Commentary on the Endless Dispute Between Evolution and Creationism
Jason Rosenhouse received his PhD in mathematics from Dartmouth College in 2000. He subsequently spent three years as a post-doc at Kansas State University. Observing the machinations of the Kansas Board of Education led to his unhealthy obsession with issues related to evolution and creationism. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, VA.
October 31, 2006
Category: Religion
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Marilynne Robinson wrote this lengthy review of The God Delusion for Harpers Magazine. She was unimpressed. The review weighs in at 4599 words, but you'll find yourself almost a thousand words in before hitting anything substantive...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:18 PM • 66 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 30, 2006
Category: Religion
Physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote Nature's review of The God Delusion. The review itself is mixed: strong praise for parts of the book, exasperated criticism for others. But the following two paragraphs are what caught my eye: Dawkins the preacher is...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:08 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
The reviews of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion are coming in, and they are mostly negative. That was predictable. Everyone knows, after all, that Dawkins is just one of those fanatical, frothing at the mouth atheists, who doesn't understand that...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:15 PM • 47 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 27, 2006
Category: Politics
My cute little house looked a lot better before my meager possessions were strewn aimlessly across every flat surface. It didn't help that this was an unusually busy week at work. I did, however, manage to catch this spot-on essay...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:04 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 23, 2006
Category: Administrative
There's a big pile of bloggable items sitting on my desk, but they will have to wait. I will be moving in to my new house tomorrow! Very exciting. We are also hosting an undergraduate mathematics research conference here at...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:40 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
As an amusing follow-up to Friday's post, have a look at this lengthy op-ed from McGill University physicist Jim Cline, in The Ottawa Citizen. Here's an excerpt: Why is it that string theory has become such a favoured paradigm? Have...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:35 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 20, 2006
Category: Science
As several other SB'ers have already noted, physicist Brian Greene offers this defense of string theory in today's New York Times. He concludes: I have worked on string theory for more than 20 years because I believe it provides the...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:28 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 19, 2006
Category: Mathematics
On October 2, Nature published this news brief about a claim of a solution to the Navier-Stokes equations: A buzz is building that one of mathematics' greatest unsolved problems may have fallen. Blogs and online discussion groups are spreading news...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:19 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mathematics
An amusing item from CNN: Kids who are turned off by math often say they don't enjoy it, they aren't good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success? The...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:43 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 18, 2006
Category: Politics
Check out this photograph. It's Bush meeting with a truly odious collection of sycophants and lickspittles: Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Gallagher. Gallagher is the only one of the bunch with whom I'm unfamiliar, but...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:37 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
David Kuo, author of the new book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, appeared on the MSNBC show Hardball last night. It was a strange interview. I've not yet read Kuo's book, but his main point seems to...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:09 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chess
Just move the little horsey to all of the unpainted squares. But don't be too impressed if you clear the early levels with little difficulty. It gets hard in a hurry. So far I haven't managed to get past level...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:32 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 17, 2006
Category: Anti-Creationism
It's a been a while since I checked in with Dembski and Co. over at Uncommon Descent. But this entry caught my eye. In it, Dembski reproduces eight criteria indicative of groupthink. He writes, “Read the following and ask yourself...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:27 PM • 42 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 16, 2006
Category: Evolution
We continue now with our discussion of Brian Boyd's article, “Getting it All Wrong,” from the Autumn 2006 issue of The American Scholar. Click here for Part One. We have already seen Boyd's characterization of modern literary criticism as resting...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:57 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 13, 2006
Category: Miscellaneous
In other news, I closed on my first house today. Very cool!...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:12 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chess
Vladimir Kramnik won the four game, rapid chess, tie-break match this morning. It was a real nail-biter of an event! Game one was a blunder-filled draw. Kramnik won game two in his usual style, grinding Topalov down in a difficult,...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:58 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 12, 2006
Category: Chess
Well, regulation play has run out in the big chess match. Game Twelve was another interesting affair, but it ultimately petered out to a draw. Officially the score is tied at six points each. In chess matches of this sort,...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:10 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
From the time George W. Bush first appeared on the national scene there has been one big question: Does he actually believe all the Evangelical Christian rhetoric he uses, or is he just playing religious voters for fools. As reported...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 11, 2006
Category: Evolution
The Autumn 2006 issue of The American Scholar features a lengthy article entitled, “Getting it All Wrong: Biolculture Critiques Cultural Critique. It's author is Brian Boyd, a professor of English at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. The premise...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:27 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 10, 2006
Category: Anti-Creationism
Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer will be in Oakton, Virginia this Thursday, October 12, to discuss his new book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design. The talk is being cohosted by The Alliance for Science and the National...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:20 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chess
Game Eleven of the big chess match ended in a draw after a long, difficult endgame. Kramnik, playing black, stuck to his beloved Slav Defense despite the catastrophe in game nine. Topalov again tried a new idea, but Kramnik defended...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:07 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Benjamin over at The World's Fair and Chad over at Uncertain Principles have already blogged this, but neither acheves the proper level of indignation in my opinion. In this post from September 15, I discussed an astonishingly poor discussion of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:31 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 8, 2006
Category: Chess
And to think that just a few days ago it seemed like this match would end abruptly because of an insane dispute over visits to the bathroom. Topalov scored back-to-back victories in games eight and nine to take a one...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 2:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 7, 2006
Category: Chess
A dramatic turn of events in the big chess match. Topalov won game nine in convincing fashion, his second win in a row. Topalov now has a one point lead in the match (including the point he got when Kramnik...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 6, 2006
Category: Science
From Tuesday's New York Times: They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning around to find no one there. A woman feels herself leaving her body...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:50 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Mixed messages from this article in today's New York Times. From early in the article: Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:49 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 5, 2006
Category: Chess
The final position makes a pretty picture: Topalov, playing black, whipped out a novelty in the well-trodden Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav. He managed to produce an objectively equal but materially imbalanced endgame where he had two knights against Kramnik's...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:36 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 4, 2006
Category: Chess
Only have time for a quick post today, so let me just mention that Game Seven of the big chess match ended in a draw in 60 moves. Topalov once again had white, and once again failed to get anywhere...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:24 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 3, 2006
Category: Politics
Jennifer Senior has this essay, reviewing new anti-Bush books by Lewis Lapham and Sidney Blumenthal, in a recent issue of The York Times Book Review. Her verdict? Now, just in time for the midterm elections, the collected columns of two...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:07 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 2, 2006
Category: Anti-Creationism
Check out the Dsicovery Institute's Bruce Chapman explaining away the complete inability of ID to produce anything of scientific importance: I keep getting asked about the scientific research projects underway that relate to Darwinism and intelligent design. So why aren't...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:26 PM • 65 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chess
Well, the big chess match has resumed. There are still unresolved issues, but I don't have the patience to wade through them. The bottom line is that game six was this morning, and it was a fairly uneventful draw. Topalov...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 2:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
