Believing What You Know Ain't So

I just finished reading Bruno Latour's On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods (Duke, 2010), and am still stirring it around in my head. Latour is (in)famous as an anthropologist of science, whose fieldwork consists of observing the savage scientist in his natural habitat, the laboratory. I haven't yet read any of that work; all I'd read before was We Have Never Been Modern (Harvard, 1993),

Believing What You Know Ain't So

I just finished reading Bruno Latour's On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods (Duke, 2010), and am still stirring it around in my head. Latour is (in)famous as an anthropologist of science, whose fieldwork consists of observing the savage scientist in his natural habitat, the laboratory. I haven't yet read any of that work; all I'd read before was We Have Never Been Modern (Harvard, 1993),

Sanity and Rationalism

Michael Moore just posted to his blog in support of the Cordoba Initiative, and has committed to match other people's donations up to $10,000. I made a donation myself.The first comment to Moore's post, though, just boggled my mind:Can I just point out that all religions are 'made up' - I actually believe stupidity on this scale should be made an offense and punishable by locking up in a

Sanity and Rationalism

Michael Moore just posted to his blog in support of the Cordoba Initiative, and has committed to match other people's donations up to $10,000. I made a donation myself.The first comment to Moore's post, though, just boggled my mind:Can I just point out that all religions are 'made up' - I actually believe stupidity on this scale should be made an offense and punishable by locking up in a