Much more with Jeffrey Jay Lowder! This time we get even deeper into the arguments, and I get to try out a couple of thoughts I’ve been having on Jeff. It was a real treat to have an expert on to be able to bounce some ideas off of. This is of course in addition to the vast amount of knowledge Jeffrey lays on us this episode!
Find Jeff at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularoutpost/
or on twitter @SecularOutpost
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I’m very pleased to have a special guest this week, Jeffery Jay Lowder! Jeff is one of the founders of Internet Infidels and the Secular Outpost. He’s also someone with a vast knowledge of apologetics and counter-apologetics, having studied at a christian university. One thing about Jeff Lowder though is that he’s very fair and tried to criticize bad arguments on either side of the equation. It’s in that spirit that I’ve invited him on this week to discuss atheists’ poor responses to moral arguments, namely William Lane Craig’s moral argument for god.
Find Jeff at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularoutpost/
or on twitter @SecularOutpost
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:22 — 56.6MB)
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Lots of great comments on my last episode to discuss, but ALAS! There’s no time! We’re on to the Portable Atheist 5! I cannot believe how long it has been since I did this last. This edition is David Hume’s “The Natural History of Religion.”
I promise to find a time to address these really good comments though, perhaps next week.
Thanks for listening! And please support the show at http://www.patreon.com/atheist !
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This week I want to take a break from interviews. I’ve absolutely loved the interviews I’ve been doing lately, but I recognize that some people come to my podcast for some commentary, or Tommentary, so today I’d like to do that. SO, I picked a doozy of a topic, which is Christina Hoff Sommers. She recently gave a talk at Oberlin, and she was perceived as such a threat by certain students that they gave a very condescending preamble and warning about her talk. What could warrant such a thing? Listen and find out!
Here are some relevant links:
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Part 2 with Ben Bell. For a description and if you haven’t heard part one, refer here: http://atheisticallyspeaking.com/as129-reddit-toxicity/
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The company Idibon recently conducted a Reddit toxicity that made a lot of headlines. The study can be found here. Many subreddits reposted the study and reacted to their position. In a finding that might be relevant to the atheism community, r/atheism was found to be among the top in the Reddit toxicity measure. It also was among the top in bigotry, allegedly due to anti-Muslim bigotry. If these results are reliable, then this may be a concern to atheists active in r/atheism.
Joining me for an interview is Ben Bell from Idibon. Ben conducted the reddit toxicity study and is here to tell us all about his methodology. To give an idea what Idibon is about, here’s their mission statement:
“Idibon’s cloud-based natural language processing services enable organizations to efficiently organize and structure written language to answer critical business questions and automate their processes. We have the most accurate and adaptable systems in the market and support NER/text extraction, sentiment analysis, text/content categorization, language detection/identification. Our investors include Altpoint Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Morningside Ventures.”
So essentially, what Idibon does is crowdsource language data processing. This allows them to annotate large quantities of language data, accurately. This expertise is what led Ben to the idea to test the toxicity of reddit communities. To begin, Ben came up with his definitions for both toxicity and bigotry, and then sought to create instruction that annotators would be able to use reliably. From there he ran a few pilot tests to see how his instruction fared before moving it to a larger scale.
So are these results reliable? If so what do they mean? You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear more at length what Ben did in order to rate the toxicity of different reddit communities in a scientific way!
Also, be sure to tune in on Thursday for part 2!
Support the show at http://www.patreon.com/atheist !
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:32 — 39.7MB)
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In part 2 we get to hear @secularlad Harley’s update and story. Then we get into some general stuff about Jehova’s Witnesses with Kenny Wyland. He can be found on twitter @kennywyland or at the awesome url of http://www.liberalgeek.com !
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:12 — 39.7MB)
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In part two of our discussion, Eiynah breaks down the recent situation in Canada where a woman wants to be able to wear a niqab during the citizenship oath. Is it basic religious freedom to allow this? Or is it just as ridiculous as allowing a KKK mask during the oath?
Thanks so much to Eiynah for providing her perspective on this. Find her at http://nicemangos.blogspot.com/
Become a Patreon of the show at http://www.patreon.com/atheist !
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:00 — 37.7MB)
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This week I’m joined by Pakistani-Canadian illustrator/blogger Eiynah! If you’re wondering, that’s not her real name. Why would she need to be anonymous? Well she used to be a Muslim, I wonder if that has anything to do with it…
Anyway, in this first part, Eiynah talks about her background growing up in Saudi Arabia and moving to Canada, as well as her controversial children’s book that really shouldn’t have been controversial at all. It’s a very interesting story!
http://nicemangos.blogspot.com/
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Back by popular demand is my alarmingly attractive fiance Lydia! In a follow up to the Jake and Marilee episode on secular weddings, we discuss our experiences planning a wedding. Well… Lydia’s experience planning a wedding. Lydia also has some unintentionally hilarious examples of religious wedding vows! It’s a raucous time.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:02 — 37.7MB)
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