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.
April 26, 2007
Category: Religion
Bill Maher showed up on Scarborough Country yesterday to explain his problems with organized religion. Since I can't improve on his eloquent and spot-on comments, I will simply reproduce them beneath the fold. Enjoy!...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:42 PM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Miscellaneous
I am happy to report that the little dust-up between Shelley Batts and Wiley has ended peacefully. Wiley has apologized for their rather heavy-handed treatment of the matter. When I read the good news over at Shelley's blog, I had...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:33 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 25, 2007
Category: Religion
Commenting on the recommendation of the Vatican International Theological Commission to eliminate the concept of limbo, Michelle Tsai, writing for Slate, offers some interesting thoughts on past efforts by church leaders to resolve the final destination of baby souls in...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:13 PM • 40 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
From the Catholic News Service: After several years of study, the Vatican's International Theological Commission said there are good reasons to hope that babies who die without being baptized go to heaven. In a document published April 20, the commission...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:48 PM • 41 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Miscellaneous
In this post, my SciBling Shelley Batts, of Retrospectacle, analyzed a recent paper claiming that fruit becomes healthier when consumed with alcohol. Something about boosting the antioxidant properties of the fruit. Interesting stuff. Even more interesting was what happened next....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:28 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 24, 2007
Category: Anti-Creationism
Ooblog presents a fascinating exchange that he had with Discovery Institute blogger Michael Egnor. The exchange centers on Egnor's oft repeated challenge to Darwinists to explain how it is possible for naturalistic processes to explain the growth of information during...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:09 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Via P.Z. Myers, I came across this post, from George Shollenberger. He is the author of a book entitled The First Scientific Proof of God, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him. He seems vexed...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:40 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 23, 2007
Category: Politics
If you're curious, in an interview lasting just over four and a half minutes, Bill O'Reilly uttered 609 words, while Dawkins uttered a mere 342. Considering the way O'Reilly usually treats his guests, that's a pretty good ratio. At the...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 10:38 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Well, Richard Dawkins had his little run-in with Bill O'Reilly tonight. No doubt surprised to have an A-list guest on his show, O'Reilly managed to keep the stupidity to a minimum (though, as we shall see, he certainly did not...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:47 PM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
For my Virginia based readers, Nikhil Rao, founder of the group Conservatives Against Intelligent Design, will be speaking to the Alliance for Science tomorrow, April 24. The talk will be held at the Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:09 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 22, 2007
Category: Anti-Creationism
Over at William Dembski's blog, GilDodgen asks the following:...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:11 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
With everything else that has been going on lately, I never got around to discussing Pope Benedict's latest statements on evolution. Here's what Reuters had to say on the subject: Pope Benedict, elaborating his views on evolution for the first...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:50 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 19, 2007
Category: Science
Some of the commenters to my previous two posts have suggested that they are tired of this subject. But since Matthew Nisbet himself stopped by to alert me to this post over at his blog, I figure the least I...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:39 PM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 18, 2007
Category: Evolution
In my previous post on this subject, I described the main faults I see in the Mooney/Nisbet thesis regarding the importance of proper “franimg” in presenting science to the public. In this post I would like to focus specifically on...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:44 PM • 44 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
My SciBlings Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet have created quite a stir recently, first with this article in Science and later with this article for the Washington Post. The basic premise is that scientists need to become more effective communicators,...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:57 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 17, 2007
Category: Religion
Here's Franklin Graham, from last night's Scarborough Country, reminding us of what's important about the VA Tech shooting: First of all, we know that God loves us and God cares for us. And there is a devil in this world....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:48 PM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 16, 2007
Category: Miscellaneous
In light of the events today at Virginia Tech, I'm suddenly not in the mood to talk about framing, or Imus, or the Pope's statement on evolution. At this point the death toll is up to thirty-three people. Blacksburg, VA,...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:14 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 9, 2007
Category: Mathematics
First, the good news: I will be attending the spring section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America this Friday and Saturday. The meeting is being held at Roanoke College, and as you can see here, I'm giving one of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:42 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 6, 2007
Category: Religion
John Wilkins has a post up criticizing P.Z. Myers for criticizing Elaine Pagels for criticizing Richard Dawkins. Maybe we'd better start at the beginning. An interview with historian Elaine Pagels appeared in Salon. The first two thirds of the interview...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 11:02 PM • 111 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 5, 2007
Category: Science
One of the nice things about being a Big Shot science blogger is that sometimes people are willing to send you free copies of their books. One such person is John Farrell, who graciously sent me a copy of his...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:34 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Sorry for the light blogging this week. I've been spending my time doing all of the things I should have done last week, but didn't because I was writing long blog entries about my experiences in Knoxville. You might want...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:17 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 2, 2007
Category: Anti-Creationism
Two weeks ago I joined the chorus of Science Bloggers bashing Michael Egnor for his posts at the Discovery Institute's blog. I pointed out a fairly straightforward error in one of his posts. At that time I mentioned that I...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:34 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
The folks over at Uncommon Descent have unveiled a new blogger: mathematician Granville Sewell. He's the latest know-nothing to convert a comically simplistic version of the second law of thermodynamics into an anti-evolution argument. Of course, this is one of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:12 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mathematics
Paul Cohen, one of the giants of twentieth century mathematics, has died of lung disease at 72. Cohen's major claim to fame was his resolution of the Continuum Hypothesis. Here are the basic ideas:...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 1:56 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
