This xkcd comic counsels against anthropomorphizing nature.

Because, really: by any standard of sentient-species morality and/or ethics nature is just plain awful.

Mind you, this guy is (reluctantly) calling BS on the XKCD strip in question.  He says that the strip anthropomorphizes science, instead; and as God is my witness I didn’t see that until after I wrote the title to my post.

Moe Lane

One additional wrinkle to xkcd’s latest “What If…”

they’re fairly sure that Jesus was not actually born on December 25th.  In all probability, shepherds wouldn’t have had flocks out in the fields at that time of year.

Moe Lane

PS: Apparently, the question of whether or not the ancient Romans had a religious holiday on December 25, and whether it was or was not a Mithraic one, is a matter of some dispute that has not quite reached the level of ‘academics fighting each other with knives.’  You learn something new every day…

#rsrh xkcd manages a genuinely nonpartisan political strip…

…that’s exceedingly interesting, and neatly deflates the “Well, Candidate X can’t win because of [insert random bit of historical trivia here]” arguments that we get a lot.  Well-played, although there’s a typo for 1800 and the forums are right: 1996 IS a slight stretch. Forgivable, to be sure.