Humor and Speculation
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The Strange Ecology of Confidence
This essay started, as so many unnecessary intellectual adventures do, with yet another Facebook argument. I was discussing probability with someone who seemed perfectly comfortable assigning numerical odds to things for which no probability model existed. Since one of my… Continue reading
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Dogs, Treats, and the Sacred Ritual of the Kitchen Floor
A dog can hear a cheese wrapper open from somewhere beyond the detectable limits of physics. Not hear it, exactly. Experience it. Absorb it. The dog who was asleep three rooms away suddenly materializes beside your leg with the quiet… Continue reading
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Darwin, Dunkleosteus, and the Problem of Symbolic Fish
On Proptaku’s “Darwin Fish” shirt, evolutionary iconography, and why a Devonian tank is better than a punctuation mark A few months before the shirt existed, Proptaku and I were discussing the Darwin fish. Not this Darwin fish. The other one.… Continue reading
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I’m Right, You’re Wrong
Theology’s Oldest Growth Industry Theology has produced many great themes. There is The Constant Need for Money, which transforms the infinite Creator into the chief financial officer of a perpetually underfunded enterprise. There is Miracles for Me, Magic for Thee,… Continue reading
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Featured Memes for the week of Sep 9th
Starting a new service for readers, showing the featureed memes for the week. Meme featuring Matt Dillahunty’s departure from Christianity and arguing that a future minister becoming an atheist is not evidence that atheism is true, only that beliefs should… Continue reading
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Memes In Motion
So, an update to anyone who uses the memes stored here. We have been working to move the collection of remix and original memes to a new searchable Meme Library at https://celerykills.com/meme-library/. Migration is about 70% complete, so we are… Continue reading
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If I Know That I Know Nothing, Can I Earn a Certificate for That?
This latest philosophical problem arrived on a cloudy Pacific Northwest afternoon, which is to say it arrived on a normal afternoon. I was staring out the window, watching certainty dissolve into mist over a stand of fir trees, when a… Continue reading
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On Distilling Philosophy Into Concentrated Nonsense
The other day, while wandering through Facebook for reasons I still cannot adequately defend, I stumbled into a discussion between a friend of mine and a local legend. Not a legend in the heroic sense, mind you. More like the… Continue reading
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Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Theology™
Scholars have long debated the existence of a unified theological framework capable of explaining the full breadth of human religious behavior. After centuries of research, controversy, schisms, councils, reforms, counter-reforms, and fundraising campaigns, we are pleased to present The Seventeen… Continue reading
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The Philosophy of Eeyore
Somewhere between a cedar swamp and a drizzle that cannot quite commit to becoming rain, Eeyore waits beside a stick house that may or may not stay standing. He is not hopeful. He is not ambitious. He is not impressed.… Continue reading
