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Mostrando postagens de 2017

Charlottesville and the freedom of speech

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Black cop defending white supremacists in Charlottesville: Striking image Disclaimer (published on August 16, 2017): I wrote this text in agreement with the informations I read in Brazilian newspapers and sites; but according the reader Professor Harjira Busier, the story was not well this, the supposed attack of the antiracists was a counterattack after the white supremacists went up against them, when they was doing a peaceful monitoring of the white supremacists, that is, all violence in both violent episodes would have departed from the white supremacists. Inspired by a video of Brazilian comedian Rafinha Bastos (see here ), I decided to return to a topic that I have dealt with before in this blog: freedom of expression; however, this time linking it with the sad episodes in Charlottesvile, VA. If you don’t know about what I’m talking, you certainly haven’t watched news in the last days. It occurs that white supremacists (neo-Nazi and KKK) organized a march against the re

Did God create just XX and XY?

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Thanks to science teacher Ronan Franco both for the suggestion and part of the references. Doesn’t matter what you think about if God exists or not, neither what God is this, to effect of argument, in this text we will use the hypothesis that God exists, and He is the god described in Christian Bible, responsible for universe’s, earth’s, nature’s, man’s and woman’s creation (Genesis 1:1-1-28), He created the light, the shadows, the peace and the evil (Isaiah 45:7), that is, the god who created us in the way we are, and whom will we should to obey (John, 6:38), and whose will is superior than our. Whit all this in mind, as biologist I may analyze the nature and understand it as God creates it, don’t according my own will, therefore, it is strange when some Christians say “God just create XX and XY” talking about sexual chromosomes, like Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (who is in the opening photo with a card in which is written in Portuguese: “There is only XX and XY”

Soap made of heroes

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“Let's look at each other's face.. We are hyperboreans 1 – We know very well how we live apart. (...) We discovered that happiness, we know the way, we take away this wisdom from the thousands of years in the labyrinth.” 2 That way Nietzsche starts his The Antichrist – a book of direct criticism to Christianism. Well, despite the fact that I’m being old, I confess that I didn’t live in 19 th Century (although my wife, who is Kardec Spiritist, believes in this possibility), or at least if I lived I’ve no sufficient memories to know the truth of Nietzsche’s statement when the book was released, in 1888, but I can claim that about this beginning of 21 st Century: we, the men (in this text when I use the words man and men I will be speaking about they as sex, don’t as the species Homo sapiens sapiens ) don’t discovered the happiness, we don’t know the way and we are lose in the labyrinth, with aggravating factor that Ariadne will not pull us by the ball of wool because she

Chatting with image

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The name of the photo is Brazilian Ambassador, the blue-and-yellow macaw ( Ara ararauna L.) is called arara-canindé in Brazil, country in which is emblematic of the Brazilian cerrado biome, but this neotropical parrot is found in all Central America and big part of South America. I photographed the specimen on a summer afternoon in August, 2014, at Menominee Park Zoo, in Oshkosh, WI, U.S. This photo was awarded in the III Zoology Symposium of the Federal University of Paraíba, at João Pessoa, PB, Brazil, in December, 2016. Technical details: Camera: Nikon D3100 Lenses: Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 , set at 201,6mm, f/9.0 Speed: 1/125 ISO: 450

Is Marxism a science?

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The headline left no room for doubt: “ Sex doesn’t sell any more, activism does. And don’t the big brands know it .” 1 The article published by a friend mine at Facebook brought me the reflection: “hey, look at Capitalism reinventing itself again,” leading me to recall Marx’s readings of youth and his deterministic certainty that capitalism was in inexorable crisis, fatally leading to its bankruptcy and overthrow in the face of the inexorable evolution of history into socialism and finally communism 2 . This theory is considered science by Marxists, who see in history Marx’ preachers of action of determinism, that is, it is determined that history will follow the course outlined by Marx, finally arriving to Communism, in a second half of the 19th century version of Laplace's determinism. Indeed, Marx is a product of his own time as all men, as argued by Hegel, by the way one of the main influences of Marx; and what time was it? Marx lived all his adulthood in the Victorian A

Feminism, Sexism and the false dichotomy

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This text was written to my another blog in September of 2015, having been translated in August 2, 2017. The original, in Portuguese, can be read at: http://diariosdeharveydent.blogspot.com.br/2015/09/feminismo-machismo-e-falsa-dicotomia.html It is common to hear the statement that Feminism is the opposite of Sexism 1 . I want to argue, first, that I agree and, at the same time, strongly disagree with this statement. However, to argue let’s define the word Sexism, according the Merriam-Webster it means: [noncount] : unfair treatment of people because of their sex - especially : unfair treatment of women. This is the point in what I agree, sexism and feminism are opposite because the first defends equality, and the second defends doesn’t believe in equality between the sexes. Contrary to what some argue, feminism isn’t a sexist doctrine, but seeks equality between men and women. What equality does the movement seek? Equality of rights, duties and opportunities. Well, I’m not S

Venezuela and Brazil: Two antidemocrats in power

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Greek Democracy in action Sometimes I find it funny (not to mention tragic), how some leaders of so-called Democracies are antidemocratic. First of all, is necessary to explain what I’m saying when I’m talking about Democracy (so touted, so used in political campaigns and so little respected in everyday life). The word Democracy comes from the old Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía or “government of the people”) 1 ; although there are some differences of conception among different authors Democracy is characterized by being a regime where all eligible citizens can participate equally – either directly or through elected representatives – in the proposition, development and creation of laws, exercising the power of rule through universal suffrage. Also are characteristics of a democracy the solid legal systems and political institutions, political pluralism, equality before the law, the right to petition for redress of social injustices, due process of law, civil liberties, human righ

Differentiated tickets: Can't Brazilian girls choose to pay less?

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You can read this text in Portuguese at: http://diariosdeharveydent.blogspot.com.br/2017/07/ingressos-diferenciados-brasileiras-nao.html Before you ask me, no, I'm not a radical Liberal thinking that the ‘market god’ can self-regulate and that under no circumstances should the State intervene in private enterprise; ok, I believe and defend freedom, but I think freedom isn’t the mere inexistence of constraint and coercion in the relations between the State and individuals, for me the lack of job, education, health, and safety can be as harmful to freedom as compulsion and coercion. I do not label myself, in fact as part of this or that political aspect (nor philosophical), since I analyze proposals and projects on their merits, not by what current defend it. There is a friend of mine, for example, who told me not to support the CLT (Brazilian work laws) because it had been proposed by a fascist government (Getúlio Vargas, 1940’s). Wait, let’s think a little… Does it even matter

Secular State is also valid for African religions

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African religions: Respect, but without State encouragement I remember as if it were yesterday. We was at Pedagogy class (at that time I was studying Graduation of Science in Nature) and the teacher was talking about a dispute that was occurred in the Municipal House of Representatives about inclusion of word “gender” in the Municipal Plan of Education. During the explanation, the teacher hardly criticized the participation of evangelicals in the debate, manifesting themselves among those who didn’t want to allow the modification of the law; “that hurts the Secular State” she said, and I agree. However, another student, who was present in the mess commented: “but in your side, professor, were entities representative of African matrix cult, does not this also hurt Secularism?”. “No”, she said, “because they were in our side, the right side…” What?? Are you saying that Secular State means only those religions with which I agree (or which agree with me) can participate in the State