This isn't like the main blog, where I do a monthly roundup. I don't post that often here.
But, I did decide to start doing a quarterly roundup, so, here's the most-read blog posts of April-June.
No 1 is from last year. It's a callout of a bad Smithsonian article on the alleged likelihood of the existence of a biblical Edom at the time of King David (if he existed; I tilt no, but am not an absolutist). Why is it bad? It's heavily tinged with a background of Zionism; the author, Matti Friedman, once accused the Associated Press of antisemitism and was roundly refuted.
No. 2? "Libertarian pseudoskeptic pseudoscience," a Brian Dunning takedown.
No. 3? From last month, my thoughts on plunging American belief in god.
No. 4 is my extended review of "Yahweh: An Anatomy." Very interesting, but iffy at times on the embodied Yahweh. It has bits of envelope pushing and gets the book of Job wrong.
No. 5 is my extended review of Daniel Wegner's magnum opus, "The Illusion of Conscious Will." And, yes, the book lives up to the title in many ways. Say "mu," per Doug Hofstadter of "Gödel, Escher, Bach," to BOTH "free will" and "determinism" after reading this book.
No. 6 is also recent. It's another takedown, this time of ex-Google whackjob Blake Lemoine and his unsubstantiated claims about LaMDA, AI and sentience.
No. 7? Another extended review. "I Am Dynamite," the Nietzsche bio says; the book is a dud, at best, and willfully wrong and misinterpretive at worst.
No. 8? The idea and cultural concept of the shtetl as presented for goys, and somewhat for non-observant Jews, with rugged romanticism in Fiddler on the Roof, appears to have been largely fabricated.
No. 9? If you haven't yet, "Say goodbye to History for Atheists," above all for Tim O'Neill's Catholic and papal apologist dreck, refuted by many besides me.
No. 10 is even older. From 15 years ago, but trending again, "More proof the Buddha was no Buddha."
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