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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.

September 29, 2006

String theory testable?

Category: hard science

One of the biggest weaknesses with string theory, as an explanation for the way the universe is the way it is, and a possible way to bring together relativity and quantum physics, is the paucity of testable aspects. And if...

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September 28, 2006

A bad day for Canada

Category: politics

There aren't too many cabinet positions in a modern parliamentary democracy that don't require a modicum of respect for the scientific method. But in an era of climate change, bioengineering and species depletion, the politicians charged with overseeing environmental policy...

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September 27, 2006

Intelligent musical design

Category: Sci-culture

My first post after moving the Island to ScienceBlogs was a list of science-themed popular songs. Not too surprisingly, there really wasn't much from which to choose. But it now gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a new...

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September 23, 2006

Ghost in the Machine

Category: religiosity

Nature offers a publicly accessible summary of a new study that suggests a physiological explanation for, among other things, out-of-body experiences, ghosts, alien surveillance and "the creepy feeling that somebody is close by." This is yet another example of how...

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September 21, 2006

Torture

Category: politics

Anyone not already furious with the Bush administration's attempt to legalize torture as a general interrogation practice, rather than a case-specific emergency tactic, should first read this. Then, if you still think torture works, go back and read it again....

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Toward a trustworthy Wikipedia

Category: science culture

As a freelance journalist, I don't have the luxury of turning down too many assignment offers. I was sorely tempted a few months back, though, when the potential client kept suggesting I use Wikipedia as the primary source for a...

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September 20, 2006

PSYCH Colombia: Voodoo-doll exorcisms

Category: pseudo-science

Anyone tried to watch the new USA Network series Psych? The one in which a sharp-eyed guy pretends to be psychic in order to get paid investigation gigs with the local police department? Well, don't bother. For one thing, the...

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September 19, 2006

In praise of ignorance

Category: science culture

Former Boston Globe science columnist and college prof. Chet Raymo has written a stirring ode to the value of ignorance in his latest Science Musings. Pascal, Priestly and Popper -- he covers them all. What he's done is put his...

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September 18, 2006

Bill Bryson and Bill O'Reilly

Category: punditry

Something is very wrong at Amazon.com. Maybe whoever programs the software that matches purchase patterns with new releases has a strange sense of humor, but the recommendation that showed up in my email box this morning suggests remedial action is...

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September 14, 2006

Canada's War on Science

Category: climate

Canada's federal government, under the newly elected Conservative Party of Stephen Harper, seems to have adopted the dishonest propaganda techniques of the Bush administration as part of an attempt to wiggle out of past governments' commitments -- weak as they...

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Scooby-Doo and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Category: climate

Much has been made of a good-journalism award handed by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists to Michael Crichton for his science-fiction novel, State of Fear. I wrote back in pre-Scienceblog days that the AAPG had gone off the deep...

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September 13, 2006

Non-Darwinian Bananas

Category: evolution

At long last: scientific proof for intelligent design. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, the banana!...

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SciFi wrestlers: a guest post

Category:

And now, a guest post from a regular reader, Pierre in D.C.: Sci-Fi channel. Its name evokes Star Trek reruns, Battlestar Galactica cliffhangers, a forum for sometimes innovative television but also mediocre low-budget series shot in Vancouver. But for some,...

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September 11, 2006

America should be ashamed

Category: politics

Permit me to stray from the realms of science to briefly bring your attention to the results of a Discovery Channel/TIME magazine poll released last night, a poll that every decent American should be embarrassed to acknowledge. I can't find...

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September 9, 2006

Debunking Freud, intelligent design and poststructuralism

Category: science culture

I've only read the few pages that Amazon offers on its website, but I'm convinced Frederick Crews' "Follies of the Wise" is the science book of the year. Jerry Coynes reviews it in The Times Literary Supplement. How can anyone...

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September 8, 2006

Self-promotion

Category: science culture

And now, a little self-promotion. I have a piece up on Seed's online magazine, "The Anthropogenic Trap," in which I examine the warnings of some scientists who say we're taking the whole guilt thing too far. Here's the opening. This...

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September 7, 2006

Last word for Zarathustra

Category: religiosity

I suppose it wouldn't be polite to celebrate the pending extinction of an entire culture, but what the heck? According to the New York Times, Zoroastrianism is about to go the way of Baal-worshipping. With "perhaps as few as 124,000"...

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September 6, 2006

British flakes

Category: pseudo-science

Today's time-waster while I wait for the first coat of sky blue to dry in what used to be the study is reader-baiting. The targets are citizens of the U.K. The subject is the paranormal. I ask you, what's with...

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September 5, 2006

Dolphins dolphins dolphins

Category: cetacea

I'm a little late to this particular debate, but it's long been one of my favorite subjects, ever since I had a most intriguing encounter with a wild member of the species Tursiops truncatus, in Australia 16 years ago. More...

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September 2, 2006

New climate change proxy data

Category: climate

Trust the gang at deSmogBlog to draw our attention to the latest discoveries in climatology:...

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