by Grania

As Jerry will be in the air for several hours to come, he thought a last Open Thread (well, maybe not the last ever – but the last for now)  would be appropriate.

I discovered that there are rather a lot of Last Chance Saloons in popular culture, funnily enough more in the UK  than in the US where the original eponymous saloons hail from. On that note:

by Grania

It’s past bedtime in India, and Professor Ceiling Cat thought that it might be a good time for another open thread.

As the song says: No more champagne and the fireworks are through. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions as I never have any intention of keeping any, but for 2015 I’ll say my ambition is to win the lottery, which is a lot harder than you’d think because I never purchase tickets.

It’s also that time of year when the usual suspects announce their suspiciously vague and ambiguous “predictions” for the year, so I thought it was good opportunity to talk about resolutions and predictions (sane or insane) and of course, prepare for the day when we reach Singularity.

This is the ghost of Professor Ceiling Cat, summoned forth by his minions to create a forum for discussion.  In the thread below you can talk about whatever you want.

Some of us are with family today, some of us not, some of us are at work. Welcome to those of you who drop by today. Pull up a chair and share a story with the rest of us, tales from the past, or present or future. True tales, or merely good tales.

Don’t forget that Coyneza reaches its zenith on Tuesday next week, so do drop him a note to mark the day of celebration.

This is the ghost of Professor Ceiling Cat, summoned forth by his minions to create a forum for discussion.  In the thread below you can talk about whatever you want.

In the spirit of the days ahead, let us start with the Airing of Grievances.

If you have no idea what this form references, check out the clip below.

This is the ghost of Professor Ceiling Cat, summoned forth by his minions to create a forum for discussion.  In the thread below you can talk about whatever you want.

This doesn’t even have to mention such topics as: which is better, The Walking Dead or Z Nation.

This is the ghost of Professor Ceiling Cat, summoned forth by his minions to create a forum for discussion.  In the thread below you can talk about whatever you want.

One suggestion, which is mine, is this: in my post on Friday, I asked readers to tell me why, in the absence of data, they were so sure that religion was bad for the world. That is, how do they know that if the world had never had religion, it would be better than it is now?

That would seem to be an empirical question, resolvable only with data. Yet as far as I can see (and I haven’t read every comment), most readers feel that the question can be resolved not with data, but with logic or from first principles. Or, they cite anecdotes like religiously-inspired violence (my response would be that it’s easy to measure deaths, but not so easy to measure the consolation and well being that, believers claim, religion brings them). But pointing out that religion does bad stuff doesn’t answer the question if it’s been harmful on the whole.

One person I talked to said that New Atheist books like The End of Faith or God Is Not Great were meant not to show that religion in its net effects was harmful to humanity, but instead to emphasize that there were some bad effects of religion that had been overlooked. I disagree: I claim that those books were very clearly written to show that religion was a bad institution as a whole.  What do you think?

But of course you can talk about anything you want, or go off on any tangent you want.

As I am now gone (this post is put up by a loyal minion), I’ll let you entertain each other.  I had one previous open thread, which seemed moderately successful, so let’s try it again. Perhaps readers can describe their Thanksgiving experiences (or dinner!), or anything else that’s on their minds.

Or perhaps you can discuss this short column at the blog Hulabaloo by “Digby” (Heather Digby Parton), claiming that Bill Maher and Sam Harris are “bigots” against Islam. Parton, who also writes for Salon (of course), has won journalistic awards for social-justice writings, raises the usual “Islamophobia” canard, claiming that only a very small proportion of Muslims are terrorists. (That’s true, but is that the only probem with the faith?)

I’m baffled by tendency of liberals to give Islam a pass when they wouldn’t defend Catholicism if Catholics professed the same beliefs as do a substantial proportion of Muslims in many lands (i.e., Catholics who leave the faith should be killed, corporal punishment should be the rule).  Did people not read the Pew report, a report prepared by a religon-friendly organization? And can’t they distinguish between hating beliefs and hating believers? Or are some liberals’ strong critiques of Islam misguided—or even harmful?

But I digress. Talk about anything you want

Go.

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