Untimely meditations
One man's thoughts, observations and rants
Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.
Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.
Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.
Latest posts
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First ever black hole image released
We’ve seen artist impressions of them for years in astronomy science books, they’ve been the stuff of science fiction films and novels but now we have our first ever image of a black hole! It looks both beautiful and scary…and very much like the predictions of Einstein.
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Inspiration
There are lots of things that inspire me. There’s inspiration in books and film, art and music. In people too, of course. The most inspirational people to me are people who dare to follow a dream, people who think in options and possibilities, not in risks or impossibilities.
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Where is the Nextcloud assistant?
I have always seen the benefits of the cloud. Having your data readily available wherever you are in the world, is extremely convenient. Similarly I’ve always been wary of the cloud. Putting your data in the hands of private businesses for free? There has to be a catch, right? And there is: they use it…
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Why atheism fails
Apologists love to invent reasons why atheism isn’t a viable position to hold or why atheism fails in some way or another. Most of those reasons are actually misrepresentations of what atheism means. A prime example of this kind of writing is the article “Why atheism fails” on Christian Valour, some quotes of that article…
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10 bad reasons to believe in God
This article is a response to a response. Specifically, this article is a response to this article by SJ Thomason, a.k.a. “Christian Apologist” who wrote her article in response to this article by “mrozatheist”. I realize both posts are somewhat older but I felt I needed to add my 2 cents because the 10 good…
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What’s the Difference Between a Fact, a Hypothesis, a Theory, and a Law in Science?
Having had plenty of discussions with the religious who claim that “evolution is just a theory” and that evolution is not a scientific fact, it’s frustrating to continuously explain that a theory in science is not just a hunch or idle speculation. I’ve touched upon that in a previous article. Here is an article that…
Recent comments
I have a question. I believe life is valuable because you have a soul and are a unique person, precious.…
I used to believe in god until my life went downhill. Your reasons are actually good.
Joop, Hope you are well. It is amazing to me the gullibility of people. How can educated people believe in…
Those analogies don’t hold up, I’m afraid. Like marriage or choosing to have children. Or moving to someplace new because…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
You seem to have multiple questions but let’s take them one at a time, shall we? I believe life is…