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The other day, Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, eviscerated Christopher Hitchens over two morally dubious comments he made. Robin concluded from them that, contrary to his reputation, Hitchens was not at all an internationalist but rather “a narcissist, the most provincial spirit of all”. Robin ended his post quoting [...]
Archive for the ‘Cutural Criticism’ Category
The Case Against Literature As Moral Education
December 18th, 2011 
Daniel Fincke Atheistic Holidays
December 12th, 2011 Eric Steinhart As Christianity came to dominate older pagan religions, it Christianized their holidays. The holidays were not abandoned, they were modified. And as Christianity fades away, the holidays are becoming de-Christianized. The main Western religious holidays were pagan before Christianity and they are becoming pagan again after Christianity. If atheism is ever to become a successful [...]
On Atheistic Religion
December 10th, 2011 Eric Steinhart We’re rational animals. Which means that we’re rational. And that we’re animals. Many biological and neurological necessities are satisfied by religion. Your neocortex has to live with your limbic system. And as long as we humans have limbic systems in our brains, we’re going to be religious (more on that later). Atheists tend to downplay [...]
The Wiccan Deity
December 7th, 2011 Eric Steinhart It’s Eric Steinhart here again. I’m going to begin my critical philosophical posts on Wicca by dealing with the Wiccan ultimate deity. First, I’ll present some quotes from Wiccans describing this deity. Next (in a separate post), I’ll do some analysis and compare and contrast this deity with some other deities in the Western religious [...]
Feministing Calvin
November 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Sinfest: When I was a kid I was a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan and I adored Susie. I always thought she was clearly the one we were supposed to be sympathizing with in her exchanges with Calvin. Your Thoughts?
Jon Stewart Considers “In God We Trust” Debate Just A Waste of Time Distraction. Is It?
November 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook After watching that clip from The Daily Show, I think I can finally crystalize what I hear from the average secular progressive voting in Congress, writing for The Daily Show, or watching at home when a [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Comedy, Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, Law & Politics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Satire, Political Satire, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pop Culture, Pop Culture, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Satire, Satire, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats 
13 Comments »“Jar Jar Binks is George Lucas’s critique of democracy.” Discuss.
September 28th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Okay, so I posed that thesis to my Facebook friends and now I pose it to you, my Camels With Hammers readers: Jar Jar Binks is George Lucas’s critique of democracy. Discuss. To kick off the discussion, here is the hilarious Stevarious’s reply from Facebook: Every instance of democracy presented in Star Wars is rife [...]
Posted in Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Comedy, Comedy, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, Hilarious, Plato, Plato, Politics, Politics, Pop Culture, Pop Culture 
Tags: Anakin Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Jar Jar Binks, Political Philosophy, Press in Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars and Plato's Republic, Yoda 13 Comments »Your Thoughts On How Best To Remember 9/11?
September 10th, 2011 Daniel Fincke What are your thoughts on all the 9/11 coverage? What do you think are the most important things for remembrances of the day and analyses of the last decade to do or not do in relation to this anniversary? Tomorrow I hope to have the time to write a few posts on a few major [...]
Uploading and Religion: Criticism of Stross
June 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart Charlie Stross, author of the highly-praised novel Accelerando, has written an interesting skeptical article on the technological singularity. The article makes many good points — except when it comes to “religion”. When it comes to “religion”, specifically religion and mind-uploading, what he says is remarkably silly. Here it is: Uploading … is [...]
NYPD Blue Moons The FCC With Court Approval
January 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A good day for freedom of speech as the censorious FCC loses its case trying to levy a fine for a naked butt on NYPD Blue: NEW YORK – The Federal Communications Commission cannot fine broadcasters for showing a woman’s nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of “NYPD Blue,” a federal court ruled Tuesday, citing [...]
Penn Jillette On Magic, Atheism, And Libertarianism
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A really enjoyable video, especially for his remarks on magic, other magicians, and why magic on TV isn’t real magic. And I really appreciated his stress on the importance of having “out” atheists to identify with. In his case he discusses being joyed, inspired, loved, and comforted by having famous atheists like Martin Mull, Randy [...]
Posted in Arts, Arts, Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Politics, Politics, Pop Culture, Pop Culture, Religion, Religion, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Videos Tags: Libertarianism, Magic, Penn and Teller, Penn Jillette, Tolerance No Comments »A Dictatorship Of Relativism?
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke BBC Radio 4 analyzes the pope’s catchphrase, “a dictatorship of relativism”, used for describing the secular West. Here’s the program description: The idea that no one has a monopoly on the truth seems to be fixed in the modern Western psyche. But it’s an idea that is under attack. Pope Benedict claims that we are [...]
Posted in Authority, Authority, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, Ethics, Ethics, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Ann Widdecombe, Europe, Leslie Green, Marcello Pera, Moral Aboslutism, Moral Relativism, Rowan Williams, Ruzwan Mohammed, Simon Blackburn, Stephen Wang, United Kingdom No Comments »Judge This: No Gay Kissing On Modern Family?
