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.
December 26, 2007
Category: Philosophy
If I say that X has probability p, what does that mean? What sort of thing is X, and what does the number p represent? Philosophers have spilled a lot of ink on this question, with no clear answer emerging....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:01 PM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2007
Category: Mathematics
Meanwhile, the big Monty Hall book is slowly coming together. It seems like every day I discover new technical articles on the subject. Recently I thought to search through the PubMed database, looking for any articles that might have eluded...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 1:45 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Along the same line, here we have Georgetown theologian John Haught discoursing on matters theological. I see that P. Z. Myers has already given Haught a proper reaming, but perhaps there is a bit more to say. Haught is a...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 1:34 AM • 58 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2007
Category: Religion
Meanwhile, former Archbishop of York John Hapgood weighs in on four recent books about religion and atheism. The first: The New Atheists by Tina Beattie. Sadly, I am familiar neither with the book nor the author. Hapgood's essay is the...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 11:20 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
All sorts of items in the news about science, religion and politics. As a warm-up, here's Christopher Hitchens stating it plain about the odius denizens of the religious right: Isn't it amazing how self-pitying and self-aggrandizing the religious freaks in...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:44 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2007
Category: Politics
Chris Matthews, from last night's Hardball. His guest was talk radio host Racheal Maddow. MADDOW: Well, it's two sides of the same coin, as far as I can tell. And the real substantive story here is that almost all of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:42 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2007
Category: Religion
Well, I've been grading exams for about ten minutes, and I'm already depressed. (One of my students seems to think that one fourth is an integer. Get the idea?) So how about another post? Here's Keith Olbermann from last nights'...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:38 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mathematics
Here is an interesting variation on the Monty Hall problem. For now I will simply present it cold, without indicating the context of where I saw it. Feel free to leave your proposed solutions in the comments. Everything from vague...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:35 PM • 55 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 7, 2007
Category: Religion
Meanwhile, here's Chris Matthews in full tantrum after the Republican candidates were asked if they accepted Biblical literalism in the big You Tube debate: MATTHEWS: Governor, I think you, like a lot of conservatives, believe in the original purpose of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:00 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
There were a few bright spots in the way the media reacted to Romney's disgusting speech. Keith Olbermann offered these characteristically wise words:...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:03 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Mitt Romney gave his big religion speech yesterday. It is a standard piece of anti-atheist propaganda. America is a relgious nation, those darn secularists are trying to take God out of the public square, I'm as crazy religious as all...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:42 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 3, 2007
Category: Politics
The subject of biblical literalism came up at last week's Republican / You Tube debate: Joseph: I am Joseph. I am from Dallas, Texas, and how you answer this question will tell us everything we need to know about you....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:32 PM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
In other news, philosopher Mary Midgley offers some thoughts on the proper way to respond to ID. The title: A Plague on Both Their Houses. You can probably guess what's coming, especially if you're aware of Midgley's history with Richard...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:11 PM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
Remember Guillermo Gonzalez? He was the astronomer from Iowa State University who was denied tenure earlier this year. The reason for the tenure deinal? Depends who you ask. Gonzalez, you see, is a rising young star in the ID movement....
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:00 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 2, 2007
Category: Anti-Creationism
If you followed the link in the last post and need to be reminded what a real journal looks like, you might want to have a look at the first issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach. I've only read the...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:44 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
Every once in a while the ID folks get into their heads to set-up an actual academic journal. You know, a place where they can lay out all that cutting-edge research kept out of the real journals by dogmatic Darwinian...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:36 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Anti-Creationism
From the Louisville Courier-Journal: There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source of this injustice is a sophisticated...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:23 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
