Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
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.
September 30, 2009
Category: Evolution
Dawkins begins his case for evolution in the same place as Darwin himself: by discussing the myriad successes of plant and animal breeders. Whereas Darwin was very taken with pigeons, however, Dawkins prefers dogs, cabbages and cattle. The chapter opens...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:56 PM • 18 Comments •
September 27, 2009
Category: Religion
Here's Kevin Padian, paleontologist and President of the National Center for Science Education, commenting on the science/religion issue: The two kinds people who believe that religion and evolution can not coexist are extreme atheists and extreme religious fundamentalists. Everyone else...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:00 PM • 122 Comments •
September 24, 2009
Category: Evolution
The other day I sallied forth to the local Barnes and Noble to pick up my copy of Richard Dawkins's new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. As I walked into the store I noticed a...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:41 PM • 64 Comments •
September 23, 2009
Category: Religion
Andrew Sullivan takes another stab at the theodicy question. His new gambit plays off of this heartbreaking report of a young child with CIPA (Congential Insensitivity to Pain). As a result of not being able to feel pain, the child...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 2:34 PM • 44 Comments •
September 22, 2009
Category: Religion
There is bloggery afoot on ye olde problem of evil. Russell Blackford got the ball rolling with this post, an admirably succinct essay on why evil and suffering pose serious problems to tradtional notions of Christian theism. Andrew Sullivan demurred...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:59 PM • 57 Comments •
September 18, 2009
Category: Chess
In yesterday's post I mentioned a chess combination that arose during a tournament game I played a while back. For the benefit of my chess-playing readers I thought I would conclude the week by showing it to you. This was...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:27 PM • 22 Comments •
Category: Religion
The other day I mentioned the book The Unlikely Disciple, by Kevin Roose, about a Brown Univeristy student who transfers to Liberty University for a semester. The book has all sorts of quotable nuggets, but I especially got a kick...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:07 PM • 13 Comments •
Category: Religion
Spend any time immersing yourself in science/religion disputes and you will quickly encounter the idea that “science is not the only way of knowing.” Nearly always this is intended as a way of carving out intellectual space for religion. For...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 12:38 AM • 139 Comments •
September 16, 2009
Category: Anti-Creationism
For my Virginia readers, I have just learned that Judge John Jones, of Dover trial fame, will be speaking at Bridgewater College on Thursday, September 17. Bridgewater College? That's about twenty minutes from Harrisonburg! Looks like I have plans tomorrow...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 4:39 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Religion
I'm currently reading the book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose. Roose was a student at Brown University (my alma mater!) when he decided he wanted to learn more about the culture of...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:30 PM • 25 Comments •
