Introduction

The following is a collection of my thoughts and essays on various subjects: Religion, democracy, credit card technology, prostitution, cultural norms and preconceptions…dare I call it an eclectic collection? The reason I post these here is twofold. First, I like to share my thoughts (that one should be obvious). Second, I want my thoughts to be challenged. Disagree with me? Comment; let me know. Think that my reasoning is flawed? Let me know. I'm basing proper reasoning on flawed premises? Let me know. It is by having one's thinking challenged that one can improve it, have it grow. Reactions of visceral disapproval aren't very helpful to me, of course, but if you have an intelligent argument, I would encourage you—I would be grateful if you let me know.

The third reason I write this (I know I said twofold above, but that was for the reason why I post these essays: The reasons why I write them are as above, plus the following) is that writing my thoughts out helps me formulate them to myself. I like to let my ideas float around in mindspace for a while, then, once I have a strong idea of what I think, I write it down in order to get a clear idea. It's very cathartic to me, and putting it in words has often helped me spot inconsistencies in my thinking.

The essays

• The rational, the irrational, and the rest (September 25, 2007): Why you don't have to be irrational, and still don't have to be a dry, calculating machine.
• Faith (May 23, 2007): Why is faith considered a virtue?
• Mind over matter: The guilt of depression (May 11, 2007): Depression and the fallacy of thinking it's your fault.
• The Morality of Hell (April 28, 2007): Why the doctrine of Hell is immoral.
• On Critical Thinking (January 23, 2007): What critical thinking really is and why we need more of it.
• Evolution is science; science is evolution (December 7, 2006): Science is a memic evolution of testable ideas.
• Fun with debating (November 13, 2006): Some thoughts on the abortion debate.
• Suicide is not a sin if there's an Undo button (October 10, 2006): Why I find the Passion of the Christ (the story, not the movie) so odd and unsatisfying. See also Dead to Rights (subsequently brought to my attention).
• Paying with plastic: Good, bad, and pipe dreams (October 5, 2006): I really think the whole credit card concept could be implemented better.
• Musings on democracy (September 9, 2006): What I think democracy is, and what I think its problems are, in principle and practice.
• Push vs. pull, Data access and overload, or How did I ever survive without feeds? (April 5, 2006): An introduction to data feeds, theory and practice
• Tolerance and acceptance (December 28, 2005): Sometimes, I don't think tolerating people is good enough.
• Prostitution (December 7, 2005): Why on Earth should it be illegal?
• On the Evil of Diverse Proprietary Things, and on Instant Messaging (November 1, 2005): Proprietary software means that you can't change it. Proprietary formats and protocols mean that you can't change software.
• Promiscuity and demonisation (May 24, 2005): Just because I haven't slept with a lot of people, that doesn't mean I think those who have are necessarily evil.
• Sodom and science (January 27, 2005): Calling creationism pseudo-science is giving it too much credit.
• Intolerance (January 20, 2005): On homophobia.
• Fundamentalism (April 28, 2004): In which I set down my Three Commandments. This essay, alas, is showing its age.
• Devolution (August 21, 2003): Brief musing on how Homo sapiens has thwarted natural selection, the evolutionary guide to improvement.