Philosophy

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun made some waves when he stated that the theory of evolution, the fundamental integrating theory of biological science, is a lie “straight from the pit of hell.” Charles Darwin spent more than twenty years of his life gathering evidence for the theory of evolution. He presented…

Once again, a Republican congressional candidate has thrown the party back on its heels with a cruel comment concerning rape. In answer to a debate question on when abortion should be legal, Indiana GOP senate candidate Richard Mourdock said: I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I…

Speaking from the State Department this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Islam-motivated slaughter of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi “an attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths.” This statement is correct—although not in the way Clinton means it. The conscience of…

Slate’s Amanda Marcotte argues that a new Florida law attempts “to get around the spirit” of the 1962 Supreme Court decision Engel v. Vitale—a decision that banned government-sponsored prayer in public schools on the grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Florida law “allows students…

Labor is nothing to celebrate. Man's muscle is not the cause of wealth and prosperity; his mind is.

According to a recent WIN-Gallup International poll, the number of Americans saying they are “religious” has declined since 2005 from 73 percent of the population to 60 percent. In that same period, the number of “convinced atheists” has risen from 1 to 5 percent of the population. In the 39…

Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, has released a new book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. If that title makes you go “hmmm” you might appreciate Eric Daniels’s review of Ariely’s last book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that…

Takes to task claims that religion was somehow responsible for the profound scientific advancements that animated the 16th and 17th centuries, and shows that the cause of these advancements was not religion or faith but the partial freeing of the mind from religious restrictions and the consequent use of observation and logic.

Surveys the history and tenets of religion and shows that religion, in every essential respect, is utterly at odds with the requirements of a rational, practical, life-serving morality

[caption id="attachment_8844" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: Gage Skidmore[/caption] GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan sets forth his basic political philosophy in an August 13, 2012 article for American Spectator, “Who Built America?” Ryan explicitly attempts to make the “moral case” for capitalism, arguing that “people have a God-given right to use…