Author: Adam Lee

Stanley Milgram. “Behavioral study of obedience.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 67, no.4 (1963), p.371-378. In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted one of the most important experiments ever done in the field of human psychology and social conformity. For ethical reasons, this study probably could not be repeated today, but that only makes…

Following my earlier announcement, I’m now very pleased to announce that the Humanist Symposium now has hosts for its first seven editions, up through September 2. My sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who stepped up to volunteer! Also, the carnival home page, linked above, now offers some graphic logos thanks to Intergalactic Hussy, proprietor…

In an e-mail conversation I had a few weeks ago, a theist visitor attempted to answer my argument on the problem of evil by comparing God to parents who let their children learn from work and life experience, rather than trying to shelter them from all possible harm. My parents have money, they could have…

In the wake of the recent horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech, where a mentally disturbed student named Cho-Seung Hui murdered 27 students and five faculty members before taking his own life, a shocked nation has struggled to understand. There has been agonized debate over what could have caused this young man to commit such a…

This month I’ve written two posts condemning the get-rich-quick, get-everything-for-nothing mentality prominent both in evangelical Christianity (The Root of All Evil) and in New Ageism (The Secret). (It occurs to me that this is April – tax month, for us Americans – and though I didn’t intend these posts to appear during this month, the…

I’ve posted a new blog entry at Dangerous Intersection, a book review of Peter Galbraith’s The End of Iraq. Galbraith’s book deals with the chaos the American invasion has unleashed and argues that the only feasible solution remaining is to partition Iraq into three states. Also, I’m pleased to announce that while I personally remain…

This year, I made a New Year’s resolution to learn Spanish. In a world of many cultures, I’ve always felt somewhat embarrassed that I never learned to speak another language, and with the increasing influence of Hispanic people and culture in the United States, Spanish was a rational choice. Both while going to graduate school…

In past posts such as last December’s “The Theodicy of Narnia“, I’ve called attention to some of the unintentionally revealing comments that famous theists have made about their own belief systems. C.S. Lewis, for example, wrote whole books to defend the thesis that God’s existence is compatible with pain and suffering, but when it came…

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finished the first chapter of the book I’ve been working on. (Actually it’s been finished for over a week – my apologies for procrastinating on the announcement.) Although this chapter has taken almost a month to write, it will probably end up being the one with the most original…

Last year, I read and greatly enjoyed Chris Mooney’s The Republican War on Science as an invaluable exposition of the harm that ideologically driven antiscience has done to the state of scientific knowledge in this country. But to my great distress, he has taken a turn toward the dark side. In a column published this…