Richard Dawkins begins his famous 1991 essay “Viruses of the Mind” with the following words: “A beautiful child close to me, six and the apple of her father’s eye, believes that Thomas the Tank Engine really exists. She believes in Father Christmas, and when she grows up her ambition is to be a tooth fairy. […]
pedagogy
Getting to the bedrock of naturalism
This is the final installment in my dressing down of The Atheist Missionary’s slapdash approach to the pedagogy of his children. We saw him dismiss the resurrection because New Testament historians are supposedly constrained by religion and institutional affiliation to affirm the things they do. (This bizarrely contentious series of asertions demosntrates that the discrimination against “religion” […]
The Atheist Missionary continues to justify his prejudices
Why do I keep dumping on poor Atheist Missionary? Is it because I have a curious, morbid fascination in an intelligent denizen of western civilization defending his prejudices in a painfully ad hoc manner? In part, perhaps. But that’s not the whole story. The real lesson here is that we all attempt to justify our […]
Royal flushes, resurrections, and the things you teach your children
The Atheist Missionary’s criteria for what he would teach his children has continued to evolve (or devolve, I’m not sure yet). That’s a good thing because it is important for him to work out the principles that guide how he raises his progeny. The key issue concerned past event types that are unique and unrepeatable. […]
Would you teach your child that Great Grampy got a Royal Flush?
Occasionally a line of questioning / dialogue opens up in a thread which deserves to be put in the spotlight. This is one of those cases. It all began yesterday when The Atheist Missionary questioned me on what it is appropriate to teach a child. I’ve reproduced the nuts and bolts of that conversation below. […]
