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.
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.
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
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.
December 31, 2006
Category: science culture
Going on four years back, a couple of Californians decided the secular/atheist/agnostic/skeptic community needed a catchy name in the same way the homosexual community purloined the term "gay" as part of its evolution toward mainstream acceptance. They came up with...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:38 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 29, 2006
Category: religiosity
Every now and then someone with a substantial public platform says or writes something that transcends the stupid to the realm of the genuinely idiotic. Regular readers of the Island will know I am usually a little more respectful of...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:03 PM • 57 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 27, 2006
Category: pseudo-science
"Fake Psychic Get's Girls." That's the subject line of my favorite piece of spam. Every now and then one slips by the email junk filters and I get a chuckle, and not just because of the punctuation error, either....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:58 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2006
Category: philosophy
The advent of the release of an official government study warning that robots will soon be demanding their civil rights is a sure sign of the Christmas season. Senior editors and reporters are either at home with the family or...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:32 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2006
Category: climate
I hope the answer is yes, in the sense that I don't want to see the even the mid-case scenarios come to pass. But this is a legitimate question, coming out of the American Geophysical Union meeting. Kevin Vranes says...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:18 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2006
Category: science culture
Carl Sagan died 10 years ago today, I''d rather celebrate his birth, but there's this Carl Sagan Memorial Blogathon going on and I can hardly resist making a mention....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2006
Category: religiosity
The new head of the Episcopal Church is a trained marine biologist. The Episcopal Church is tearing itself apart. This is not a coincidence....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:42 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2006
Category: religiosity
... one of your child's high school teachers told his class that "evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven." Even worse, what if that...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:12 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2006
Category: pseudo-science
What with absurdly high levels of belief in astrology, sky fairies, homeopathy, and whatnot, it sometimes seems like the United States of America has the market cornered in superstitious nonsense. Far from it. The Chinese, for example, have their penchant...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 4:36 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 14, 2006
Category: cetacea
From the annals of the weird and wonderful comes this tale of a pair of lucky dolphins: The world's tallest man helped save two dolphins in China by reaching into their stomachs and pulling out harmful plastic they had swallowed,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2006
Category: religiosity
Sunday night's 60 Minutes wrapped up, as usual, with Andy Rooney's rambling commentary. He recently asked "what are we doing in Iraq" in a kind of Cronkite-esque moment, so I have made a point of watching him when I can,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:43 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: religiosity
Mr. Hayden, my high school librarian, used to toss me out of his bailiwick every few days for "pontificating," and I'm still trying to make up for lost time. So when a local congregation of the Unitarian Universalists asked me...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:29 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 9, 2006
Category: philosophy
One of the best things about the Science Blogs collective is that so little of what gets posted concerns the mundane and prosaic details of the authors' lives. We write substantial, serious stuff, posts that deal with public figures and...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:01 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
