1. The Stupidity of Dignity

Comment #179317 by BenK on May 13, 2008 at 5:35 am

This bit :
Could there be cases in which a voluntary relinquishing of dignity leads to callousness in onlookers and harm to third parties--what economists call negative externalities? In theory, yes. Perhaps violent pornography encourages violence against women. But, for such hypotheses to justify restrictive laws, they need empirical support. In one's imagination, anything can lead to anything else: In a free society, one cannot empower the government to outlaw any behavior that offends someone just because the offendee can pull a hypothetical future injury out of the air.

caught my eye.

It's now illegal in the UK to own violent pornography, a law stemming from a deranged psychopath who killed a woman and happened to be an avid viewer of violent pornography. It was even noted by some of the Lords approving the bill that they were making it illegal to own pictures of acts that it was completely legal to do.

In the UK we appear to have done exactly what the article says we can't - empowering a government to outlaw a behaviour because someone can pull a hypothetical injury out of the air. (Remember the link between viewing violent images and violence (of the non-consensual kind lod) isn't proved so it isn't evidence enough to justify the law)

Goverance by idiots seems fairly common.

2. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111231 by BenK on January 14, 2008 at 5:21 am

I think Sherman's opening paragraph about choosing between monetary amounts is wrong because it misunderstands money.

Items are expensive because they are scarce. So a scarce item may cost £100k and be out of reach for someone earning £25k. However, if suddenly everyone is earning £250k then that doesn't mean there is suddenly more of the item for people to buy does it? Without a change in supply, the demand for the item pushes the price up back to equilibrium which is probably £1m in this case.

The rational choice is to choose £50k because prices do not stay stable. General prices will stay relative to average income which is pretty close to £25k and so relatively you're minted even though you have less money.

To me the question is as daft as one like:
Choose between carying a 10lb backpack which is comfortable and carries enough to get you by or carrying a 50 ton house which can supply your every need in total luxury. Assume for the moment there is no gravity (!) Neither reflect real-world processes

3. Birds Do It. Bees Do It. People Seek the Keys to It.

Comment #31205 by BenK on April 11, 2007 at 12:40 pm

See! Exactly why rational thinking about the world is so much better than a religious view. Imagine the editing that would go on to send this out to an audience like that!

4. Is God poison?

Comment #30855 by BenK on April 10, 2007 at 4:47 am

I thought this article was good. It wasn't the usual argument against what Dawkins, Harris, etc are doing, it was just another comment.

As we get more and more of these sort of articles, can we expect some 'evolution' of them in that new writers will have read older writers works and developed thought about the ideas a bit more? To say something different and new, the new article has to either be more absurd or more reasonable. Religion sets the absurdity so high that articles are bound to get more reasonable over time as the ideas sink in.

5. Militant atheists: too clever for their own good

Comment #30124 by BenK on April 7, 2007 at 2:25 am

Hey, stop worrying about the clever thing. Religous types are smarter than atheists. I have to hand a Beliver's voice in Victory mag and it says:

"...there is a flow of the Spirit of God in me to provide for me and make me a much greater success than I could ever be on my own. You see, when you're yieldig to Him, it doesn't really matter what attributes or lack you might have in the natural. It doesn't matter if you're a person of high intelligence or low intellect - you're smart when you're flowing in the Spirit, because through Him you're connected to accurate information..."

You see, no need to worry about the evidence behind the science and the rest. Believe and you're connected to accurate information. The same mag claims that prayers at a naval base in the states reduced the number of casualties of the 10th Mountain Division from 4 or 5 a week to none. It's all good.

Or not. This movement will win out. Not to convert people, as Spinoza worries (rightfully I think) but to reduce the certainty in real world knowledge derived from faith. We've got to get at the rich who fund that gormless magazine and public ridicule of certain religious propositions is a way to go.

6. U.N. Panel OKs Measure on Islam

Comment #28887 by BenK on March 31, 2007 at 1:27 pm

It makes no mention of any other religion besides Islam, but urges countries "to take resolute action to prohibit the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement and religious hatred, hostility, or violence."

Umm, so what does the Koran say to do to non-believers in Islam? Surely, they've just made a resolution against dissemination of their own holy book.