Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
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. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist and communications consultant 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.
"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things
which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.
Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving, and
tiny blasts of tinny trumpets, we have met the enemy, and not only may
he be ours, he may be us."
--Walt Kelly
January 31, 2007
Category: politics
It's almost enough to restore your faith in freedom, democracy and the American way (whatever that is). Today in The New York Times appear a couple of paragraphs the likes of which I was beginning to despair I would never...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:17 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2007
Category: religiosity
After Garry Trudeau swallowed the apocryphal story about Grand Canyon park rangers' inability to tell the truth about the age of their charge, one would do well to be skeptical about any future strips based on alleged true stories. Fortunately,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2007
Category: climate
A new poll in Canada has climate change at the top of the worry list for the first time, and it's rising fast. The Globe and Mail poll puts the share of Canadians who say the environment is the most...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:06 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 24, 2007
Here's what George W. Bush had to say about climate change in his penultimate state of the union address: "...and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change." That's it. A parathetical afterthought for the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:05 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2007
Category: superstition
The lead story in today's Science section of the New York Times isn't really about science at all, but its opposite: superstition. The notion that we're hard-wired to believe in a god has received a lot of attention of late,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:05 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2007
Category: climate
When word came earlier this month that Washington state school board is refusing to present An Inconvenient Truth, Laurie David's documentary on Al Gore's climate change slide show, to its high school students, criticism was fast and furious. The main...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:20 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2007
Category: climate
Of course, we'll never be absolutely certain about the causes and future trends of climate change. That's not the way science works. But according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we're getting pretty darn close to that magical 19-times-out-of-20...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:48 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2007
Category: evolution
PZ Myers rarely writes anything I find objectionable, but today he is so bang on that I feel compelled to share it with those few readers of mine who might not be regular visitors to Pharygula....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:11 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 17, 2007
Category: misc
Following up on a couple of posts back in which I trumpeted Gary Trudeau's inclusion in Doonesbury strip an apocryphal story about Grand Canyon park rangers and the age of the geological wonder they are entrusted with explaining to the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 16, 2007
Category: politics
Today's must read, from the Washington Post: The U.S. government is cutting back on environmental science....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:53 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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