Tait profile picture

Tait

What smells blue?

About Me

I've been hacked and spammed, the result of which was having this section erased. I'll get around to writing something else here again someday...Really, someday...

My Interests

I enjoy what I do: teaching philosophy. I also like to watch movies and I'm a Denver Broncos fan and an LA Kings fan. Although I don't do these things as much as I'd like to these days, and haven't done some of them in a while, I like: skiing (alpine and telemark), snowboarding, surfing, playing tennis, soccer, rockclimbing, roller hockey, yoga. One of my favorite ways to spend an evening is outside on a nice night drinking a couple beers and having meaningful conversation with a couple close friends. Especially if it's some place like Hawaii.

I'd like to meet:

Anyone with similar interests, and, generally, someone reflective about life - someone who goes through life as a thinker, rather than merely floating through it. Having fun is good, too, though. We shouldn't be too serious all the time.

Music:

Audioslave, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, A Perfect Circle, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool

Movies:

I like to watch all sorts of movies, I like to watch them often, and I enjoy most of them. I've particularly enjoyed the movies of Sam Mendes: American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead. I recently watched Inherit the Wind (1960) - excellent movie. I also like Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" a lot. Even more recently, "Little Miss Sunshine."

Television:

24, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, Lost, Prison Break, and the Simpsons. I also have a weakness for "reality" shows, because they're absurd. Absurdly awesome.

Books:

The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins; Dracula, by Bram Stoker; Dune, by Frank Herbert; The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene; The Enchiridion, by Epictetus; The End of Faith, by Sam Harris; Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, by Susan Jacoby; The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins; The Godless Constitution, by Kramnick and Moore; The Once and Future King, by T.H. White; The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett; The Princess Bride, by William Goldman; San Manuel Bueno Martyr, a short story by Miguel de Unamuno; The Stranger, by Albert Camus; Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein; short stories and novels by Philip K. Dick.

My Blog

The Eros of Souls

An essay that I enjoyed reading and thought I'd share: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/love-deresiewicz.html  ...
Posted by Tait on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:30:00 PST

Sensei Copping Memorial Video

Sensei Stephen Copping1961-2006Rest in peace. You are missed.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbq6Wpb1DVk
Posted by Tait on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 08:35:00 PST

Atheism or Agnosticism?

It is said that both agnosticism and atheism are alternatives to theism. It is also sometimes said that agnosticism is more rational than atheism. I argue that either agnosticism is not contradictory ...
Posted by Tait on Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:00:00 PST

The Centipede and the Frog

Consider the following story: A centipede walks with a hundred legs. A frog, who was a philosopher, saw the centipede, looked at him for a while, watched him and became very troubled. "It is so diffi...
Posted by Tait on Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:37:00 PST

If not religion, then what?

What set of beliefs do I think does better than religious sets of beliefs? The answer is actually somewhat apparent in my first argument. I believe the best life is a life in which we believe only tho...
Posted by Tait on Fri, 27 Jan 2006 09:42:00 PST

More on pragmatism

We need to distinguish between particular beliefs and sets of beliefs. Except where I've been dealing with the particular belief that God exists, I have been using "religious beliefs" to refer to sets...
Posted by Tait on Thu, 26 Jan 2006 03:46:00 PST

Religion and pragmatism

Pragmatic arguments attempt to justify belief of some proposition based on the benefits of believing that proposition. In other words, using my terms from before, such arguments attempt to show that i...
Posted by Tait on Thu, 26 Jan 2006 11:04:00 PST

Religion and rationality

1. One hallmark of irrationality is believing something without any reason to believe it. 2. Faith just is believing something without reason to believe it. 3. All religions require one to believe at ...
Posted by Tait on Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:20:00 PST