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.
January 31, 2007
Category: Evolution
It's been a while since I've replied to anything over at Uncommon Descent. But this entry from Salvador Cordova really caught my eye. It is based on this paper, by mathematician Gregory Chaitin, The paper's title: “The Halting Probability Omega:...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 10:11 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Keith Olbermann routinely declares Bill O'Reilly to be The Worst Person in the World, but I thought yesterday's edition was especially amusing: And our winner? Oh, it's a two-for, Bill-O offering you this splendid deal, buy a copy of his...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:19 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
From the blog of Oxford University Press comes this essay from philosopher Phillip Kitcher. The subject: evolution and religion. Let's look at some highlights: The answer, very often, is that particular pieces of scientific knowledge are viewed as threatening. Acknowledging...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:11 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2007
Category: Chess
Speaking of chess, we really ought to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that the first major grandmaster chess tournament of the year has now ended. I refer of course to the annual event at Wijk aan Zee, in...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:39 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chess
Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young reports on a major study into the reasons for the dearth of women among competitive chessplayers. His conclusion: I am going to make an analogy to make this data make more sense. Why does...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:07 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Via ThinkProgress comes this irritating story about a recent Congressional hearing on the political manipulation of climate change science. Tennessee Democratic representative Jim Cooper told the following story, about a dinner party he attended:...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:17 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2007
Category: Evolution
The stereotype about acedmics living in ivory towers does have a germ of truth to it. For the latest example, have a look at biologist J. Scott Turner's take on the ID situation. He was writing in The Chronicle of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:09 PM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2007
Category: Evolution
The current issue of Nature features this interesting essay by Nigel Goldenfeld and Carl Woese. The essay's point is that recent discoveries about genomic interactions among microbes, particularly the phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), is forcing us to reevaluate...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:33 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 24, 2007
Category: Religion
As I mentioned, Sam Harris has already replied to Sullivan's essay. Let's consider some highlights: Contrary to your allegation, I do not “disdain” religious moderates. I do, however, disdain bad ideas and bad arguments--which, I'm afraid, you have begun to...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:18 PM • 37 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Following up on my previous post about the blogalogue between Andrew Sullivan and Sam Harris, here have now been a few more entries. Picking up where the previous post left off, let's look at Sullivan's reply. Since Harris has replied...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:33 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
There was only one small part of Bush's State of the Unon address that really jumped out at me. Here it is: This war is more than a clash of arms -- it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:35 PM • 37 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2007
Category: Mathematics
I was really impressed by this post from Polymathematics. He discusses a proof of Morley's Theorem, which is a result from Euclidean geometry. Start with any triangle. Trisect each of the three angles. Then the points of intersection of pairs...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:07 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Administrative
Be sure to go say hi to the newest member of the all-encompassing Science Blogs combine. ScienceToLife is written by Karen Ventii, a graduate student in biochemistry at Emory University. Looks like she's especially interested in health related stories. Good...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:55 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mathematics
On the subject of basic concepts, here's an essay I orginally posted back in June. In it I try to explain what infinity is all about. It seems appropriate for this series, so I thought I would bring it back....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mathematics
Many of my SciBlings have been doing posts in which they define basic concepts in various scientific fields. For example, physicist Chad Orzel has done posts on Force and Fields, biologist P. Z. Myers has covered Genes, computer scientist Mark...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:38 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 20, 2007
Category: Politics
Via Andrew Sullivan's blog I came across this account of a recent talk given by former FEMA director Michael Brown: Political storm clouds gathered again over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina as former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:23 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
Kent Hovind, one of the slimiest of the young-Earth ignorance peddlers, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for tax fraud: Pensacola evangelist Kent Hovind was sentenced Friday afternoon to 10 years in prison on charges of tax fraud....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:09 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2007
Category: Mathematics
I'd like to put together a comprehensive list of math bloggers. By this I mean either anyone who regularly blogs about mathematics, or professional mathematicians who blog (on any subject). The only two that I that I read regularly are...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:51 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Philosophy
Larry Moran has weighed in on the question, raised in yesterday's post, about whether it is fair to criticize Richard Dawkins for lacking the theological and philosophical chops to discuss the topics raised in The God Delusion. I especially like...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:06 PM • 90 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Philosophy
In the comments to yesterday's post Josh Rosenau has left a lengthy response to my criticisms. I have now left an equally length reply to that response. Just wanted to let you know it was there, in case you are...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 12:54 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2007
Category: Philosophy
Since I have the sad task of criticizing my fellow science bloggers today, we may as well have a look at this post, from John Lynch. He is responding to this post from P. Z. Myers, which discussed this review...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 10:05 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
My SciBling Josh Rosenau had a different reaction to the exchange between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan. Sadly, he gets most of the important points wrong. Rosenau writes: As for “the myth that a person must believe things on insufficient...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:37 PM • 55 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Beliefnet is hosting a blogalogue between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan. Harris is defending the entirely sensible view that religious faith, especially in its monotheistic form, is a lot of twaddle, while Sullivan takes the view that reasonable religious faith...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:53 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 17, 2007
Category: Religion
Bashing religion is fun and all, but occasionally a religious public figure does manage to say something sensible. Here's one example, as reported by Keith Olbermann on Monday: Number one, Rich Cizik, the vice president representing the National Association of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:15 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Christianity Today has posted this interview with Francis Collins. Collins' goal is to persuade us that evolution and Christianity are compatible. Let's see if he's right: How does evolution fit with your Christian faith? [Evolution] may seem to us like...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:09 PM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 16, 2007
Category: Mathematics
Just when I thought I had seen every wrinkle on the Monty Hall problem, Raymond Smullyan has to go come up with another one. Here's an excerpt, from his book The Riddle of Scheherazade and Other Amazing Puzzles: “And now,”...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:35 PM • 52 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Chris over at Mixing Memory has this post about cognitive factors that can make it difficult for children to learn about evolution. This is from his conclusion: So that's my contribution. I've presented three factors that make the job of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:19 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
The New York Times offers this brief, but useful summary of some of the evidence for human-caused glboal warming. Since it now seems incontrovertible that the planet is, indeed, warming up, the right-wing line has shifted to a rejection of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:39 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
