Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kamineris an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions, about the self-help movement; and Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety...
attempt prove quantum realm science single taking using ways word
He's taking a single word from the realm of science -- quantum -- and using it in ways that are meaningless, ... It's an attempt to use science to prove your faith.
apt cells compose desires interests people private regard terrorist
To rationalize their lies, people -- and the governments, churches, or terrorist cells they compose -- are apt to regard their private interests and desires as just.
actively appalling precisely quite supporting
I find it quite appalling that the ACLU is actively supporting this. I think this is precisely the kind of legislation we should be opposing, not supporting.
liberal
A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested. A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.
world lessons never-forget
Whatever lessons we take from this dreadful attack (on the World Trade Center and Pentagon), we should never forget that it was, after all, a faith based initiative.
book angel atheism
It's easy to sell good news like this, and the authors confidently rely on classic fallacious arguments. They argue by declaration, which is what makes the books so amusing. In matter-of-fact, authoritative tones, the authors tell us how plants and human beings exchange energy - or they describe what angels look like, whether or how they're sexed, how they communicate with human beings, and how they differ from ghosts. Readers might be expected to wonder, How do they know?
intellectual atheism matter
It is the inevitable effect of religion on public policy that makes it a matter of public concern. Advocates of religiosity extol the virtues or moral habits that religion is supposed to instill in us. But we should be equally concerned with the intellectual habits it discourages.
children angel heaven
When the inner child finds a guardian angel, publishers are in heaven.
religious trying want
Secularists are often wrongly accused of trying to purge religious ideals from public discourse. We simply want to deny them public sponsorship.
brain jargon seems
Jargon seems to be the place where the right brain and the left brain meet.
book self average
Religions, of course, have their own demanding intellectual traditions, as Jesuits and Talmudic scholars might attest.... But, in its less rigorous, popular forms, religion is about as intellectually challenging as the average self-help book. (Like personal development literature, mass market books about spirituality and religion celebrate emotionalism and denigrate reason. They elevate the "truths" of myths and parables over empiricism.) In its more authoritarian forms, religion punishes questioning and rewards gullibility. Faith is not a function of stupidity but a frequent cause of it.
stupidity causes insult
Faith is not a function of stupidity but a frequent cause of it.
believe people challenges
What makes fantastic declarations believable is, in part, the vehemence with which they're proffered. Again, in the world of spirituality as well as of pop psychology, intensity of personal belief is evidence of truth. It is considered very bad form - even abuse - to challenge the veracity of any personal testimony that might be offered in a twelve-step group or on a talk show, unless the testimony itself is equivocal... Whatever sells, whatever many people believe strongly, must be true.
patriotism liberty doe
Patriotism does not oblige us to acquiesce in the destruction of liberty. Patriotism obliges us to question it, at least.