Drilling down for doubt: The latest Pew suvery on religion
If theists can be confused about their belief, why shouldn't some atheists be confused about their lack of belief?Posted on June 24, 2008 9:48 AM • 6 Comments •
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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Profile
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.
Recent Posts
- Climate cartoons
- The right to idiocy
- Drilling down for doubt: The latest Pew suvery on religion
- The clean energy technology gap: An urban legend?
- In God Who Trusts?
- It's like flipping a switch
- Heads stuck in the sands
- Too cheap to meter! Did they really say that?
- Amtrak: The 2008 election linchpin
- Earth: The Sequel
Recent Comments
- S2 on Climate cartoons
- Survival Acres on The clean energy technology gap: An urban legend?
- llewelly on Why economics is the "dismal science"
- bodydetox on Drilling down for doubt: The latest Pew suvery on religion
- kartuş, toner, fax, fotokopi on Essential reading on carbon emissions targets
- Rainah on Why economics is the "dismal science"
- Lance on The right to idiocy
- Joseph Brenner on The right to idiocy
- Thomas M. on The right to idiocy
- Daryl McCullough on The right to idiocy
for 9 July 2007
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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
--- 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.
religiosity:
In God Who Trusts?
The way I see, it "In God We Trust" is more offensive than "I Believe."Posted on June 23, 2008 7:46 AM • 6 Comments •
Who are these "neural buddhists" of which you speak?
There are basically two kinds of news consumers. Those who will find David Brooks' latest creation from his corner of the New York Times stable of columnists absolutely irresistible and those who will cross the street to Fox News before...Posted on May 13, 2008 2:50 PM • 16 Comments •
Faith trumps science. Again
Clinton and Obama have agreed to talk about "how faith, scripture and public policy all come together."Posted on April 8, 2008 11:48 AM • 3 Comments •
Moses was stoned. No, really?
Moses didn't actually commune with any god, but was simply high on a local psychotropic plant extract.Posted on March 9, 2008 1:47 PM • 4 Comments •
Did the earth move for you, too?
According to the BBC, "an Israeli MP has blamed parliament's tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently." Whoa....Posted on February 20, 2008 4:13 PM • 2 Comments •
Being nice to evangelicals
At what point on the wide spectrum of belief in that for which there is no evidence do we grant the respect that Christians ask of rationalists?Posted on February 7, 2008 7:52 AM • 4 Comments •
Facebook Atheism: An entirely wrong approach
You don't win friends and influence people by announcing that you're better than them.Posted on December 13, 2007 2:13 PM • 13 Comments •
Passing the Nicole Kidman's Grandmother Test
His Dark Materials is a wonderful series of stories, regardless of the philosophical message between the lines. That the message is one that disparages superstitious dogma is just icing on the cake.Posted on December 3, 2007 7:36 AM • 7 Comments •
Has Science found God? Is that a trick question?
How many books does Richard Dawkins have to write before people understand that evolution works incrementally?Posted on November 9, 2007 7:43 AM • 6 Comments •
Canadian Catholics come to their senses
We'll never know what role, if any, the mockery of the New Atheists had in the decision taken yesterday by the Toronto Catholic District School Board to let the girls in their charge get the HPV vaccine. But for once,...Posted on September 20, 2007 6:34 AM • 4 Comments •
Sunday sermon: Atheism in the WaPo
"Born Again Atheist," "Happy Heathen" and other anti-religious T-shirts and bumper stickers are increasingly seen on the streets. But hard data is scarce to come by/Posted on September 16, 2007 10:11 AM • 8 Comments •
Are atheists the new gays?
Who among us believes that atheism will be able to achieve a similar level of recognition and respect in a comparable time frame?Posted on September 13, 2007 8:26 AM • 6 Comments •
The original obnoxious anti-religious scoundrel
The argument that atheists should try hard not to offend people of faith, lest we further polarize the two factions, assumes that the meek will inherit the earth, not the rhetorically courageous. But what historical evidence is there for this...Posted on August 23, 2007 2:10 PM • 8 Comments •
What divides science bloggers?
It's not the scientist's job to ignore "inconvenient" facts or sugar-coat the truth.Posted on August 20, 2007 11:20 AM • 9 Comments •
Islamic science: contradiction of terms?
This approach to science -- turning your back on the culture, but embracing the benefits when it suits you -- reminds of those who refuse to vaccinate their children.Posted on August 14, 2007 8:47 AM • 2 Comments •
Sunday Sermon: Just say no to faith-based policy
Just in case you were wondering why so many science bloggers devote so much keystrokes to criticizing religion, the Washington Post's Rob Stein has this convenient reminder of the danger of letting faith inform public policy:...Posted on July 22, 2007 9:58 AM • 5 Comments •
Secular hooligans?
I have no idea if the staff at ScienceBlogs anticipated just how popular the religion vs. atheism debate would be on these pages, but it would seem we're not the only home of passionate and often thoughtful argument over the...Posted on July 20, 2007 9:58 AM • 2 Comments •
The incredible calculating canine!
"Her husband decided to ask their 4-year-old dog another question, the square root of 25. Micah tapped his paw five times."Posted on June 23, 2007 2:18 PM • 7 Comments •
The wisdom of ancient Islam
Scienceblog posts tend to revolve around current events, almost to the point where history is irrelevant, and the Island of Doubt is no different. I try to put things in historical perspective, but concede that I tend too often overlook...Posted on June 19, 2007 8:19 AM • 2 Comments •
Creationists gone wild
Maybe we could invent a drinking game -- one swig for each violation of the laws of physics.Posted on May 24, 2007 4:16 PM • 8 Comments •
PROOF GOD EXISTS! Details at 11
Actually, the report in question came on just shy of 11 p.m. Although my local Fox television network affiliate had been promoting its 10 o'clock news report, in which a scientist uses physics to prove the Christian god exists, for...Posted on May 22, 2007 11:19 AM • 7 Comments •
Karl Rove is an atheist?
