Charlie Jane Anders's discussions

He's never quite made the jump across the pond — I was reading up on him this morning and John Clute's Encyclopedia of Fantasy refers to him as never having caught on in the US. And it's really true. Plus he's never mentioned as a fantasy hero, despite magic being central to his premise. Read more

Good point! Read more

I have respect for religious people because I believe their experiences of the divine are real to them, even if I don't share them. Enough smart, non-gullible people that I've met have had experiences of God that they believed were real that I have to respect that. Read more

Ah yes. I've seen that screencap everywhere the past few days. Didn't know it was Professor X's brain. Thanks! Read more

I would say there's a line between making fun of religious beliefs in general, versus making fun of specific anti-scientific claims like denial of evolution. Read more

What happens on the final page of Uncanny Avengers? (Still getting back up to speed on comics, as I mentioned above.) Read more

Yeah it may just look like more of a dystopia to those of us who are viewing it from the outside... In which case it's a sad commentary on post-Soviet Russia, I guess. :) Read more

I definitely agree that mocking people's religious beliefs is disrespectful and wrong — and makes our conversations about religion vs. science worse and less constructive. OTOH I also think that religious people do themselves no favors when they try to explain away hard scientific evidence with pseudoscience. I have… Read more

Wow. Free petting zoo? It just gets better and better! But yeah, I understand the dilemma about not wanting to give money to those people. Read more

I would drive 100 miles out of my way to visit the Creation Museum. Maybe 200. Read more

Nope, that's not what I was saying at all. I'm saying that if God exists, he/she/it is only knowable through religious experiences, and not by pointing at external phenomena. Read more

I guess I would almost approach it from the other way around — it's only once you remove all necessity for God that it would be possible for someone to believe in God. Once the universe can exist without God and you can have morality and ethics without God, then God is no longer just propping things up and can have… Read more

I think once you drop the ridiculous claims about the Earth being 6,000 years old or dinosaurs living 1000 years ago or whatever, it probably makes it easier for people to believe in God. Although it wasn't that sort of stuff that made me personally stop believing in God, it was the whole business. Read more

John Scalzi visited the Creation Museum back in 2007 and posted some screamingly funny photos and commentary on all the pictures of dinosaurs in historical times. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2007/11/12/your-creation-museum-report/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/scalzi/1970016964/in/set-72157603091357751 . I linked to… Read more

Yes, exactly. It's only the notion that one interpretation of the Bible is literally true that you lose if you accept evolution. Read more

I don't see it on the list, sorry http://generationpfilm.com/ Read more

I think if it's about a country where the politicians are fake and created by computer, and everyone is being lied to, then that's pretty dystopian. Not to mention what happens to the entire Russian government halfway through the movie. Read more

It opens in San Francisco this weekend, and I know it's in some other cities right now. Read more

Oh, thanks. Fixing it! Read more

Yeah, I will change it to your version. Thanks! Read more