Author Archive for leahlibresco
Patheos blogger Thomas McDonald of God and the Machine is horrified by the FDA’s recommendation to approve Truvada (an antiretroviral cocktail) as preventative treatment for HIV. When people use the prophylactic regime, their chances of contracting HIV are reduced by 50-75%. As far as I can tell, these are the ‘actual use’ numbers. With perfect [...]
Thanks for all your feedback on picking questions for the Turing Test. This year the slate of questions for Atheists and Christians will be identical. Everyone will answer the following questions: When (if ever) have you deferred to your philosophical or theological system over your intuitions? Are there people whose opinions on morality you trust [...]
JT Eberhard of Freethought Blogs has some as-of-yet unspecified project in the works, and he’s put out a request for help: I need to know what arguments you’ve heard for god’s existence. Which one, in particular, would you like to see me take a swing at? That sounds like a job for… the religiously diverse, scrappy, mostly [...]
— 1 — The Ideological Turing Test for Religion is gearing up for another go round. It’s a contest where Atheists and Christians test how well they understand each other. Contestants try to write from the perspective of the other side, and the readers see if they can tell true from false. We’re finalizing the [...]
I want to get these settled so people can sign up to participate in the Ideological Turing Test and start doing their homework. I want to have three to four questions total, and, based on previous comment thread discussions, these two have already made the cut: When (if ever) have you deferred to your philosophical [...]
A while ago, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist had a post contrasting atheist deconversion stories with Christian conversion narratives. He thought atheists need to beef up speaking skills to be able to match the intense emotion of Christian “once was lost” stories. A lot of atheists stop believing in god after a long process of introspection. Maybe [...]
Whatever your religious affiliation, what’s the first book you’d recommend to someone on the other side to open up a conversation to get them to eventually switch teams? In other words, your pick doesn’t have to be a knock-out punch for your beliefs, it just has to open up a chink you plan to exploit later. [...]
In the comments of my last post on evolution and the source of moral law, I had a bit of a back and forth with Matt about whether evolution favors altruism. I want to single out his comments for two reasons. First, I thought he displayed admirable humility in admitting he didn’t have the evidence [...]
Alas, my computer just started what I’m told will be a week long vacation at Microcenter. I’m still borrowing computer time with my housemates, so posting will slow but it won’t stop. (Spelling may suffer a little, since I find it really difficult to type on a Mac-style chiclet keyboard). I will be prioritizing setting [...]
UPDATE: I’ve expanded a response to a commenter in a new post: “Have Humans ‘Won’ Evolution?” Over at Patheos’s group blog on science and religion, Connor Wood is trying to explain why people have a visceral discomfort with evolution. He sees natural selection as the ultimate example of “nature red in tooth and claw” — [...]
— 1 — As I announced earlier this week, the Ideological Turing Test is starting up again. (This is the contest where Christians and atheists see how good they are at imitating each other). I’ll be asking for feedback on specific questions soon, but right now I’d love feedback on general logistics in the comment [...]
In re the discussion of accepting gifts, a recent post by Eve Tushnet seemed apropos. (Note, she’s discussing her experiences working with women at a crisis pregnancy center, and I would prefer any discussion not be derailed by an argument about crisis pregnancy centers, since that’s not the part of the story I’m highlighting). I’ve been struck [...]
The first person to comment on my post about The Hunger Games and not seeing gifts as debts had a pragmatic concern: I don’t see this as moral progress. If more people would see a sacrifice as a debt the world would be a better place. I’ve got a (richly deserved) reputation as a not-so-soft [...]
I really enjoyed the first iteration of the Ideological Turing Test for religion, which ran on this blog last summer, and I always meant to return to it at some point. At the end of May/early June, I’m going on vacation for two weeks, which strikes me as the perfect time to have a lot [...]
Mark’s got another post up today, profiling a gay friend he greatly admires, and I’ve got a few more things I’d like to respond to, but I’m going to take a little break. Judging by the comment threads, this hasn’t been a particularly helpful discussion. I’ve registered and explained my objection to the Nazi [...]
The “Let’s Talk About How to Have Reasonable Discussions about Religion” post has over a hundred comments and the tone in some sections is pretty well summed up by one reader: I love this comment thread. Leah: My commenters are great and tend to argue in good faith and assume that others do the same. [...]
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