Category Archives: Critical Thinking
QUOTATION: Krishnamurti / “A Particular Corner of the Vast Field of Life”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (May 11, 1895 – February 17, 1986)
Indian born speaker and writer on philosophical and spiritual subjects
And what is yourself, the individual you? I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world. – Freedom from the Known,13
CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: “Indiana Bigot Meets Billy Madison”
h/t: Planet Atheism
MENTAL CHILD ABUSE: “Teaching Creationism is Child Abuse” / Lawrence Krauss
“The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it.”
h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: Pharyngula
ATHEISM: “A Personal Relationship with Reality” / San Diego Coalition of Reason
h/t: San Diego Coalition of Reason
h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: Friendly Atheist
POLITICAL DELUSION: The Amazing Atheist / “American Violence”
COGNITIVE SCIENCE: “How Beliefs Resist Change – Christianity and Cognitive Science” / TrustingDoubt / Valerie Tarico
Each religion has what can be called an immune system, a set of teachings and practices that guard against other beliefs or loss of belief. Cognitive dissonance theory and confirmation bias help us to understand how beliefs can remain unchanged in the face of devastating failures of prophecy or moral failings of leaders.
RATIONALIZATION: “Cenk Uygur Asks Alex Jones, ‘Have You Ever Sought Mental Health Treatment?’” / Cenk Uygur
h/t: alternet.org

