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The late British novelist Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) was mainly known for his Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, of which one of the most popular, Hogfather, was made into a BBC miniseries in 2006. Pratchett was a secular humanist, but did not share the unfortunate belief of some atheists that there is something shameful about faith itself. Instead, with Hogfather, he valorizes the struggle between belief and fantasy – which he casts as necessary parts of being human – and a cold, mechanical, and unimaginative worldview. (more…)

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A video made to accompany some excerpts from talks by Jonathan Bowden on the subject of the power of belief. We are hardwired for philosophical and religious belief, but as a society, many white people have a severe lack of it. Bowden talks about Nietzsche, nature, mental strengthening, and the absence of belief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRL32-JPuQ

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A few years ago I realized I did not know what I believed. A great deal of this had to do with the fact that I was a philosophy major. If you ask a philosopher if he believes in X he mentally translates that question into “can I prove that X is true?” And then he answers that question rather than the one you actually asked.  (more…)