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The Island of Doubt

An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other.

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me-fergus.jpg James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.

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for 9 July 2007

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Other Doubtful Blogs

Inspiration

The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle
in the Dark, by Carl Sagan
(A review)

The Doubter's Companion:
by John Ralston Saul (Excerpts)

Skeptic Magazine: www.skeptic.com

Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org

A poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The Place
Where We Are Right


The Meaning of the
Island of Doubt


Author's site: cyamid.net


Add to Technorati Favorites! Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
--- H. L. Mencken

By doubting we come to inquiry; and through inquiry we perceive truth.
--- Peter Abelard

Undisguised clarity is easily mistaken for arrogance.
-- Richard Dawkins

As for evolution, it happened. Deal with it.
-- Michael Shermer.

More blogs about island of doubt.

June 30, 2006

Too sexy for my press release

Category: Sci-culture

Having worked as a communications officer for more than one scientific outfit, I can sympathize with the outreach guys at the University of Leicester. But methinks they took their attention-grabbing-headline lessons a bit too seriously. A story making the rounds...

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June 29, 2006

Barack Obama tackles the secular-faithful divide

Category: religiosity

Barack Obama is right. Barack Obama is also wrong. Not only should this not be surprising, it should be welcome. Because no other position is tenable when it comes to the subject of the role of faith in politics. Obama,...

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June 28, 2006

Killing the messenger

Category: climate

One more time, with gusto: "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused." So said Bush Jr. the other day. As Chris "Intersection" Mooney, noted, the only "debate" over the causes of climate change is taking place in...

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June 26, 2006

The 0.1 % solution

Category: pseudo-science

No. I'm not talking about Dick Cheney's metric for how probable a threat must be before taking it seriously (that would be 1 %). Instead we have this bizarre statement in Newsday from a researcher of the paranorma identified only...

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June 22, 2006

Give a little bit ...

Category: evolution

If I had $50,000 -- and no mortgage -- I'd love to bid on a letter that's just surfaced and is about to be auctioned off by Sotheby's. It's from the revered Charles Darwin to the Reverend William Denton. New...

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Overlooked in the evolution war

Category: evolution

Everyone's had a good time taking shots at Ann Coulter's inability to think straight. Some valiant types, like PZ Myers, have even sacrified several hours of their lives to reading and picking apart her pathetic prose. Everything she says is...

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June 21, 2006

The real tao of physics

Category: politics

Move over Fritjof Capra. The author of The Tao of Physics captured the imaginations of naive readers a couple of decades back by exploring the similarities between quantum theory and Eastern philosophies. But as the New York Times' Dennis Overbye...

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June 20, 2006

Crazy gay soldiers

Category: politics

The American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973. The Pentagon is still mulling it over, according to a report from AP....

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Not-so-supreme Science

Category: politics

Yesterday's non-decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on just how far the Army Corps of Engineers can go in telling developers what they can and cannot build produced no identifiable winners or losers. But a close look at the rulings...

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June 16, 2006

Cut Hawking some slack

Category: punditry

I wasn't going to wade into the Stephen-Hawking-has-lost-it debate, but then I came across an otherwise unrelated story this morning pitting Cosmologist Numero Uno against the late Pope John Paul II. For those unfamiliar with the fuss, Hawking had the...

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June 15, 2006

Help raise cash for science in the classroom

Category:

Time for some consequential feedback from Doubtful readers. It's: The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon! Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is the coolest part of school, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are...

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June 14, 2006

Time, money no object

Category:

This week's "ask a science blogger question" from the SEED gang is: "Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?" First, to be...

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June 13, 2006

Take the Doubt Quiz

Category: philosophy

How do you rank on the Scale of Doubt? Jennifer Michael Hecht, who teaches at Nassau Community College in New York, has come up with one of those clever little web quizzes to accompany her book Doubt: A History....

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The Ann Coulter Problem

Category: punditry

What should we do with the likes of Ann Coulter? More than a few people are upset with her recent comments disparaging the 9/11 widows. Her new book wastes a lot of trees misrepresenting evolution. Ed takes umbrage at her...

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June 12, 2006

How not to save the whales

Category: cetacea

It's that time of year, when the International Whaling Commission gets together and pretends its decisions will be based on the best available science. In addition to poorly serving the planet's cetaceans, these annual gatherings are embarrassments for both the...

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My piece of the Pi meme

Category: Sci-culture

The Pi meme: If for no other reason than it's good to re-examine one's motives.Thanks to Janet for cooking up this particular indulgent recipe. 3 reasons you blog about science: 1. Nothing better to do with my free time 2....

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High definition, deep water

Category: cetacea

Had enough of the coke-and-mentos display? Time for a more mellow viral video fix, perhaps. This week's New York Times offers some soothing underwater footage of humpback whales. The accompaying story promises even better visuals soon, thanks to the advent...

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June 9, 2006

Sent to the lions

Category: religiosity

So this guy sneaks into the lion's den at the Kiev Zoo. Shouts, "God will save me, if he exists," lowers himself by rope into the pen, takes off his shoes, and... According to Reuters:: ...one of the lions...

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Top 100 Things Ecologists Don't Know

Category: ecology

The Journal of Applied Ecology has just published a list of the Top 100 unanswered questions in the field. It was assembled for the benefit of UK ecologists, but most of the items deal with issues of global interest. If...

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Science Class of Rock

Category: philosophy

For my inaugural Sb post, a little bit of culture. My first reaction to the National Review's bizarre list of the top 50 allegedly conservative rock and roll songs was incredulity, so misunderstood and misrepresented were the selections that made...

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