God and Christianity According To Swinburne

In this paper I discuss critically Richard Swinburne’s concept of God, which I find to be incoherent, and his understanding of Christianity, which I find to be based on a precritical use of the New Testamen

Taking reincarnation seriously: Critical discussion of some central ideas from John Hick

Reincarnation has not been entirely neglected in the philosophy of religion but it has not always been taken seriously or carefully discussed in relation to its role in believers’ lives. John Hick is exceptional insofar as he gave sustained attention to the belief, at least as it features in the philosophies of Vedānta and Buddhism. While acknowledging the value of Hick’s recognition of the variety of reincarnation beliefs, this article critically engages with certain aspects of his approach. It argues that Hick’s search for a ‘criterion’ of reincarnation is misguided, and that his distinction between ‘factual’ and ‘mythic’ forms of the doctrine is over-simplifying

Çağdaş Gerçekdışıcı (Non-Realist) Din

Budist izgenin gerçekdışıcı sonu ile 19–20. yüzyıl din dilinin batıcı açıklaması arasında ilgi kurulur. Bu bugün A. J. Ayer, Paul Edwards, Anthony Flew ve Kai Nelson gibi bazı filozofların örnek olarak gösterildiği geleneksel ateizmle karıştırılmamalıdır. Buna karşılık, din dilinin gerçekdışıcı yorumları, “din” şemsiyesiyle çevrilmiş geniş bir ailenin parçasıdır. Onların “ateizm”i bir dini ateizm olarak ve onların “hümanizm”i bir dini hümanizm olarak tanımlanmalıdır ki, bu ateizm ve hümanizmde büyük geleneklerce beslenen dini semboller, mitler, hikâyeler ve ritüellerde derin anlam ve hayat için önemli öğütler bulunur

Outburst of Comet 17P/Holmes Observed With The Solar Mass Ejection Imager

We present time-resolved photometric observations of Jupiter family comet 17P/Holmes during its dramatic outburst of 2007. The observations, from the orbiting Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI), provide the most complete measure of the whole-coma brightness, free from the effects of instrumental saturation and with a time-resolution well-matched to the rapid brightening of the comet. The lightcurve is divided into two distinct parts. A rapid rise between the first SMEI observation on UT 2007 October 24 06h 37m (mid-integration) and UT 2007 October 25, is followed by a slow decline until the last SMEI observation on UT 2008 April 6 22h 16m (mid-integration). We find that the rate of change of the brightness is reasonably well-described by a Gaussian function having a central time of UT 2007 October 24.54+/-0.01 and a full-width-at-half-maximum 0.44+/-0.02 days. The maximum rate of brightening occurs some 1.2 days after the onset of activity. At the peak the scattering cross-section grows at 1070+/-40 km^2/s while the (model-dependent) mass loss rates inferred from the lightcurve reach a maximum at 3+/-10^5 kg/s. The integrated mass in the coma lies in the range (2 to 90)x10^10 kg, corresponding to 0.2% to 10% of the nucleus mass, while the kinetic energy of the ejecta is (0.6 to 30) MTonnes TNT. The particulate coma mass could be contained within a shell on the nucleus of thickness ~1.5 to 60 m. This is comparable to the distance traveled by conducted heat in the century since the previous outburst of 17P/Holmes. This coincidence is consistent with, but does not prove, the idea that the outburst was triggered by the action of conducted heat, possibly through the crystallization of buried amorphous ice.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures; http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jingli/Holmes_SMEI/17P_Holmes.htm

Navigating the Digital Divide

The digital divide has now been analyzed for over a decade. Many in the field believe it is time to reflect on where we are today. Has the concept lost all meaning as academics and policy-makers grapple with the issues? Is the digital divide just a more subtle way of discussing poverty and social exclusion or is it a valid new formulation for discussing recent and novel changes occurring in an information society? Much of the content of the following special edition journal is based on papers given at a May 2003 conference on International social welfare policy and practice for vulnerable groups: International perspectives on social justice and technology - held concurrently at the Universities of Calgary and Regina, Canada. The conference involved over 100 participants from North America, South America, and Europe, and over 30 peer reviewed papers delivered in person or in real time via electronic media from such remote sites as Boston, New York, and Amsterdam