conceptualism Species Do Not "Exist": Evolution, Sand Dunes and the Sorites Paradox I am going to explain to you why species do not exist and in some sense there is no such thing as speciation in evolutionary biology. This will involve philosophy, sand dunes, voting, colours and fossils. Amongst other things. The Sorites Paradox My favourite philosophical thought experiment, if you can
Epistemology Jehovah Witnesses and Cold Feet. No Minds Changed, I Doubt. The last time the Jehovah's Witnesses came to visit, at my last house, I was in the shower. I heard the doorbell ring and a few muffled words to my partner, Helen, and I knew straight away who was at the door. I have never moved so quickly,
General Merry Christmas and Thanks to You All! This is a heartfelt thanks to all those who have read our contributions here at ATP. Since the move from Skeptic Ink Network to here, I have been more than happy with the community and discussion. I appreciate the dissenters, too, without whom it becomes an echo chamber. A massive
Education Department for Education ordered to amend ‘misleading’ faith school figures by UK Statistics Authority following BHA complaint From the British Humanist Association: The Department for Education (DfE) has been forced to amend its education green paper by the UK Statistics Authority, following a complaint made by the British Humanist Association (BHA) over the ‘misleading’ figures it presents on the impact of religious selection at ‘faith’ schools. The
Christmas Christmas and Its Pagan Roots Merry Christmas. Image via Durango Telegraph. Fair use as altered commentary/parody on original.
Book Reviews Last Chance Saloon! If you order now, you can get your books before Christmas. Go on, please...?! Don't forget my first fiction book for your Christmas delectation, documenting the breakdown of society, horror and philosophy. Just what you need to warm your cockles. It's that time of the year,
General Social Media and Whatnot Just to remind people that the blog has a facebook page. I am also on Twitter and Google+ (infrequently at best). There is a Patheos Atheist facebook page. The web and blog pages for Onus Books and Loom are on the Skeptic Ink network are here. Finally, here is a
General Um, Not Sure What to Make of This I received this through my contact form today. Can you help me decipher what is going on: I am interested to know if medication that is intrevenously given can be burned up by the Holy Spirit of God if it is given in the buttock tomorrow to me Interesting. Bizarre.
General Holiday! Just to let you know that I am on holiday for a week, but will try to post if I can, and will hopefully be able to schedule some posts from Bert Bigelow and Alan Duval. Thanks for reading!
Alan Duval Welcoming a New Guest Contributor: Alan Duval Alan Duval has already given us a really thoughtful pieces on moral and political psychology, and joins Ryan McManus in being a guest contributor with an interest in the way that psychology and philosophy interact. I meant to post this welcome some weeks back, but it got lost in the
General Thanks for your Support! Sometimes we bloggers forget to thank you. Thank you. I really mean it. Thanks for reading. Thanks for those few who donate money (widget in sidebar, adblocker notwithstanding). Thanks to those who buy my books (I cannot thank you enough - it's the core of what I do)
Cosmology Space vs Prayer - what has space exploration ever done for us? So I posted this meme to my facebook profile: Now I thought that was pretty funny. Prayer is notoriously ineffective. But a Catholic friend posted this reply: Hmm...and space exploration has benefited humanity so much!
General Advertising Standards Agency Bans Church of Scientology TV Ad for Misleading Viewers The TV watchdog in the UK has banned a Scientology advert on account of the claim that it gives aid to "24 million" people. The data was supposedly derived from records spanning 1998 to 2014. However, the ASA deemed this "anecdotal" and called into question what
Andreas Schueler Quote of the Day - Andy Schueler Ha ha! Frank has been commenting here for a few weeks and has not added much to any discussion other than annoying and unwarranted assertions. He never backs any claim up whatsoever with his short, inane comments. Andy nailed it when he said: You have written over 13000 comments on
Donald Trump My Succinct Trump/US Presidential Prediction Holy cow, Trump is a scary prospect. Like a smiley Hitler with more money and less intelligence. [caption id="attachment_7320" align="aligncenter" width="550"] By thierry ehrmann from Saint Romain au Mont d'Or, France, Europe (Donald Trump, painted portrait _DDC9085) [CC
facebook On ATP and Facebook... Some of the more astute readers may have noticed a linked image below each post where you can like ATP on facebook. It looks like this: Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher I would be grateful if you liked ATP (it doesn't
conceptualism The Kalam Cosmological Argument and William Lane Craig #2 (revisited) I am soon to release a book on the Kalam Cosmological Argument which has been long in the pipeline, but is finally ready, short of a foreword. As a result of its imminent creation (er, out of something!), let me remind you of an old couple of posts that deal
General The Kalam Cosmological Argument and William Lane Craig #1 (Revisited) I am soon to release a book on the Kalam Cosmological Argument which has been long in the pipeline, but is finally ready, short of a foreword. As a result of its imminent creation (er, out of something!), let me remind you of an old couple of posts that deal
General Sympathy for the Newcomer Please allow me to introduce myself – ooh, we could have some fun with this - I’m a man of wealth and taste, I’ve been around for a long, long year, Stole many a man’s soul to waste, And I was ’round when Jesus Christ, Had his moment
Islam Pray for Paris...? Seriously? Think about it! The Paris mass shootings and bombings have been terrible. It's a right minefield of religion, politics and sadness. One idea which has routinely popped up on social media has been that Christians should pray for Paris.
General On banning commenters I have banned two people here. One was a Catholic priest who dogged me all over the internet, one-starring my books without reading them and slagging me off to anyone who cared to listen. I wrote about this here and here. The second person I banned was a total douche.
free market capitalism APPENDIX (to On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics) APPENDIX (to On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics) You don't need to read this, but here is a selection of irritating, immature quotes from the commenter which undergirds my efforts in my On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics series (which can be read here, here and
Featured ATP Throwing things away and losing memories In moving house I had to clear a lot of stuff up, throw a lot away and generally reassess what is important to me, and what I need to keep hold of. In my loft was a few boxes of memorabilia: letters (remember them?) sent to me from girls (I was at boarding school) throughout my adolescence; gig t
General Freedom of Information Requests... Whoah! Kerrrazy! How a council might protect a town from a dragon attack is among the most unusual requests for information received by England and Wales councils. One council was asked how many children were micro-chipped, while another was quizzed on whether it had paid for exorcisms on possessed pets.
General RSS Feed - clear your history? There have been some reports of the RSS feed for this blog being dodgy at the moment. There have been less links coming to the blog from RSS feeders, so please remove the history from your provider. Or something. I don't really understand how these things work. But
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