Hello, and welcome to Fresh AiR! – I’m Joe… Words you will have heard a few times if you have already started listening to season one. What is Fresh AiR? ‘Fresh AiR’ is a podcast, hosted by Joe, Martijn and Dave. It is part of Answers in Reason but hopes to bring a fresh perspective…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 3: Objective / Subjective – Morals / Morality
This article is to define and discuss objective and subjective, morals and morality. As with any article on AiR we don’t always agree. Where science is concerned and the evidence is irrefutable we of course accept and believe it to be true. When it is opinion or something philosophical we may have differences. As such…
A foetus is not a person, so abortion is morally permissible.
Abortion is a contentious issue in current times. There are many arguments both for and against, and it is a topic guaranteed to raise both emotions and heated arguments among people. One of the many arguments made to support the permissibility of abortion is that a foetus is not a ‘person’, and therefore morally permissible. …
On racism
Racism. We don’t seem to get enough of this topic. Most of us have intuitive ideas of what constitutes racism, but only few of us have bravely waded through the proverbial swamp of grey areas, where questions like ‘is a subject to racism conforming to racials stereotypesa a form of racism?’, ‘are jokes based on…
Is Value Entirely Subjective?
Is Value Entirely Subjective? When we speak of something’s value we speak of its ‘goodness’ (Crisp, 2016). Where does this ‘goodness’ come from though? Is something good only because an individual bestows goodness upon based upon their preference for it? In order to answer these kinds of questions we must explore the different kinds of…
Pro-Choice does not mean Pro-Abortion
Abortion is a very sensitive topic with a lot of high charged emotions flying about. If you remove the emotional element it is easy to see either sides point, but there are a few things that should be cleared up from either perspective. Pro-Choice does not mean Pro-Abortion There seems to be an attitude that…
Religious Apologetics – The Science of Excuses
Defining Apologetics Apologetics may be simply defined as the defense of the faith. The simplicity of this definition, however, masks the complexity of the problem of defining apologetics. It turns out that a diversity of approaches has been taken to defining the meaning, scope, and purpose of apologetics. From Apologia to Apologetics The word “apologetics”…
Confirmation Bias: Fanboys, Fundamentalists, Conspiracy Theorists and our Tribal Nature
Fanboys, Fundamentalists, and Conspiracy theorists are the prime users of Confirmation Bias. In fact, everyone at some point has operated using confirmation bias based on their cognitive biases, but in most circumstances, you could drop them in to one of the above categories. So let’s start with some definitions of the terminology shall we? We…
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms Volume 1: Evolution
Conflated and Misunderstood Terms There are a number of conflated and misunderstood terms floating about the internet. Some of these terms are colloquialisms, others are just a misunderstanding, while the bulk used have been taught erroneously to further an agenda. Communication is a very important thing. If we cannot interact with each other on the…
