A Thinking Man

Are you a seagull?
Albert Ellis, a cognitive therapist, cited by the American Psychological Association in 2003 as the second most influential psychologist in the twentieth century, used to argue that most people had strong tendencies to be like seagulls. As a psychotherapist he was quite unusual in his methods and often did and said seemingly [...]

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Several years ago when I first started working with clients via telephone I did briefly explore the use of equipment to record telephone calls. There were two reasons for this: 1) the ability to listen to, and analyse calls afterwards would be likely to enhance the quality of future sessions; 2) in the event [...]

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I bought Bart Ehrman’s God’s Problem on the strength of reading his Misquoting Jesus, and I wasn’t disappointed.
There are three things about Ehrman’s writing that help me sit up and listen to what he is saying.
First, he is world renowned scholar in his field.  He has been teaching the bible at university level for years [...]

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It’s official. You have to show me more deep respect. The Roman Catholic Archbishop has said so!
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers, urging Christians to treat atheists and agnostics with “deep esteem”. In a lecture given at Westminster Cathedral, which comes after a spate of [...]

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There are often calls for banning by ‘blind’ people who want to ban others but ensure that their own work is never banned. In their self-righteousness they fail to see the contradictions in their own position.
A recent example is Geert Wilders, the far-right founder of the Party for Freedom. Appealing to the higher [...]

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I am grateful to Prospect for enlightening me. (And by the way, this is written ‘tongue in cheek’ so don’t flame me with angry comments. It’s Friday morning, and I’ve wound down already!) Apparently there is a big difference between maths undergraduates, and those studying philosophy. I always suspected that was [...]

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There are press reports in the UK that the government is seriously considering legislation to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads. It is estimated that 6 million broadband users illegally download files each year.
I don’t, for a minute, doubt that piracy is responsible for a slump in the [...]

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Towards the Light by A.C. Grayling is an informative, passionate, encouraging, and challenging book.
The author gives a short 300 page history of the movement towards greater freedom in the West, and as you would expect from a Professor of Philosophy, occasionally pauses to give brief cameo explanations of some of the key thinkers whose ideas [...]

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There is an outcry going on in Oxford, UK, at the moment over Muslim plans to broadcast a loudspeaker call to prayer from a city centre mosque. A spokesman for the Central Mosque said that Muslim’s have the right to summon worshippers. They want to issue two minute calls, three times a day.
From [...]

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Myth 2: Atheism is just another religion.
This myth is being resurrected again by people ranging from academics trying to counter some of the influence of the recent spate of books challenging faith, to extremists wanting atheists banned from American schools by using the ruling that religion and state must be kept separate.
It was the good [...]

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