Estranged Notions: Neil deGrasse Tyson on Catholicism and Science

Tuesday's post:

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Catholicism and Science

Estranged Notions: “Optimistic Nihilism” and Whistling Past God’s Graveyard

Today's post:

“Optimistic Nihilism” and Whistling Past God’s Graveyard

Estranged Notions: The Philosophical Landscape of “Westworld”

Yesterday's post:

The Philosophical Landscape of “Westworld”

Estranged Notions: The Alien Nation of “Fargo”

Today's post:

The Alien Nation of “Fargo”

Estranged Notions: The Existential Classic Behind Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man”

Today's post:

The Existential Classic Behind Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man”

Becklo's turn to go to the movies.

Estranged Notions: Sacrifice and the Sacred

Today's (technically yesterday's) post:

Sacrifice and the Sacred

Girard's theories seem ... overblown, to me. The nature, frequency and circumstances of eventual abolition of human sacrifice are highly variable between cultures, and one of the more common and longest-surviving forms—the funerary sacrifice, where slaves, retainers, wives or concubines of a sufficiently prominent man were killed at his funeral—seems to me to have little to do with conflict (mimetic or otherwise). (Or if it did, why isn't it even more common?)

Estranged Notions: Dressgate: Is Perception Reality?

Today's post:

Dressgate: Is Perception Reality?

Fascinatingly, Becklo manages to botch the issue in a whole bunch of separate ways, even though it is really quite simple: the word “colour” is being used to refer to a whole cluster of related but non-identical concepts.

Estranged Notions: Exorcising Epistemology

Yesterday's post, in which Becklo fails to contribute anything meaningful to the debate on consciousness:

Exorcising Epistemology

Estranged Notions: The Dying of the Brights

Today's post:

The Dying of the Brights

Estranged Notions: The Human Strain

Today's post:

The Human Strain

Estranged Notions: Pascal in “The Rum Diary”

Today's post:

Pascal in “The Rum Diary”

Second only to the concept of hell, I think the idea that we are somehow “fallen” or “broken” is one of the most pernicious of Christian beliefs.

Estranged Notions: The Argument from Johnny Cash

Today's post:

The Argument from Johnny Cash

Yet another variant on the argument from aesthetics.

Estranged Notions: Detectives of Despair

Today's post:

Detectives of Despair

I guess this is more of the "wah, wah, materialism = meaninglessness" drivel, but I'm somewhat hampered by not actually having heard of the TV show in question.