Articles written by Mary W. Matthews - Page 3

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About me - Mary W. Matthews

I've been a writer and editor for my entire professional life. As an editor, I have won awards for excellence from several national educational nonprofits.

I've also been deeply interested in the philosophy of religion all my life: IS there a God? What has

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Religion & Spirituality > Christian Doctrine & Issues Adding to the Ten Commandments: 1 of 3
Because the Ten Commandments are well over 3,200 years old, it would be well to examine what we're starting from before we start trying to improve them. The Ten Commandments were the Hebrews' basis for creating order in community life. The first four deal with the community's relationship with God, while the next six deal wi... More..
Sciences > Sciences (Other) Could robots take over the world?: 13 of 38
There are any number of reasons robots will never take over the earth. Let's take a look at the ways that even the smartest artificial intelligence differs from a typical (that is, awake and non-impaired) human being: * A human is conscious. This difference is HUGE! When you are conscious, you are able to think and feel, and... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Bible Study Will people eventually write their own version of the Bible, in the manner of, say, Wikipedia?: 4 of 11
No, there will never be another version of the Bible, not even a Wikibible. (Although what an appealing thought!) The number-one article on the "Yes" side of this debate says that people will come up with new TRANSLATIONS of the Bible. Absolutely, yes, they will. The Hebrew Scriptures were written between 2,500 and 3,500 yea... More..
Sciences > Sciences (Other) Does falsification provide the most accurate model of understanding for the progress of scientific knowledge?: 3 of 8
Falsification is the action of disproving a proposition, hypothesis, or theorem. It is not falsification but FALSIFIABILITY that is one of the important principles undergirding scientific progress. Falsifiability — also called refutability and testability — is the logical possibility that a proposition, hypothesi... More..
Society & Lifestyle > Personal Morals & Values Does our conscience help or hinder us when making moral decisions?: 3 of 8
Conscience is based on the ability to tell right from wrong and to make moral decisions thereupon. When we choose rightly, we feel good, even if the only good result is the feeling that we acted with integrity. When we make the wrong choice, we feel guilty or ashamed. We live in fear of the consequences of what we have done,... More..
Entertainment > Characters & Personalities Top ten television characters, and what makes them so good: 16 of 40
My top ten TV characters of all time, in no particular order: Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce. * The landmark series "M*A*S*H" questioned the morality of war, while giving us heroes whose highest ethical standard was the saving of lives at almost any cost. In an environment where normal ethical standards are meaningless, the heroe... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Politics, News & Issues (Other) Visualizing the US national debt: 2 of 5
In December 2008 or January 2009, the national debt of the United States will reach 10 trillion dollars. $10,000,000,000,000.00. It is almost impossible to imagine a number that huge! Ten trillion seconds comes to about 316,881 years. The earliest known fossils of homo sapiens are 195,000 years old. Not even homo neanderthal... More..
Creative Writing > Humor Humor: Pets: 57 of 137
Poor Annabel. Morning after morning she would get into the box and strain to pee, forcing me to watch her as I waited to clean the box of its overnight deposits. I thought she had cystitis, a female problem in which you "gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now," even when there's nothing inside. I had cystitis when I was ten ... More..
Society & Lifestyle > Family Values What are good family values to have?: 4 of 9
Whether or not you're religious, the qualities a healthy family finds valuable tend to be the same: Respect. Tolerance. Forgiveness. Honesty. Courage. Responsibility. Integrity. Self-discipline. Compassion. Generosity. Doing things together as a family. RESPECT is the acknowledgment that everything and everyone is just as im... More..
Entertainment > Movie Genres Ten things that science fiction got wrong: 7 of 15
There once was a wonderful TV show called "Mystery Science Theater 3000." The pretext of the show was that a mad scientist had captured an ordinary guy and trapped him on a space station with three wacky robots. Each week, the mad scientist forced the hero and his friends to watch a bad, bad sci-fi movie so the mad scientist... More..