June 24th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I am a bit late on this story but wanted to offer a contrary viewpoint to the dominant one of the outraged blogosphere. Though I have never seen the show, I was interested in the controversy over the show Modern Family which apparently features a gay couple among its lead characters. The controversy centers not [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Ethics, Featured, Homophobia, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Love, Moral Psychology, Morality, News Discussion, Pop Culture, Prejudice, Psychology, Same Sex Marriage, Sex, TV Tags: ABC, Modern Family, Waymon Hudson No Comments »Sex And The City 2 (And Religion) (And Feminism) (And Race) (And Homophobia)
June 5th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Diana Bass complains: It just wasn’t very funny to see four smart American women parading western consumerism and sexualized identity in blatantly insensitive and anti-religious ways in a traditional world. Wait a minute, what she describes may not be funny but it’s certainly the best thing I’ve heard about the film from everything that I’ve [...]
Daily Hilarity: Best Of Sarah Haskins’s “Target Women”
June 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Sarah Haskins always provides the most hilarious and incisive commentary tearing into the lousy logic and vapid condescension packed into advertisements targeted at women on her recurring Infomania segment called Target Women. Her dry witted satirical media criticism would be a perfect fit on The Daily Show and in logic classes. Every time I watch one of [...]
Judge This: NYC’s Anti-Fattening Drinks Ad Campaign
November 11th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Saturday on the subway I was enjoying the above poster, as I have numerous times throughout the semester. And in fact, I haven’t just been seeing it on the subways but in my mind whenever I think of sodas now. In fact I’ve had this image in my head since before I saw the ad [...]
Posted in Biology, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Featured, Pop Culture, Psychology Tags: Ads, Health, NYC, Paternalism, Shock Advertising, Soda, Subway Ads 5 Comments »“Holiday Co-options”, Or “What Exactly Did We Celebrate Saturday?”
November 2nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Richard Wade on the evolution of a holiday: Last night, we celebrated Celtic Harvest, Livestock Slaughter and Passing of the Dead Festival Co-opted to Roman Pagan Harvest, Livestock Slaughter and Passing of he Dead Festival Co-opted to Roman Catholic All Saints Vigil/Feast Co-opted to Capitalist Subconscious Psycho-Sexual Sado-Masochistic Eros-Thanatos Paravestite Fetish Fantasy Catharsis and Candy [...]
Katie Couric Presses Glenn Beck To Define The “White Culture” He Alleges Obama Hates
September 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I am simply appalled at the deep cynicism that keeps this rotten reckless, racist, careless, moronic, lying lunatic on the air: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Barack Obama, Cutural Criticism, Glenn Beck, Politics, Pop Culture, Videos Tags: Glenn Beck on "White Culture", Katie Couric No Comments »Sex Offenders Or Curious Teenagers
September 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke Andrew Sullivan points to this post arguing that the law is damaging many lives by not adequately distinguishing the difference: The sex offender laws will kick in and are guaranteed to destroy any ambition your child may have for success. Any attempts to better themselves, or become productive members of your community, will be throttled [...]
American World Geography
September 21st, 2009 Daniel Fincke via Daniel Florien Your Thoughts?
The Value Of Religious Moderates And The Danger Of Isolating Religious And Political Fundamentalists
September 18th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Recently Karen Armstrong is coming out with a book arguing for an extremely apophatic conception of God that rejects all manner of biblical literalism but still insists on some important reference to God and is critical of the New Atheists. Recently she and Richard Dawkins both responded to a Wall Street Journal solicitation for their [...]
Posted in Atheism, Authoritarianism, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cutural Criticism, Faith, Featured, Fundamentalism, God, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Sarah Palin, Secularism Tags: Albert Mohler, Karen Armstrong, Moderates, Richard Dawkins, Robert Jensen, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, VorJack 6 Comments »Really, America?
September 14th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Creation, a new film about Charles Darwin cannot get any US distributors because of fear of fundamentalist backlash: However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of [...]
Posted in Arts, Atheism, Biology, Creationism, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Evolution, Film, Fundamentalism, Islam, Koran, News Discussion, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Secularism, World Affairs Tags: Britain, Charles Darwin, Cowardice, Creation (film), Film Industry, Fitna, Hollywood, Ignorance, Paul Bettany, US Film Distributors, Wilders No Comments »Judge This: Derren Brown False Lesson In Mathematics For Britain
September 12th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I was really irritated last night by Derren Brown’s choice to use his lottery trick on national TV in Britain to propagate fundamentally bogus mathematical thinking and to convince a group of people that their belief in their abilities to reach into the subconscious was able to generate knowledge of winning lottery ticket numbers. It’s [...]
God Is In The House
September 11th, 2009 Daniel Fincke As I’ve mentioned before: As far as I go, no singer/songwriter better explores the theme of religion or better employs religious imagery than Nick Cave. Very few people write either religious music or music about religion that avoids either preaching on its behalf or railing against it. Nick Cave is liberated from any creedal loyalty [...]
Posted in Arts, Christianity, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Fundamentalism, Indie Music, Indie Rock, Music, Music Reviews, Music Videos, Pop Culture, Religion, Religious Satire, Sarah Palin, Videos Tags: "God Is In The House", "Hallelujah", "Mercy Seat", Dante, John Milton, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Red State America, Sarah Palin, Small Towns No Comments »Daily Hilarity: The Facts The Emperor Doesn’t Want You To Know
August 25th, 2009 Daniel Fincke We all think we know what happened to the Empire’s first Death Star a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but this unnerving fact sheet raises numerous causes for doubt about the official story we’ve been fed: 4) Why has there not been an investigation into allegations that Darth Vader, the second-ranking [...]
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Film, Hilarious, Parody, Political Satire, Politics, Pop Culture, Videos Tags: 9/11 Conspiracists, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Political Parody, Star Wars No Comments »
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