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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.

philosophy:

Steven Pinker on Dangerous Ideas

Steven Pinker of The Blank Slate fame, weighs in on the nature and temptation of "dangerous ideas" in the latest must-read for visitors to the Island. Not too surprisingly, he likes them. Among the questions we should not be afraid...

Letting go of JFK

Few historical events are cloaked in as much confusion and controversy as the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. There's dueling government reports -- one concluded it was the work of a lone gunman, the other fingered an undefined conspiracy. Otherwise...

A doubtful essay

We live in something resembling a sea of certainty, one that champions absolute truth, rewards those with the strength of their convictions, and dismisses anyone who dares challenge the dogma of the day.

Jim Hansen targets 'scientific reticence'

I have only read the first few paragraphs, but know the rest of "Scientific reticence and sea level rise" will be fascinating. Jim Hansen bemoans the conservatism of science. Hmmm. I shall offer my thoughts this weekend, but wanted to...

Rise of the Robots

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...

Privacy? How quaint is that?

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...

The Tragedy of the Tao

For a guest post to the meta-blog Daily Canuck, I whipped off a few words on the chasm between what's considered politically feasible when it comes to a national climate change strategy for Canada and what climatology suggests will be...

Ode to Spinoza

On the one hand, it's kind of sad that early 21st-century society is in need of frequent reminders of just how important reason is. Israelis and Lebanese are slaughtering each other. Iraq is in the midst of what can best...

Ask a SciBlogger: Equal protection?

Is every species of living thing on the planet equally deserving of protection? I don't think you're going to find too much sympathy for such an extreme position. For one thing, you can't give rights to dinner. I can foresee...

God v. science back in the news

This might be premature, but it's beginning to look like the debate between believers and scientists is getting some traction in the public sphere again. And that would be a good thing, if for no other reason that it gives...

Al Gore's inconvenient crusade

I'm sure Robert Samuelson isn't the only pundit who doesn't buy Al Gore's argument that climate change is a moral issue. The Newsweek editor and Washington Post columnist weighs in on "An Inconvient Truth" today by rejecting Gore's characterization of...

Take the Doubt Quiz

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....

Science Class of Rock

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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