Missing the Mark: Recent Episodes
Christopher Lansdown
Looking for interesting meaning in strange places, including pop culture, mathematics, philosophy, and theology. Plus readings of poems and books I like. Mostly it will be the audio from my youtube videos, but there may be some exclusive stuff here too.
For a while I’d been running a podcast which was the audio of my YouTube videos, but because of a problem in wordpress’s API for file uploads, it’s just too much of a pain in the neck right now, so for the foreseeable future I’m not going to be uploading the podcast. (I am planning … Continue reading Discontinuing the Podcast
A discussion of the story from which the Mary Sue character came. A followup to a previous post. You can also watch it on YouTube, if you like:
A look at where the idea of “shades of grey” comes from—specifically, how it’s a logical consequence of consequentialism. There is a followup to Why Consequentialists See Only Shades of Grey. You can also watch it on YouTube:
In which I look at the story of a nerf gun used as a cognitive behavioral therapy tool, and an interesting issue mentioned in the story. (I have a previous post about this with some of the story as text.) You can also view this on YouTube:
No one actually believes in the burden of proof, not even the people who constantly talk about it. You can also watch this video on YouTube:
I talked with the Herald of the Pulp Revolution, Cheah Kai Wai (note that Kai Wai is his personal name), about writing, stories, and related subjects. You can also watch it on YouTube, if you prefer:
“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’ Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our … Continue reading Solzhenitsyn: Because Men Forgot God
I recently explained hell to my nine year old son in a way that presented the adult version rather than the kid's cartoon-book version and he understood it, so I'm relating that explanation here because it might be of interest.
I discuss fasting and the value of such practices in Lent. You can watch it on YouTube, if you prefer:
I talk about why one should be very wary of people who approve of your vices—they want something from you.
A friend, acting out of morbid curiosity, watched a video by Bionic Dance that responded to my video, Life Doesn't Have the Meaning You Give it, and alerted to me to it having some questions in it which might be interesting to answer. So I watched the video myself, wrote down the interesting questions, and answered them in this video.
In this episode I discuss the idea that "life has the meaning you give it" and how it's not true.
I talk about why the book How To Win Friends And Influence People is a good book. I highly recommend it.
On the internet one will run across many atheists who are speaking in bad faith. I give a technique for how to tell whether any given atheist is speaking in good faith or in bad faith.