:46:00.000-04:002010-07-21T19:46:52.887-04:00The Trouble with Rights, and Tolstoy's SolutionI used to think in terms of rights and justice. For a libertarian, this means trying to express laws to answer the central question: when is the use of force against others justified? While anyone can debate this question, most libertarians seek to resolve it through application of property rights. That is, you are always justified in using your own property as you wish, so long as you do not Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-72917836229007893232010-05-28T21:51:00.001-04:002010-05-28T21:54:37.612-04:00Making Mix and Container GardeningI used the recipe for planting mix from Square-Foot Gardening, which calls for one part vermiculite (sort of like crushed mica), one part compost, and one part peat moss.
The vermiculite was a challenge to find, but after an online search I found a gardening center a few towns over that carries it. Compost was also surprisingly difficult to find, especially since one should use compost Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-25064622085532262352010-05-18T13:06:00.001-04:002010-05-18T13:07:16.682-04:00Who Do the Police Protect?From the local police blotter, modified to protect the innocent:
An area man was arrested Sunday at 6:53 p.m. on Main Street, police said.
John T. Doe, 25, had a warrant charging him with failing to appear for jury duty, police said.
Make no mistake: the primary mission of the government's law enforcers is to protect the government. When they are not busy posing as 13-year-old girlsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-23918162472260641382010-05-04T08:29:00.002-04:002010-05-04T08:33:43.124-04:00Countering Kant's Categorical ImperativeThe categorical imperative is Kant's central contribution to moral philosophy. It is not really useful in itself for guiding one's moral action but acts as a sort of test for a given ethic:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction.
It would seem then that we might proceed to list a number of proposedUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-60512654299283583942010-04-17T15:43:00.000-04:002010-04-17T15:43:01.431-04:00The Best Analogy For Your Relationship with God
Analogies are powerful mental tools to understand the world and have a strong influence on our thoughts and beliefs. We should be careful to understand that an analogy is necessarily limited and cannot provide a complete understanding, but at the same time they are unavoidable for approaching otherwise mysterious topics such as our relationship with God.
A common analogy for God's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-15488101338675105752010-04-11T09:09:00.001-04:002010-04-11T09:09:45.296-04:00Making Self-Watering ContainersA Google search turned up these instructions on how to convert plastic storage bins into self-watering containers. With ten or so bins stacked in the basement, I gave it a try. For one self-watering container, you start off with two bins:
You need the bottom of one bin to overturn and place in the other bin. Trace the bin at the same height as a small basket. I used a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-18119041592420598982010-04-01T09:17:00.001-04:002010-04-01T09:19:20.880-04:00Who Killed Phoebe Prince?A couple of days ago I became aware of the tragic case of Phoebe Prince, an Irish immigrant who was a freshman in South Hadley, MA. She committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied.
One knee-jerk public response is to bully the bulliers, as various spurious charges are being filed against nine students involved in the bullying. Politicians, smelling blood, are speechifying and passing laws Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-18298261307574113402010-03-28T07:10:00.000-04:002010-03-28T07:10:28.205-04:00Urban-style CompostingWe don't have a yard so much as a dirt patch, and even that we technically share with two other families. So I was fairly skeptical when my wife suggested we start composting. I assumed you needed a decent sized area in the corner of a yard to set up some wire to contain grass trimmings and manure, but it looks like you can actually make do with a plastic storage container.
The Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-9863623371158541192010-03-21T11:54:00.000-04:002010-03-21T11:54:19.848-04:00Planting Seeds on the First Day of SpringThis year I am trying out container gardening. The method I am planning to use will be based primarily on Square Foot Gardening, which I learned about from a book I received for a birthday present (thanks!). In my area, the average last frost date looks like April 30 or so, and to be conservative I am planning for May 7 as my planting date. There is plenty to do before then Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-9898305344880852162010-03-18T09:14:00.001-04:002010-03-18T09:37:29.814-04:00Reducibility and Emergence (False Intuitions of Science V)In part 1 of this series of posts, I outlined a few intuitions that are often assumed as part of the scientific mind-set. In part 2, part 3, and part 4, I discussed the first three intuitions. In this post, I will discuss the final intuition:
* Physics serves as the ultimate science that all phenomena (including consciousness) can ultimately be explained in terms of and that all other sciences Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-46385491532685224272010-02-25T07:46:00.000-05:002010-02-25T07:46:33.334-05:00Communism Fails in Theory TooI occasionally see the phrase "communism works in theory too" or some variant. It is usually used to express skepticism about an idea without actually giving a reason for that skepticism.
The phrase always bothers me a little bit because communism doesn't just fail in practice but also in theory. And I am not even talking about theory of "man's nature" where communism Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-25721835385765105432010-02-23T09:14:00.004-05:002010-02-23T09:18:57.202-05:00Laws as Habits (False Intuitions of Science IV)In part 1 of this series of posts, I outlined a few intuitions that are often assumed as part of the scientific mind-set. In part 2 and part 3, I discussed the first two intuitions. In this post, I will discuss the third intuition:
* Universal laws (the discovery of which is the task of science) dictate the behavior of all things
This may be the most widely held intuition of the four I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-83986210639018048572010-02-10T08:00:00.000-05:002010-02-10T08:00:53.809-05:00Red Lights, White LightsRed lights ahead, white lights behind.
Moving forward, stop now.
Still red lights ahead, white lights behind.
Red light becomes white light, white light becomes red.
Lights disappear,
but now new ones appear.
Still always red lights ahead, white lights behind.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-74989718864992323692010-02-03T19:06:00.005-05:002010-02-03T20:26:44.495-05:00Science and the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness (False Intuitions of Science III)In part 1 of this series of posts, I outlined a few intuitions that are often assumed as part of the scientific mind-set. In part 2, I discussed the first intuition that science provides the only valuable explanations of the natural world. In this post, I will discuss the second intuition:* The history of scientific theories is to march incrementally toward a complete and truthful account of theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-56559534524459772302010-01-24T16:50:00.005-05:002010-02-23T09:15:48.198-05:00Beyond Scientific Inquiry (False Intuitions of Science II)In part 1 of this series of posts, I outlined a few intuitions that are often assumed as part of the scientific mind-set. In this post, I will discuss the first intuition:
* As its domain is all observable phenomena, science provides the only valuable explanations of the natural world, and any non-scientific pursuit must be grounded on non-observability and supernaturalism.
First and foremost, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186276205499824151.post-13347393656895474092010-01-15T09:41:00.002-05:002010-04-17T15:49:17.788-04:00The False Intuitions of ScienceA purely pragmatic view of science is that it is not concerned with whether it imparts understanding of the universe but instead is entirely concerned with delivering models that may be used to predict the results of experiments. In fact, if we limit science exclusively to the formulation of models, it can convey no meaningful explanation of observed phenomena. The reason is that the answer to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0