August 11, 2024
James Carse’s The Religious Case Against Belief, published in 2008, was a groundbreaking work. Tragically, Carse passed away in 2020, just as large language models (LLMs) were making amazing advances. The book’s complex language, likely with a Flesch-Kincaid score above 15, makes it inaccessible to many readers. This is unfortunate, as its insights deserve a wider audience. Imagine if this influential book could be simplified without losing its core message.
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January 12, 2024
Rick Doblin/MAPS calls entheogen-based religious claims “bogus” at Cannadelic 2023.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rick-doblin-maps-96044704
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
In view of the sunk cost fallacy, maybe it’s time to cut our losses on MAPS.
November 28, 2020
Many assume that the invention of a phonetic alphabet only brought benefits. In a somewhat speculative reassessment of history, Shlain makes the case that the phonetic alphabet advanced lawyer-style thinking that greatly facilitated the justification of violence. The book is unlikely to be 100% true, but also unlikely to be 100% false.
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Shlain, L. (1999). The alphabet versus the goddess: The conflict between word and image. Penguin.