"... he doesn't shout it from the rooftops, but ..."Posted on May 4, 2007 2:01 PM • 12 Comments •
Adam, Eve and Al Gore
PZ seems to have swallowed an apocryphal report to the contrary.Posted on April 24, 2007 4:21 PM • 8 Comments •
Atheism gets some face time in Canada
The cover of the latest issue of Maclean's magazine, which is the Canadian equivalent of Time or Newsweek, asks "Is God poison?" The secondary headline to the feature, which is online, says "a new movement blames God for every social...Posted on April 21, 2007 6:29 AM • 6 Comments •
Jesus would NOT do this
Another day, another example of the moral bankruptcy of the James Dobson gang....Posted on March 5, 2007 8:17 AM • 2 Comments •
Why we believe
Titled simply "Darwin's God," the feature in today's New York Times Sunday Magazine is a overview of theoretical musings -- you can't really call them full-fledges theories -- on why religion is so common among human societies. Not much in...Posted on March 4, 2007 2:54 PM • 10 Comments •
Fallwell's continued fall
Jerry Fallwell. Can anyone compare to his particular brand of idiocy? He more than anyone else is the reason I blog. From the AP...Posted on February 28, 2007 7:15 AM • 1 Comments •
Why does anyone pay attention to this guy?
I'm talking about Alister McGrath, the author of the unbelievably weak polemic The Twilight of Atheism, who has resurfaced to take on his nemesis, Richard Dawkins. Jason does a good job dismantling McGrath's pathetic review of the Dawkins' The God...Posted on February 7, 2007 12:12 PM • 22 Comments •
Doonesbury redeemed
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 on January 29, 2007 6:59 AM • 2 Comments •
Doonesbury at the Grand Canyon
Gary Trudeau sticks it to the creationists in today's Doonesbury. The topic of the day is the sad fact that the U.S. National Parks Service sells in its Grand Canyon gift shop a book that offers a Biblical chronology for...Posted on January 13, 2007 7:07 AM • 6 Comments •
Creationists who love science
Can one reject the single most important idea in biology and yet still embrace science? Ronald Numbers, a former Seventh-day Adventist turned historian of creationism, says lots of people do. John Wilkins jumped on the Salon interview with Numbers first....Posted on January 2, 2007 7:25 AM • 8 Comments •
Worst columnist ever
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 on December 29, 2006 12:03 PM • 57 Comments •
Another church bites the dust
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 on December 19, 2006 7:42 AM • 3 Comments •
What would you do if...
... 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 on December 18, 2006 7:12 AM • 1 Comments •
Andy Rooney disses atheists
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 on December 11, 2006 3:43 PM • 5 Comments •
I can get behind that ... almost
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 on December 11, 2006 6:29 AM • 1 Comments •
Wired on the God Debate
Wired magazine's Gary Wolf tries to come to terms with what he calls the "New Atheists" by reviewing the latest Dawkins, Dennett and Harris books. (The God Delusion, Breaking the Spell and The End of Faith. and then interviewing the...Posted on November 14, 2006 7:39 AM • 3 Comments •
Religious indoctrination
Razib's post about The Economist's review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and the resulting comments got me thinking heavily on Dawkin's description of the religious indocrination of children as form of child abuse....Posted on October 9, 2006 12:26 PM • 23 Comments •
Ghost in the Machine
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...Posted on September 23, 2006 10:26 AM • 2 Comments •
Last word for Zarathustra
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"...Posted on September 7, 2006 2:12 AM • 0 Comments •
The Devolution of Catholicism
The first reports of the changing of the guard at the Vatican Observatory suggested evil-doing were afoot. The outgoing George Coyne is known as a stalwart defender of science and evolution in particular. But the Vatican later insisted Coyne was...Posted on August 29, 2006 11:43 AM • 2 Comments •
Katherine Harris: Idiot Incarnate
Can someone please carry out a fact check on Katherine Harris' resume? Because I have to wonder about any institution that would bestow a degree on someone so ignorant of just about everything. Joan took a whack at her in...Posted on August 25, 2006 11:41 AM • 4 Comments •
Happy Atheists
A paper due to be published next month by Adrian White, a psychologist at the University of Leicester, makes a sincere effort to compare global happiness rates. This sort of thing has been done before, and surprises are few. As...Posted on August 23, 2006 9:29 AM • 7 Comments •
Wal-Mart of Separation
You've heard of Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state? How about a wall of separation between church and store? According to the Globe and Mail, there is one now, between a new Wal-Mart outlet and a next-door religious...Posted on July 19, 2006 9:19 AM • 2 Comments •
Slippery slopes in space policy
No sign yet that the science-and-religion debate is heating (or, as the Brits say, hotting) up in the public sphere, but a continuing and expanding dialog on the subject in EOS has been brought to my attention. What started as...Posted on July 12, 2006 9:40 AM • 1 Comments •
George Bush, Hans Bethe and big questions
Former science columnist turned blogger and all-round wise old guy Chet Raymo writes on his blog today that his Irish neighbors don't understand what's going on in America when it comes to the ascendancy of religiosity. I don't have an...Posted on July 7, 2006 11:02 AM • 1 Comments •
Barack Obama tackles the secular-faithful divide
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,...Posted on June 29, 2006 9:06 AM • 1 Comments •
Sent to the lions
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...Posted on June 9, 2006 4:43 PM • 3 Comments •
