[Noah Opens in Theaters Tomorrow] There’s nothing quite so helpful as a fatwa and threats of a Christian boycott to create buzz in advance of a new movie. “Noah,” scheduled for its U.S. release on March 28, has become such a target. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain have banned the movie because it depicts a prophet, which, as Danish cartoonists will attest, isn’t the peachiest of ideas in certain circles. Even here in the land of religious tolerance, the National Religious Broadcasters threatened to boycott the film unless Paramount, the film’s distributor and co-financier with New Regency, issued a disclaimer that the movie isn’t a literal interpretation of the Genesis story. …. Alas, under pressure, Paramount altered its Read More ›

In my Psychopath as Übermensch post I suggested that for the metaphysical naturalist who takes his own truth claims seriously, becoming a psychopath (or at least acting like one) is an obvious – even an inevitable – choice. The clear-eyed metaphysical naturalist understands “empathy to be nothing but weak-kneed sentimentality.” I got a little pushback. goodusername wrote simply “why,” to which I responded: I would think the answer to that question is obvious. For our clear-eyed, unsentimental Übermensch, “empathy” is an arbitrary barrier to the unfettered assertion of his will to power. You might as well ask why the lion does not feel empathy for the gazelle. The Übermensch says to himself, “I want X. Obtaining X causes pain to Read More ›

Cosmologists Say Last Week’s Announcement About Gravitational Waves and Inflation May Be Wrong. 🙂 Hey, I want to take a chance too at being wrong too. Here is my shot at being wrong, I agree with Katirai: Andromeda has 1 star, not billions. Professor of Astronomy YP Varshni published in 2005 that quasar Ton 202 is only about 700 light years away, not 3.3 Giga light years. If quasars are close, why not everything else? And if everything else is close, then galaxies are close, and if galaxies are close, the Andromeda galaxy isn’t billions and billions of stars but rather a single star surrounded by gas, debris, and maybe planets. Do you believe your eyes or do you believe Read More ›