Most of us would agree that music programs are wonderful things to have in our schools, but we need to learn how to think logically at the same time.
Is it possible that:
Schools with music programs are simply better than average schools, with other characteristics, e.g., better teachers, that cause higher graduation rates?
Students who attend schools with music programs come from more affluent families that encourage graduation?
The map here is “sea surface temperature anomaly,” and is described as follows:
This is true by definition. Religion is based on faith, not reason. If it were provable, it would be science.
In most cases, I don’t have anything against this. People who believe they’re going to see their grandparents in heaven are not causing any real problems.
Exceptions:
Religion taught in schools as science, e.g., creationism.
Violence inflicted in the name of religion, examples of which are too numerous to mention.
Fanaticism that results in stupidity, e.g., evangelical Christians for Trump.
The meme here reminds me of a thought I had during my first (and only) course on the subject:
There’s no guarantee that the human mind evolved so as to make sense of the universe, and it appears that, in fact, it did not. We’re used to dealing with things around us that we can see and touch, like spears, rocks, and bodies of water. To say that two particles on opposite sides of the universe affect one another instantaneously is so completely counter-intuitive that trying to figure this stuff out might just be folly.
Is it possible to make paper products from recycled stone? Of course. We have the technology at this point to do all kinds of things never dreamed of before.
I’m surprised to see this pabulum from George Clooney. It’s not incorrect, but it’s an extremely bland statement as to what’s going on here.
All U.S. elections are about progressives, who, by definition, want to move our country forward, and conservatives who want to move the country back to an earlier time. Look at Barry Goldwater vs. Lyndon Johnson, or G.W. Bush vs. Al Gore, or any of the others.
What makes this election unique is that one of its two candidates is clearly a criminal sociopath. We’ve heard what he said about exacting revenge against his political enemies. We’ve all read the indictments against him, and seen that multiple grand juries have found solid evidence that he tried to overthrow the U.S. federal government. There’s not much doubt as to what’s going to happen to American democracy if he’s re-elected.
America finds itself at a truly momentous point in time, and it has little to do with the usual issues of liberal and conservative.
We’ve been having this discussion for at least 100 years. How is it possible that two siblings with essentially the same DNA and the same home environment can be such different people?
In the 18th Century, British philosopher John Locke proposed his theory of tabula rasa, “blank slate,” suggesting that, when we’re born into this world, we bring with us exactly zero in terms of what will later become our unique selves. Few if any of us believe that today.
But what precisely do we believe?
Spiritualists assert that each individual has its own “basic personality,” perhaps deriving from our past lives.
Biologists who specialize in this arena are investigating epigenetics, the concept that we have genetic information that causes elements of our genome to either be expressed or not.
Many questions remain.
The point being made here is a good one. Moreover, the 40% (or whatever the exact number is) largely consider themselves the most astute observers within our population.
The chart below provides letter grades for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with respect to the physical safety of the LGBTQ community.
Sorry to see my home state (Pennsylvania) with a D. But, as they say, “Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.”
Not sure how impressed Goethe would be with present-day U.S. politics.
We grow ignorance as if it’s corn; we cultivate it like we would a clone of a fabulous pinot noir; we nurture it as if it were a newborn baby.
And the reason is simple. Big Money doesn’t gain a nickel from the presence of a more sophisticated, more informed, better educated populace.
