Pharyngula

Posted by: Eclogite | July 9, 2006 4:00 PM

Hey PZ, I read that this blog is mentioned in Nature. Congrats!

From NCSE-News (Evolution Education Update):
'A brief story in Nature lists the top five science blogs -- "those written by working scientists covering scientific issues" -- by popularity, including P. Z. Myers's Pharyngula and the collectively authored The Panda's Thumb, both of which provide a wealth of information and commentary on the creationism/evolution debate.'

Posted by: Lydia | July 9, 2006 6:18 PM

You know me so well.

Posted by: bernarda | July 10, 2006 4:08 AM

As a footnote to my post, I just found out that bookstores Borders and Waldenbooks(Walden!)also banned the issue from their stores.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/03/29/national/a163611S00.DTL

Posted by: thwaite | July 10, 2006 5:22 PM

While pawing through my wife's alumni magazine from Berkeley, which has always been an OK read and lately improved a lot (and moved online), I found this gem about Indian (asian) atheism in an interview between two Berkeley economists of Indian origins:

Pranab Bardhan (PB): Your book, The Argumentative Indian, challenges the rather naive interpretation of Indian culture in the West - that analytical reasoning is quintessentially Western, and that Indian culture is primarily concerned with spirituality and uncritical religious faith.

Amartya Sen (AS): That interpretation of Indian culture and civilization has been dominant in the West's relation with India. When the British were first establishing themselves in the 18th century, people like William Jones and others were quite interested in Indian mathematics and astronomy, and science generally. But by the time the empire settled down, James Mill - who was very proud of the fact that he wrote his history of India without going to India at all, and who also didn't speak any Indian language - argued that if there was anything to Indian culture, it's just kind of spiritual, religious stuff. Whereas Jones had discussed important astronomers and mathematicians in ancient India, like Aryabhata, who rejected the prevailing view of the sun going around the earth.

PB: This is in the sixth century?

AS: He was very late fifth century - his major book was completed in ad 499. He also discussed diurnal motion of the earth and why is it that objects don't get thrown out into space.

His students and followers, like Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, argued that every object attracted every other - early speculations on gravity. Making India the domain of religion played a part in the undermining of Indian culture. To some extent, India fell into the trap. Rather than contesting that there was quite a strong tradition of science, and also one of atheism and materialism (the earliest atheistic verses you see in the Rig Veda itself, which is around 1500 bc), they said, "Okay, the West is terrific in science, but we are very good in spirituality." It's something quite important to resist.

Posted by: ivy privy | July 10, 2006 6:03 PM

...Rather than contesting that there was quite a strong tradition of science, and also one of atheism and materialism (the earliest atheistic verses you see in the Rig Veda itself, which is around 1500 bc), they said, "Okay, the West is terrific in science, but we are very good in spirituality." It's something quite important to resist.

If you want to followup on Indian atheism, I'd suggest starting with key words Carvaka (atheist/materialist movement dating to 600 BC) and Lokayata (materialism). Unfortunately, almost none of the original Carvaka writings survive*, so modern knowledge of it is reconstructed from criticisms of opposing schools.

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* With the possible, and strongly disputed, exception of the Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayarisi Bhatta.